Cumberland School of Law

Cumberland School of Law
Established	July 29, 1847
Type	Private
Dean	John L. Carroll
Faculty	45 professors, 43 adjunct / student to faculty ratio of 20:1 [1]
Students	533
Location	Birmingham, Alabama, USA
Publications	The Cumberland Law Review, The American Journal of Trial Advocacy
Mascot	Rascal
Website	http://cumberland.samford.edu/

Cumberland Law School is unrelated to the University of the Cumberlands in Williamsburg, Kentucky, and is no longer a a part of Cumberland University In Lebanon, Tennessee.

Cumberland School of Law is an ABA accredited law school at Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama and is the 11th oldest law school in the U.S. It is 160 years old and has more than 11,000 graduates. Historically, the school has the distinction of having trained two United States Supreme Court Justices,^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]}Nobel Peace Prize recipient Cordell Hull,^[8] the father of the United Nations, ^[9] over fifty U.S. Representatives, and numerous Senators, governors, and judges.^[10]

In 2005, 2006 and 2007 the Princeton Review featured Cumberland in its "Best 170 Law Schools" ranking it in two top ten lists for three years in a row. In 2009, U.S. News and World Report ranked Cumberland's Trial Advocacy Program as 9th in the nation.^[11] In 2007 Cumberland ranked 6th in the country for faculty performance and accessibility and 7th in the country for overall quality of life.^{[12][13][14][15][16][17]}

In 2008, Cumberland placed first out of two hundred and fifty-six other teams in the American Association for Justice National Student Trial Advocacy Competition and in 2009 placed second, losing by one point.^{[18][19][20][21]}

In 2009, a Cumberland team won the regional round of the National Trial Competition in Tallahassee, Florida and advanced to the national championship round in San Antonio. Cumberland was the only school in the competition to have both of its teams advance to the semi-final round. Cumberland also won the American Association for Justice Mock Trial Competition regional championship advancing to the national championship round in West Palm Beach, FL. ^[22]

In 2007, student teams from Cumberland won both the Criminal Justice Trial Competition held in Hamden, Connecticut and the Lone Star Classic Mock Trial Competition in San Antonio, Texas. Also in 2008, Cumberland made the finals of the ABA National Appellate Advocacy competition. It was 1 of 4 from 30 teams in its region that went to the national finals. Cumberland won 3rd best brief in the region. ^[23]

The school offers two degree programs: the 90 hour Juris Doctor (J.D.), and the Master of Comparative Law (M.C.L.), which is designed to instruct foreign lawyers on the basic legal principles of the United States. ^[24] The school also offers six dual-degree programs, and is building a biotechnology law emphasis through its research center. ^[25]

Contents 1 Current Facts 1.1 Admissions statistics 1.2 Bar passage and employment rates 2 History 2.1 Early years and founding 2.2 Antebellum years 2.3 Civil war 2.4 Reconstruction 2.5 National shift in legal education 2.6 Long range plan of 2005 2.7 Present 3 Institution 3.1 Life at Cumberland 3.2 The Lucille Stewart Beeson Law Library 3.3 Joint degree programs 3.4 Foreign programs 4 Organizations 4.1 Publications 4.2 The Center for Biotechnology, Law, and Ethics 4.3 Other research centers 4.4 Selected student organizations 5 Founders 6 Deans 7 Notable facts 8 Notable alumni 8.1 U.S. Representatives 9 Notable professors 10 See also 11 References

Current Facts

The Fall 2007 entering class consisted of 159 students selected from an applicant pool of over 1200. The class has an average LSAT of 157 and average GPA of 3.27. The top 75th percentile of the class has an LSAT of 159 and 3.52 GPA. The incoming class also has the distinction of having highest percentage of women (48%) in school's 160 year history history. ^[26]

Cumberland has two publications: the Cumberland Law Review and the American Journal of Trial Advocacy.

The law library is a 42,500 net square foot building with over 300,000 volumes and microform volume equivalents.^[27]

The school also has four research centers.

