Dean Carroll Returns to Teaching, Serving, 0314 ALBJ, 75 The Alabama Lawyer 105 (2014)
| Author | Robert P. MacKenzie, III, Cathy S. Wright, Edward A. Hosp and Lisa W. Borden |
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\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0As Dean John Carroll prepares to return to full-time teaching, he doesn't seem surprised that a Jesuit-educated young man from Washington, DC wound up as dean of a law school at a Baptist University in the South. In fact, he sees the path clearly, one marked by adherence to the principles of law and guided by a strong faith. Along the way, Carroll's legal career led from representing prisoners and death-row inmates, to an appointment on the federal bench and finally to academia as dean of Cumberland School of Law. As Judge Carroll looks back on his career, he might be tempted to wonder which leg of his path was more dangerous-his combat tours in a fighter plane over Vietnam or a midnight run through a small South Georgia town pursued by townspeople upset over a life sentence imposed in a death penalty case.
\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0Both of these events were precipitated by Judge Carroll's acts of public service. This profile is a tribute to his service to the bar through his commitment both to his own career-long devotion to serving those in need and his understanding that pro bono service goes hand in hand with ethics and professionalism. Judge Carroll has been a leader with state and local bar associations in developing innovative and effective legal services for indigent populations, while providing lawyers with meaningful ways to offer pro bono services.
\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0The law school's deep commitment to pro bono and community service must be highly ranked among the many lasting legacies of Judge Carroll's tenure as dean. Since Judge Carroll took the helm of Cumberland School of Law, he has continued to apply his passion for service to the bar and to those in need of legal services in many ways. Judge Carroll was one of the original appointees to the Alabama Access to Justice Commission. As chair of the Delivery of Services Committee, Carroll headed up the first comprehensive examination and evaluation of how legal services are delivered to the poor in Alabama. His work provided a road map that the ATJ continues to use in its efforts to improve access to legal services in Alabama. At the same time, he was part of a small core group who undertook a radical overhaul of the Birmingham Bar Association Volunteer Lawyers Program. The result w as the rapid revitalization and growth of the program, which had become stagnant. In both 2010 and 2012, he served as chair of the Birmingham Bar Association Judicial Campaign Oversight committee, formed to make judicial elections as fair and ethical as possible. Through his service, Judge Carroll's legacy to our state and the bar includes lawyers who are not just educated about law, but about justice, and who are motivated and enabled to serve.
\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0Early Years
\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0Judge Carroll did not grow up in a family of lawyers. He was born to an Irish/Catholic family in Washington, DC and attended Gonzaga High School, a Jesuit high school, with students from all races and socioeconomic backgrounds, and strict teachers for whom lack of effort was no excuse.
\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0Upon graduation in 1961, Judge Carroll entered Tufts University. This became a time of "firsts"-the first in his family to go to college, his first airplane ride and the farthest he had ever been from home. He excelled early on in academics. Later, as Judge Carroll reflects, his academic achievement gently gave way to the "distractions" of college life in Boston. He graduated with a degree in economics. At his graduation in 1965, the Vietnam War, not the practice of law, was on Judge Carroll's mind.
\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0Service in Vietnam
\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0Judge Carroll was sworn in as an officer in the United States Marine Corps where he planned to become a fighter pilot. Eyesight issues led...
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