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First Lady: Former lieutenant governor receives public service award |
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1950s Mary Libby Payne (55) former State Court of Appeals judge and founding dean of Mississippi College School of Law, is scholar-in-residence at Mississippi College School of Law. Harold “Hal” Miller (59) is attorney-in-residence at Mississippi College School of Law. He is a retired partner in Butler, Snow, O’Mara, Stevens & Cannada. Top of Page • UMLawyer Summer Home
1960s Charles W. Pickering (61) was appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit by President George W. Bush. L. Carl Hagwood (68) joined Wilkins, Stephens & Tipton in the Greenville office. Top of Page • UMLawyer Summer Home
1970s Michael C. Moore (74) joined the Jackson office of Phelps Dunbar in the litigation section. Moore served four terms as state attorney general. Michael K. Randolph (74) was appointed by Gov. Haley Barbour to the Mississippi Supreme Court. He will finish the term of former Chief Justice Edwin Pittman (60), who retired in March. William L. Waller Jr. (77) became a Mississippi Supreme Court presiding justice on Jan. 5, 2004. He has served on the court since 1998. John M. McCullouch (78), president of BellSouth-Mississippi, joined the board of directors of Trustmark National Bank. Louis Guirola Jr. (79) was approved by the U.S. Senate as a judge on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi. He has been a federal magistrate judge since 1993. Top of Page • UMLawyer Summer Home
1980s Joy Lambert Phillips (80) is the 2004 president-elect of the Mississippi Bar. She is general counsel at Hancock Bank in Gulfport. Rebecca B. Cowan (82) is a shareholder in the Jackson firm Currie Johnson Griffin Gaines & Myers. Jess H. Dickinson (82) was sworn in as Mississippi’s 116th Supreme Court justice. Richard D. Mitchell (82) is associated with the Jackson firm Wells, Moore, Simmons & Hubbard. He previously served as district attorney for the 20th Judicial District in Madison and Rankin counties. DeWitt L. “Rusty” Fortenberry, Jr. (84) was appointed by Gov. Haley Barbour as public safety commissioner for the state of Mississippi. Bruce R. Vail (84) has been the supervisory staff attorney for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in Atlanta, Ga., since May 2002. Harry M. “Monty” Simpkins (89) joined the Jackson firm Simmons Law Group as a partner. Gary D. Wilson (89) is associated with the Winter Park, Fla., firm Jill S. Schwartz & Associates. Top of Page • UMLawyer Summer Home
1990s Franklin Keith Ball (90) joined Currie Johnson Griffin Gaines & Myers as a shareholder. Betty Mallett (90) joined McGlinchey Stafford. Alan C. Goodman (92) formed the Law Offices of Alan C. Goodman in Jackson. Neely Carlton (94) was hired by Gov. Haley Barbour as one of the three legislative liaisons for the 2004 general session. Carlton served as a Delta senator from 1996-2003 and was vice chairman of the Judiciary Committee. She recently left the Senate and joined the Jackson office of Phelps Dunbar as a counsel attorney. W. Benton Gregg (94) is a shareholder with the Wright Law Firm in Jackson. Gary C. Rikard (94) is a member of the Jackson firm Brunini, Grantham, Grower & Hewes. William Matthew “Matt”Vines (94) is a shareholder with the Jackson firm Page, Kruger & Holland. Julie A. Bowman (95) is a shareholder with the Jackson firm Copeland, Cook, Taylor & Bush. Paul A. Hurst III (95) and Joseph D. Nosef III (95) were named lead staff attorneys for Gov. Haley Barbour’s administration. Paul E. Moyers (95) is associated with Smith and McArty of Ridgeland. Marcus A. Treadway III (95) is associated with the Jackson firm Page, Kruger & Holland. Amanda Jones (96) is a partner in the Jackson office of Bradley Arant Rose & White. Rajita Iyer Moss (96) is a partner with the firm of Bob Owens in Jackson. Adrian Oakes Russell (96) is practicing in the area of general corporate law and taxation for Wise Carter Child and Caraway in Jackson. Chadwick W. Russell (96) is an attorney with Southern Farm