Cumberland's Center for Biotechnology, Law and Ethics ^[28] studies the ethical implications of biotechnology and has attracted speakers such as atmospheric scientist John Christy, medical ethicist Gregory Pence, and U.S. Representative Artur Davis. The Center's location is convenient because of the proximity of the pioneering UAB medical center.^[29] Birmingham is also one of the major emerging biotechnology markets with more than 90 biotech-related businesses in Alabama alone.^[30]

The law school is currently located at Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama.

Admissions statistics

The Fall 2007 entering class consists of 159 students selected from an applicant pool of over 1200. The class has an average LSAT of 157 and average GPA of 3.27. The top 75th percentile of the class has an LSAT of 159 and 3.52 GPA. ^[31]

The Fall 2006 entering class had an average LSAT score of 156 and average undergraduate GPA of 3.28. The top quarter of the entering class had an LSAT score of 159 or higher and a GPA of 3.59 or higher. Candidates are selected based on "LSAT, undergraduate GPA, discipline of study, graduate work, undergraduate grade trends, employment, undergraduate institution, personal statement, and letters of recommendation."^[32]

Bar passage and employment rates

• First time takers from the Class of 2006 had a 93.3% passage rate on the July 2006 Alabama Bar exam.^[33]
• First time takers from the Class of 2005 had a 94.1% passage rate on the July 2005 Alabama Bar exam.^[34]
• 93.7% of the Class of 2004 is currently employed, with 68.9% in private practice, 5.91% in judicial clerkships, 4.1% in business and industry, 11.1% in government, 1.5% in public interest, .7% in academics, and 6.7% pursued advanced degrees.^[35][36]

History

This summary is based on From Maverick to Mainstream,^[37] which is a review of Cumberland's history and the development of the American legal education system. Legal scholar Kermit L. Hall stated that the work "is not just about the Cumberland School of Law, but about the significant changes that have reshaped the nature of legal education."^[38]

Langum and Walthall summarize the history of Cumberland Law School as:

"From its very local, Tennessee origins in 1847, Cumberland...emerged as a premier law school with a national status. It excelled in faculty, teaching methodology, and numbers of students. Following the American Civil War, Cumberland rebuilt itself and ultimately succeeded on a grand scale with its single-year curriculum."^[39]

Early years and founding

Cumberland School of Law was founded on July 29, 1847 in Lebanon, Tennessee at Cumberland University. Founder and first professor Judge Abraham Caruthers said,

"I call it an adventure, I speak of it as an experiment."

At the end of 1847, 15 law schools existed in the country. It is clear, however, that prior to the law school's official founding Cumberland University not only facilitated the study of law but admitted a diverse student body, evidenced by graduates like George W. Harkins, a Choctaw chief, who received a law degree from Cumberland and became a judge in 1834.

Harkins' 1832 "Farewell Letter to the American People" denouncing the removal of the Choctaws to Oklahoma was widely published, and is still widely regarded as one of the most important documents of Native American history, stating:^[40]

“	We go forth sorrowful, knowing that wrong has been done...we as Choctaws rather chose to suffer and be free ...	”
—-George W. Harkins, George W. Harkins to the American People[41]

Antebellum years

Prior to the official founding of the United States' first law schools, the primary means for a legal education was apprenticeship. To give some perspective, establishing law schools was difficult in the early 1800s. Harvard was only able to reestablish its law school in 1829 and Yale in 1826. By 1859 Cumberland, Harvard, and the University of Virginia School of Law were the three largest law schools in the United States. A year later, 1860, only 21 university law schools existed in the country and in no documented case did the curriculum last over two years.^[42]

It was during the Antebellum years that Cumberland enjoyed great success. Nathan Green, Jr., son of then professor Nathan Green, Sr., stated that Cumberland enjoyed "the highest degree of prosperity", with a beautiful 20-acre (81,000 m²) campus, picturesque trees and fences and fine architecture.^[43] Cumberland's first graduate Paine Page Prim ultimately became chief justice of the Oregon Supreme Court.^[44]

Students were taught through reading treatises, approximately two hours worth of recitations each morning, and a mandatory moot court program. Caruthers considered the law a science and the Socratic Method a necessity.^[44] The cost was fifty dollars a session and a five dollar "contingent fee".^[45] After the Civil War, this treatise method, the legal formalism of the school's approach and Nathan Green Jr.'s unwillingness to make changes, are all considered to be reasons for Cumberland's drift out of the mainstream.^[46] But Cumberland appeared at a unique time in history and offered a unique educational option. The American Civil War, however, would totally destroy the school and the rebuilding effort would be a long, slow process.