Bureau. He and his wife, Adrian Oakes Russell, are the parents of Madison, 3, and Rooks, 1. Joseph Lee Adams (97) is a partner in the Jackson office of Phelps Dunbar. He specializes in labor and employment law. Debra M. Brown (97) is a partner in the Jackson office of Phelps Dunbar. She specializes in construction and commercial litigation. Christopher E. Fitzgerald (97) is associated with the Ocean Springs firm Garrison Scott Gamble & Rosenthal. Michael L. McMillan (97) is an associate with Deutsch, Kerrigan & Stiles in Gulfport. J. Chadwick Mask (97) is a member of the Jackson firm Carroll Warren & Parker. J.L. Wilson IV (97) is a partner in the Greenwood office of Upshaw, Williams, Biggers, Beckham & Riddick. Edward R. Balsmann III (98) is associated with Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz in Memphis. Charles O. Lee (98) is chairman of the board of directors for the Gulf Coast Fair Housing Center in Gulfport. Bradley M. Glaze (99) joined the Jackson firm Wells Marble & Hurst. He previously was a captain in the U.S. Army JAG Corps. Dar Kenya Washington (99) joined the Jackson law firm Chinn & Associates as a contract attorney. She also will continue her private practice. Top of Page • UMLawyer Summer Home
2000s Nathan A. Bosio (00) is a partner in the Pascagoula office of Dogan & Wilkinson. John Kristopher White (00) is a captain in the U.S. Air Force JAG and stationed at Hurlburt Field, Fla. James H. Hall (01) is associated with Markow Walker in its Ridgeland office. Harris F. Powers (01) is associated with the Greenwood office of Upshaw, Williams, Biggers, Beckham & Riddick. Charity R. Bridgewater (02) is the assistant public defender for the Office of the Public Defender in Atlanta. Sandra D. Buchanan (02) is associated with the Jackson firm Smith Reeves & Yarborough. She is a former law clerk for Hinds County Circuit Court Judge Winston L. Kidd. Stephen W. Flynn (02) has joined Clayton O’Donnell Walsh & Davis in Tupelo. John F. Hughes (02) is associated with Wilkins, Stephens & Tipton in Jackson. Sharon Moncure-Cannon (02) is associated with Wilkins, Stephens & Tipton in Jackson. Corrie James Schuler (02) is associated with Steen, Dalehite & Pace in Jackson. Charles Cameron Auerswald (03) is associated with Upshaw, Williams, Biggers, Beckham & Riddick in Greenwood. Jason E. Dare (03) is associated with Wilkins, Stephens & Tipton in Greenville. Top of Page • UMLawyer Summer Home
Marriages Robin Alfred Midcalf (88) to Thomas John Brosig of Gulfport on March 4, 2004, at Greater Mt. Olive Baptist Church in Gulfport. Shae Lynn Berryman to Robert Blake White III (99) on March 27, 2004, at Scarritt-Bennett Wightman Chapel in Nashville. He practices with Mitchell McNutt & Sams in Tupelo. Priscilla Jade Dunlap to Richard Lewis Yoder Jr. (01) on April 9, 2004, at the Grand Hotel in Point Clear, Ala. A resident of Oxford, he practices with Holcomb Dunbar. Top of Page • UMLawyer Summer Home
Births (photo) Madeline Leigh McKay, daughter of Lisa Williams McKay (93) and Kevin McKay, Jan. 13, 2004. Charles Wallace Shull, son of Ann Paige Wood Shull and Andrew D. Shull (97), March 9, 2004. Mary Caroline Rogers, daughter of Jennifer Lynn McGuire Rogers (02) and Noel Ashton Rogers (02). Both are associates at the Laurel firm of Gholson and Orr. Ashlin Coffinberry, daughter of Anita Vinson Coffinberry (03) and Thomas Coffinberry, Jan. 22, 2004. Anita is an assistant district attorney in Dickson, Tenn. Top of Page • UMLawyer Summer Home
Deaths William “Bill” Cook Jr. (74) of Batesville, Jan. 20, 2004 Rush Morgan Clements (67) of Anguilla, Jan. 05, 2004 Callestyne Hall-Crawford (86) of Greenwood, Jan. 30, 2004 William H. Johnson Jr. (48) of Decatur, March 22, 2004 Wade Hampton Lagrone (55) of Tupelo, Dec. 22, 2003 H. Lee Morrison Jr. (72) of West Point, April 6, 2004 James Jeffrey Alexander, husband of Mary Margaret Patterson Alexander (91), of Long Beach, March 11, 2004 Madeline Leigh McKay, daughter of Lisa Williams McKay (93) and Kevin McKay, Jan. 13, 2004. Top of Page • UMLawyer Summer Home
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First Lady