Civil war

April 13, 1861 jolted Cumberland out of its "Golden Age" when President Abraham Lincoln called for volunteers to quell the southern insurrection. The campus split within a week; some students joined the northern army; many joined the southern army. Nathan Green Jr.'s father, a law professor, went home, but Abraham Caruthers fled to Marietta, Georgia in fear of arrest where he died just over one year later.^[43]

During the war professors John Carter and Nathan Green, Jr. fought as Confederate officers. Carter was killed but Green survived the war. The campus did not. The trees were cut down and fences destroyed and burned. The Confederate Army burned the University buildings, apparently because a Confederate Major was offended that black Union soldiers had used them as barracks.^[47]

Reconstruction

The campus may have been totally destroyed but the law school began the slow process of rebuilding. In July 1866 Cumberland adopted the image of the phoenix, which is an Egyptian mythological bird that is reborn from its own ashes. The new motto was "E Cineribus Resurgo" or "I rise from the ashes."^[48]

In September 1865 classes resumed with eleven students, which soon grew to twenty. The 1865 class included a Confederate General and Union colonel, enemies only a few months earlier. Nathan Green, Jr. kept the school together until a circuit judge named Henry Cooper, Andrew B. Martin and Robert L. Caruthers, brother of deceased founder Abraham Caruthers, joined the faculty. Robert Caruthers had previously served as the state attorney general and had been elected Governor of Tennessee during the war in 1863, but he was never innaugurated. Cooper did not serve on the faculty for long.^[49]

In 1873 Robert Caruthers purchased the Corona Hall from the Corona Institute for Women for ten thousand dollars, which he immediately donated to the University for use by the law school.

The destruction of the campus and the devastation of war had impoverished the school and it was almost fifteen years before it saw students enter from outside the South when a student from Illinois and a member of the Choctaw Nation enrolled at Cumberland. But there were few students from outside of the defeated Southern states, which Langum and Walthall claim underscored "how terribly the Civil War blighted Cumberland."^[50]

Robert Caruthers persisted despite the setbacks and in 1878 Caruthers Hall was dedicated in his honor. This new school replaced Corona Hall, which had unknown limitations. The new hall apparently had "excellent acoustics and hard seats" and is described as a:

"splendid structure, built after the latest architectural style, is nearly one hundred feet from base to spire, and contains two recitation rooms for the Law Department, two Society Halls, a Library, and a chapel whose seating capacity is about seven hundred.^[51]

National shift in legal education

Despite the seemingly heroic efforts to keep the school alive, Cumberland was falling into the minority at the turn of the century. It maintained a one year curriculum when other schools moved toward longer terms, and it entrenched with legal formalism, which had reached its peak in the 1870s and would soon be on the decline. In 1876, for instance, Harvard Law School began to encourage a three year curriculum.^[52]

In 1903 Nathan Green, Jr. did become the first official dean of the law school. For the prior 57 years the school did not have this position, which was becoming more and more popular amongst the law schools.

But Cumberland progressed in other ways. It first admitted women in 1901^[44] and during this time the library grew from six hundred volumes in 1869 to three thousand in 1878.^[53] Today, the Lucille Stewart Beeson law library collection contains 300,000 volumes and microform volume equivalents.^[54]

As great as this early progress was, historian Lewis L. Laska observed that:

Cumberland, which had once marked the high point of professional education, had become a captive of its own success. Unwilling to adopt modern techniques such as the case method, or to expand and deepen its curriculum by opting for the three-year standard, Cumberland became the symbol of the democratic bar.^[55]

Through 1919, Cumberland did not adapt to the shift in legal education.^[55]

In 1915 Cumberland refurbished its halls by an eight thousand dollar grant from the U.S. government as reparation for federal occupancy during the Civil War.^[56]

When Cordell Hull, the Father of the United Nations, graduated from Cumberland, he commented on the diploma privilege, which granted the right to practice law without taking a bar exam, saying that:

according to custom, we members of the graduating class, the moment we received our diplomas, took them to the courthouse, where a district judge awaited us. He swore us in as members of the bar. I was not twenty years old.^[57]

Hull also went on to state:

“I am firmly convinced that in the world of today all nations will be forced to the conclusion that cooperation for law, justice, and peace is the only alternative to a constant race in armaments--including atomic armaments--and to other disruptive practices that will bring the nations participating in them on either side to a common ruin, the equivalent of universal suicide."^[58]

Cordell Hull is today honored at Cumberland with a Moot Court room bearing his name.

Cumberland did adapt to the changing times, but became unique again in 1961 when it sold from Cumberland University in Lebanon, Tennessee, to Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama. It is only one of two (2) law schools in the United States to have been sold from one University to another (the other being the sale of the law school from the University of Puget Sound to Seattle University).

Today the law school is well known for its emphasis on Trial Advocacy and is building a biotechnology emphasis through its Biotechnology Center.

Long range plan of 2005

In December 2005 Cumberland adopted a long term plan for the school. One call of the plan is to gradually downsize the number of students who attend in order to provide smaller classes and closer individual attention to students. In 1995 the entering class was 212 and in 2007 that number was reduced to 159.

Present

In 2007, student teams from Cumberland won both the Criminal Justice Trial Competition held in Hamden, Connecticut and the Lone Star Classic Mock Trial Competition in San Antonio, Texas.

In 2008, a Cumberland team won the American Association for Justice National Student Trial Advocacy Competition in Fort Lauderdale. 256 teams competed in in this competition, which is generally considered the most prestigious trial advocacy competition in the country.

Also in 2008, Cumberland made the finals of the ABA National Appellate Advocacy competition. It was 1 of 4 from 30 teams in its region that went to the national finals in Chicago. Cumberland won 3rd best brief in the region and the team finished ahead of Florida, Loyola of Los Angeles, LSU, Denver, Cincinnati, Arizona, Texas Tech, Florida A & M, Baylor, Case Western, Seattle, Southwestern and Chicago-Kent.

Institution

The law school emphasizes practical skills and integrity. The current dean, former federal judge John L. Carroll (class of '74) states that:

"The prevailing philosophy is simple: Practical skill outweighs raw knowledge, and application transcends erudition. If the goal were to produce great law students, the tenets might be exactly the opposite. Our goal is to produce exceptional lawyers. That’s why Cumberland’s curriculum emphasizes the core competencies of legal practice: research, writing and persuasion."

Cumberland, its name being a clue to its origin, is not native to Alabama. The law school was founded on July 29, 1847 in Lebanon, Tennessee at Cumberland University making the school approximately 160 years old. During the American Civil War the campus was totally destroyed and Confederate forces reportedly burned law school to the ground. In 1961, Samford University, formerly Howard College, purchased the law school from Cumberland University and today Cumberland remains one of only two law schools to have been sold from one University to another.

To put its founding in perspective, at the end of 1847 only 15 law schools existed in the United States, which makes Cumberland one of the oldest in the country.

As of 2006, the law school had 495 enrolled students.

One of Cumberland's more notable graduates, Cordell Hull, served under Franklin Delano Roosevelt as Secretary of State and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1945. At one point in his life he stated that:

"if this historic institution (Cumberland) had been located in any other section of the country instead of having been an unpretentious school in an unpretentious locality, its wonderful work would be as widely known and recognized as that of any educational institution of like age in any part of America."^[59]

After witnessing the Civil War, the Great Depression, two world wars, and the Civil Rights Movement, Cumberland stands on a long, proud history, but now looks "to regain the premier status it once held."

Life at Cumberland

The Princeton Review has ranked Cumberland 6th in the United States for faculty performance and accessibility and 7th in the United States for overall quality of life and has ranked in two top ten lists for three years in a row.^[60] Cumberland students generally attend school for three years. The first year classes are preselected: Civil Procedure, Contracts, Property, Torts, Criminal Law, and Evidence. Students are divided into one of three sections, where the students remain together in their respective classes for the entire first year. First year students are also enrolled in even smaller sections for Lawyering and Legal Reasoning, a class that focuses on honing the students' ability to think and write like a lawyer.