Evelyn Gandy, a former Mississippi lieutenant governor who worked to improve education, economic development, and healthcare in the state, has been recognized for her efforts with the School of Law’s 2003 Public Service Award. “Lt. Gov. Gandy is not only a Mississippi treasure; she is a national treasure,” said Samuel Davis, dean of the Law School. “Her record of public service is outstanding, and we are proud that she is an alumna of the UM Law School. This law school has a great tradition of producing leaders, and she is one of the best.” Gandy, the only woman in the Law School’s graduating class of 1943, served for nearly four decades in several elected and appointed positions in the state before returning to private practice in 1984. She was the first woman in the state to serve as commissioner of insurance, state treasurer, and lieutenant governor, and she was the first woman to be appointed assistant attorney general and commissioner of public welfare. “This award is very significant and very special to me because it comes from the law school where I graduated and the university from which I graduated,” Gandy said from the Hattiesburg office of Ingram & Associates, where she serves of counsel. Gandy is widely considered a pioneer in Southern politics. As a member of the Legislature, to which she was elected in 1948, Gandy co-authored a law establishing the Medical Center and another providing financial assistance for the disabled. During her two terms as state treasurer, she recommended that legislation be enacted to place the state’s funds in interest-bearing accounts. The program, which is still in existence, has earned millions of dollars for Mississippi. As commissioner of insurance from 1972 to 1976, Gandy toughened the laws governing insurance companies and introduced programs to assist policyholders with claims. She also instituted a program that allocates a small percentage of fire insurance premium taxes to improve protection and training for firefighters. And as lieutenant governor from 1976 to 1980, Gandy increased funds for mental health services. “I am proud of my work as lieutenant governor,” Gandy said. “We were able to make significant progress in the field of education; we gave strong support to the institutions of higher learning and the community colleges.” Gandy said that while she ran for the elected posts on the merit of her qualifications, she also hoped she “was opening some doors for women.” Previous recipients of the Public Service Award are University of Mississippi law alumni Catherine V. “Ginny” Kilgore of Oxford, an attorney with North Mississippi Rural Legal Services; Forest attorney Constance Slaughter-Harvey; Luther Ott, former director of Stewpot Community Services in Jackson; and Bobby DeLaughter, the former district attorney who spearheaded the prosecution of Medgar Evers’ assassin, Byron De La Beckwith. Top of Page • UMLawyer Summer Home
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Duty calls
After graduating in December 2000, White took a position as a civil defense attorney with Mitchell, McNutt and Sams in Tupelo. But when terrorists crashed planes into the World Trade Center towers, the Pentagon, and a field in Pennsylvania, the Baldwyn native resigned from the firm and applied to the Air Force Judge Advocate General Corps. “I wanted to use my talents to help my country,” White says. “The decision was difficult. I spent a lot of time talking it over with my wife and family.” White knew he was taking a leap of faith. Gaining admission to the 10-week Air Force JAG school is tough. Only 100 of the 1,000 or so applicants each year are admitted. Acceptance is based on academic performance, extracurricular activities, community service, and recommendation by a board of senior judge advocates. White thinks it was his experience defending employment, insurance, and civil rights cases that gave him an edge over other applicants, many of whom were fresh out of law school. That White was accepted into the program came as no surprise to Marc Harrold, senior research counsel at the National Center for Justice and the