Second and third year courses give students more choices and allow some degree of specialization. Cumberland offers a balance of traditional courses, such as Criminal Procedure, Family Law, and Basic Federal Income Tax, and practical courses, such as Basic and Advanced Trial Skills, Business Drafting, Real Estate Transactions, and Law Office Practice and Management.

Students are taught using the Socratic Method, typical of law school pedagogy.

Students must also take Professional Responsibility and the MPRE, which is an exam that is required to practice in addition to the Bar exam.

Cumberland offers numerous extracurricular activities, in addition to the opportunities provided by Samford University. See below for a list of publications, research centers, and student organizations. The Student Bar Association sponsors Bar Review most Thursday nights, where Cumberland students frequent the many bars of Birmingham, Alabama.

Housing for law students is not available on campus, but students typically rent apartments or buy houses in the surrounding community.

Competition for grades and rank can be aggressive but rarely personal, and there is a surprising degree of camaraderie amongst the students, which many students consider to be atypical of the environment on most law school campuses.

The Lucille Stewart Beeson Law Library

The library building is 42,500 net square feet with 13 conference rooms, 474 study spaces and large carrels equipped with electrical and data connections as well as three computer labs.

The collection consists of approximately 300,000 volumes and microform volume equivalents. Other formats for legal materials that the library offers include electronic resources and audiovisuals. There are seven full-time librarians, eight full-time support staff members, and four part-time support staff members.^[61]

Joint degree programs

Cumberland offers 6 joint degree programs:

• JD/Master of Accountancy, JD/Master of Business Administration, in conjunction with the Samford University School of Business,
• JD/Master of Divinity, in conjunction with the Beeson Divinity School of Samford University,
• JD/Master of Science in Environmental Management, in conjunction with the graduate school of Samford University,
• JD/Master of Public Administration, in conjunction with the School of Social and Behavioral Sciences of the University of Alabama at Birmingham,
• JD/Master of Public Health, in conjunction with the School of Public Health of the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Foreign programs

• Summer 2006 - Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, England;^[62]
• Summer 2006 - Universidade Federal do Ceará, Fortaleza, Brazil;^[63]
• Summer 2006 - University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.^[64]

Organizations

Publications

1. The Cumberland Law Review^[65] whose members are selected by write-on from the top 15% of the freshman class.
2. The American Journal of Trial Advocacy^[66] whose members are selected by write-on from the top 33% of the freshman class.

The Center for Biotechnology, Law, and Ethics

The Center for Biotechnology, Law and Ethics is directed by professor David Smolin and has two research fellows chosen each year. Its purpose is to research and study the ethical and legal issues arising from the biotechnology industry in which the City of Birmingham is a major player.^[67]

It is the only one of its kind at any law school in the United States. Each year the Center sponsors a major symposium and attracts nationally known experts to the law school for the conference. Speakers are generally invited and encouraged to submit papers for publication in an edition of the law review dedicated to the symposium.

The 2007 Symposium was entitled “The United States Health-Care System: Access, Equity and Efficiency.” It focused on the very complex issues of the delivery of health care in the United States particularly to the poor, the problems which may exist and potential solutions to those problems. The symposium brought together experts from the University of Minnesota, the Saint Louis University School of Law and Texas A & M University and included Cumberland's own professor Jack Nelson who is nationally recognized for his work in health care law and policy.

The keynote address was also the Thurgood Marshall Lecture and was presented by United States Congressman Artur Davis who has emerged as a leader on issues relating to the delivery of health care services.^[68]

Other research centers

1. The Center for Law & Church ^[69]

2. The Alabama Center for Law and Civic Education ^[70]

Selected student organizations

• Alabama Defense Lawyer's Association^[71]
• The American Constitution Society for Law and Policy^[72]
• Association of Trial Lawyers of America (ATLA)^[73]
• Black Law Students Association^[74]
• Christian Legal Society^[75]
• Cordell Hull Speakers Forum^[76]
• Federalist Society^[77]
• Henry Upson Sims Moot Court Board^[78]
• Law, Science and Technology Society ^[79]
• Phi Alpha Delta^[80]
• Student Bar Association ^[81]
• Trial Advocacy Board^[82]
• Women in the Law^[83]

Founders

• Abraham Caruthers
• Robert L. Caruthers
• Nathan Green, Sr.
• Nathan Green, Jr.

Deans

	Dean	Tenure
1	Nathan Green, Jr.	1903
2	Andrew Martin
3	Edward E. Beard
4	William R. Chambers	acting dean
5	Albert Williams	acting dean 1933–1935
6	Albert B. Neil	acting dean
7	Samuel Gilreath	acting dean 1947–1948
8	Arthur A. Weeks	1947–1952
9	Donald E. Corley	acting dean 1972–1973, dean 1974–1984
10	Brad Bishop	acting dean 1984–1985
11	Parham H. Williams	1985–1996
12	Barry A. Currier	1996–2000
13	Michael D. Floyd	acting dean 2000–01
14	John L. Carroll	2001–present

Notable facts

• Cumberland has trained:
  • 2 United States Supreme Court Justices, Howell Edmunds Jackson and Horace Harmon Lurton,
  • 9 U.S. senators,
  • Over 40 U.S. Representatives
  • Nobel Peace Prize recipient and U.S. Secretary of State Cordell Hull
  • and numerous federal and state judges, representatives and governors.
• Cumberland is the first law school to have been sold from one university to another.
• Cumberland is well known in the Southeast for its focus on Trial Advocacy.
• The school is composed of two buildings: the main classroom building, Memory Leake Robinson Hall, and the Lucille Stewart Beeson Law Library, which is a 42,500 net square foot building with over 300,000 volumes and microform volume equivalents.^[84]
• The school's motto is "Where good people become exceptional lawyers."
• Also according to U.S. News & World Report, Cumberland, as of 2006, is tied with Gonzaga University with a 0.21 diversity rating based on a 7% African-American enrollment.
• In 2006, the Princeton Review ranked the school 6th in its "Professors Rock (Legally Speaking)" category and 7th in its "Best Quality of Life" category.
• Motto: E Cineribus Resurgo means "I rise from the ashes" in Latin and was the motto of Cumberland School of Law following the American Civil War when the campus was burned to the ground by Confederate troops.