Rule of Law at the UM Law School. “Kris is exactly the type of student who could have competed—both academically and in trial advocacy—at any law school in the country, but he chose to stay in Mississippi and attend Ole Miss,” says Harrold, who met White when they were both students in Oxford. It didn’t take long for White to establish himself as one of the best lawyers in the JAG program. He recently received the Outstanding Trial Advocacy Award at the JAG school at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Ala. The award, sponsored by the Association of Trial Lawyers of America, is based on three mock courts martial performances. “Captain White’s award sends a great message about the quality of UM students and lawyers on a national level,” Harrold says. “[It] shows the type of person Kris is—someone who could have continued to practice a more lucrative type of law, but instead chose to serve his country in these perilous times.” White said the UM Law School prepared him just as well as his JAG classmates, who graduated from other prestigious programs and Ivy League schools. “Ole Miss is second to none when it comes to legal education,” White says. “Going through training, I thought back on Professor [George] Cochran; if I could make it through constitutional law with Cochran, I could get through anything else.” White also attributes much of his military and legal success to the influence of Claude Clayton, Tacey Clayton, Sandy Sams and Guy Mitchell—all attorneys White worked with prior to his JAG career. “Kris and I attended law school together and then began our legal careers at the same firm in Tupelo,” says Rachel M. Pierce. “By working alongside Kris in both academic and professional settings, I realized that he is not only a top-notch litigator and superior advocate, but he is an outstanding individual as well. He is just the sort of person who gives lawyers a good name.” White currently resides in Destin, Fla., with his wife, Karen, a former elementary school teacher, and daughter, Ivy Cate, 2. He serves in an entry-level prosecutorial position at Hurlburt Field in Fort Walton Beach, Fla., headquarters of the Air Force Special Operations Command. He works with 10 other attorneys trying courts martial. He soon will be eligible to apply for a defense attorney’s position, which he said is “reserved for the best and the brightest.” While military protocol does not allow White to discuss specifics, he said his case load includes criminal, environmental, civilian labor, and employment law, and such military-specific cases as AWOL. When asked about the CBS television adventure drama “JAG,” which depicts an elite wing of officers trained as lawyers who fly planes and try thrillingmurder, treason, and terrorism cases, White jokes that reality is nowhere near what the show portrays. “I’m gaining a great deal of satisfaction serving my country during this time,” White said. “But unlike those guys, I won’t be flying military planes. I don’t think they’ll ever let a lawyer loose on a jet.” Although White is committed to the program for at least four years, he says in the future he may return to Mississippi to resume his civilian law practice. “There’s no place like Oxford,” White said. “I get back as much as I can. Mississippi will always be my home.” Clare Smith is a UM journalism graduate. She starts law school in Oxford in the fall. Natashia Gregoire contributed to this report. Top of Page • UMLawyer Summer Home
2004 Eastland Law Library Golf Tournament Congratulations to the winning teams: 1st Place 2nd Place 3rd Place
We thank this year’s sponsors, whose generosity helped make the golf tournament a success: Title Sponsors Beverage Cart Sponsors Closest to the Pin
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Evelyn Gandy (left) is congratulated by Law School Dean Samuel Davis and Provost Carolyn Staton.
In the months following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, hundreds of patriotic men and women gave up life as they knew it to serve their country. Kris White, a University of Mississippi School of law alumnus, was among them.