Notable alumni

• James Allred (D) - 2 term Governor of Texas
• Roger Bedford, Jr. (D) - seven term Alabama Senator
• Robert Boland - attorney, sports agent and professor
• Karon O. Bowdre - federal judge
• Beverly Briley (D) - mayor of Nashville, Tennessee
• Gordon Browning (D) - Governor of Tennessee, U.S. Representative from Tennessee
• John L. Carroll - former federal judge and dean of Cumberland School of Law, Legal Director of the Southern Poverty Law Center
• Robert L. Caruthers - Governor of Tennessee, Tennessee Attorney General
• Sidney J. Catts (P) - Governor of Florida (22nd), Prohibition party candidate
• Harry E. Claiborne - notorious federal judge
• James I. Cohn - federal judge
• LeRoy Collins (D) - Governor of Florida
• Andrew J. O'Connor - American civil rights activist
• John F. Cosgrove (D) - Florida legislator and first mayor of Cutler Bay, Florida
• Charlie Crist (R) - Governor of Florida, Former Florida Attorney General
• Ryan DeGraffenried (D) - Alabama State Senator, President Pro Tempore of state Senate, Acting Lieutenant Governor of Alabama
• Joel Fredrick Dubina - Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, former federal Magistrate Judge and District Judge.
• Edward H. East (W) - Secretary of State for Tennessee
• Marshall Douglas Ghee / "Doug Ghee"- former Alabama Senator; Creator of The Doug Ghee Accessible Trail at Cheaha Mountain and State Park; co-creator of The Chief Ladiga Trail extending out from Calhoun County, Alabama; Forever Wild Program's 20-acre parcel to Coldwater Mountain Tract dedicated as The Doug Ghee Nature Preserve and Recreation Area.
• Grafton Green - associate justice of the Tennessee Supreme Court, presided over the appeal of John T. Scopes
• Carl Hatch (D) - U.S. Senator from New Mexico, author of the Hatch Act of 1939
• Robert H. Hatton (O) - US Congressman, Confederate brigadier general, killed during the Battle of Fair Oaks
• Van Hilleary (R) - Tennessee politician and lobbyist
• William J. Holloway (D) - Governor of Oklahoma
• James Edwin Horton - Judge who presided over the retrial of the Scottsboro Boys who set aside the jury's conviction and sentence of death and was them removed by the Alabama Supreme Court. He is remembered by a plaque on the courthouse.
• Jeff Hoover (R) - Kentucky House of Representatives
• Carolyn Hugley (D) - Minority Whip, Georgia House of Representatives
• Cordell Hull (D) - United States Secretary of State under Franklin D. Roosevelt, Nobel Peace Prize recipient, 11 terms as U.S. Representative, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, co-initiated the United Nations
• Douglas S. Jackson (D) - United States Senator from Tennessee, executive director of the Renaissance Center
• Howell Edmunds Jackson (D) - United States Supreme Court Justice, justice U.S. Circuit Court for the Sixth Circuit, U.S. Senator, U.S. Representative. Brother of General William Hicks Jackson.
• Ronald G. Johnsey - President and owner of Axiometrics, Inc., a real estate research company headquartered in Dallas.
• George Doherty Johnson - Confederate brigadier general, United States Civil Service Commissioner, superintendent of the The Citadel (military college)
• William F. Kirby (D) - U.S. Senator from Arkansas, associate justice of the Arkansas Supreme Court, Attorney General for Arkansas, author of Kirby’s Digest of the Statutes of Arkansas
• Joshua B. Lee (D) - U.S. Senator and Representative from Oklahoma
• Zeb Little (D) - Majority Leader and Floor Leader of the Alabama Senate
• Horace Harmon Lurton (D) - United States Supreme Court Justice, Tennessee Supreme Court, justice U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, dean of Vanderbilt University law department
• Anthony D. Mancinelli Noted New York tax and transactions lawyer.
• Crawford Martin (D) - Texas State Senator, Texas Secretary of State and Attorney General of Texas
• Joe McInnes Director of Ala Dept of Transportation, Exec VP of Blount Inc
• Bert H. Miller (D) - U.S. Senator from Idaho and Idaho Attorney General
• Wayne Morse, Jr. - Trial lawyer, appellate advocate, sports enthusiast, and sometime political adviser.
• Charles H. O'Brien (D) - Tennessee State Senator, Tennessee State Supreme Court
• Mike Papantonio - head of mass tort department at Levin, Papantonio in Pensacola, Florida, one of America's 15 most successful plaintiff's firms; host of the radio show Ring of Fire (radio program); a Methodist and featured on the documentary Jesus Camp.
• DuBose Porter (D) - Minority Leader, Georgia House of Representatives
• Paine Page Prim - chief justice of the Oregon Supreme Court, first graduate of Cumberland Law School
• Mike Stewart - American writer
• Tom Stewart (D) - U.S. Senator from Tennessee, chief prosecutor during the Scopes Trial
• John Strohm - entertainment lawyer and former member of the Blake Babies and Lemonheads
• Mauricio J. Tamargo - 14th Chairman of the Foreign Claims Settlement Commission
• Charlie D. Waldrep - Alabama lawyer and politico, Chief of Staff to former Alabama Governor Jim Folsom, Jr., recognized authority on governmental law.
• Ben West - mayor of Nashville, Tennessee

U.S. Representatives

1. Thomas G. Abernethy (D)- U.S. Representative from Mississippi (1943-1973)
2. Robert Aderholt (R)- U.S. Representative from Alabama (1997- )
3. Clifford Allen (D) - U.S. Representative from Tennessee
4. Richard Merrill Atkinson (D) - U.S. Representative from Tennessee
5. Maecenas Eason Benton (D) - U.S. Representative from Missouri. Father of famed artist Thomas Hart Benton
6. Joseph Edgar Brown (R) - U.S. Representative from Tennessee
7. Foster V. Brown (R) - U.S. Representative from Tennessee, father of Joseph Edgar Brown
8. Omar Burleson (D) - U.S. Representative from Texas
9. Robert R. Butler (R) - U.S. Representative from Oregon
10. Adam M. Byrd (D) - U.S. Representative from Mississippi
11. William Parker Caldwell (D) - U.S. Representative from Tennessee, Tennessee State Senator
12. Samuel Caruthers (W) - U.S. Representative from Missouri
13. Frank Chelf (D) - U.S. Representative from Kentucky
14. Judson C. Clements (D) - U.S. Representative from Georgia
15. Wynne F. Clouse (R) - U.S. Representative from Tennessee
16. William B. Craig (D) - U.S. Representative from Alabama
17. Jere Cooper (D) - U.S. Representative from Tennessee
18. John Duncan, Sr. (R) - 12 term U.S. Representative from Tennessee
19. Harold Earthman (D) - U.S. Representative from Tennessee
20. Benjamin A. Enloe (D) - U.S. Representative from Tennessee
21. Joe L. Evins (D) - U.S. Representative from Tennessee
22. Lewis P. Featherstone (D) - U.S. Representative from Arkansas
23. Aaron L. Ford (D) - U.S. Representative from Mississippi
24. William Voris Gregory (D) - U.S. Representative from Kentucky
25. Edward Isaac Golladay (D) - U.S. Representative from Tennessee
26. Isaac Goodnight (D) - U.S. Representative from Kentucky
27. Oren Harris (D) - U.S. Representative from Arkansas
28. Robert H. Hatton (O) - U.S. Congressman, Confederate brigadier general, Opposition party member, killed during the Battle of Fair Oaks
29. Goldsmith W. Hewitt (D) - U.S. Representative from Alabama
30. Wilson S. Hill (D) - U.S. Representative from Missouri
31. George Huddleston (D) - U.S. Representative from Alabama and father of George Huddleston, Jr.
32. Howell Edmunds Jackson (D) - (listed above), later United States Supreme Court Justice
33. Abraham Kazen (D) - U.S. Representative from Texas
34. Wade H. Kitchens (D) - U.S. Representative from Arkansas
35. John Kyle (D) - U.S. Representative from Mississippi
36. John Ridley Mitchell - U.S. Representative from Tennessee
37. Tom J. Murray (D) - U.S. Representative from Tennessee
38. Wright Patman (D) - U.S. Representative from Texas
39. Herron C. Pearson (D) - U.S. Representative from Tennessee
40. Andrew Price (D) - U.S. Representative from Louisiana
41. Haywood Yancey Riddle (D) - U.S. Representative from Tennessee
42. James Edward Ruffin (D) - U.S. Representative from Missouri
43. Thetus W. Sims (D) - U.S. Representative from Tennessee
44. Thomas U. Sisson (D) - U.S. Representative from Mississippi
45. John H. Smithwick (D) - U.S. Representative from Florida
46. Charles Swindall (R) - U.S. Representative from Oklahoma
47. John May Taylor (D) - U.S. Representative from Tennessee
48. Anthony F. Tauriello (D) - U.S. Representative for New York
49. J. Will Taylor (R) - U.S. Representative from Tennessee
50. Zachary Taylor (D) - U.S. Representative from Tennessee
51. Richard Warner (D) - U.S. Representative from Tennessee

Notable professors

• Albert Brewer - Governor of Alabama, Distinguished Professor of Law and Government
• John L. Carroll - former federal judge and dean of Cumberland School of Law, Legal Director of the Southern Poverty Law Center.
• Robert L. Caruthers - Attorney General for Tennessee, elected Governor of Tennessee
• Charles D. Cole - Director of Cumberland's programs to Durham, England, and Sao Paulo, Brazil, and Cumberland's Master of Comparative Law degree program
• Henry Cooper (U.S. Senator) (D) - United States Senator from Tennessee.
• Robert L. McCurley, Jr. - Director of the Alabama Law Institute
• William H. Pryor, Jr. - judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, former Alabama Attorney General, adjunct professor
• David M. Smolin - Director of The Center for Biotechnology, Law and Ethics and human rights activist. Brother of theoretical physicist Lee Smolin.
• Janie Shores - Alabama Supreme Court Justice.
• Joseph Snoe - Co-author of Property: Examples and Explanations and author of American Health Care Delivery Systems, American Casebook Series

See also

• List of Law Schools by United States Supreme Court Justices trained
• List of Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States by education
• Cumberland Law School main page
• ABA Page for Cumberland
• Faculty Profiles
• Cordell Hull Museum
• Cordell Hull Institute

References

v • d • e Law schools of the Southeastern United States Alabama Birmingham School of Law • Cumberland School of Law (Samford Univ.) • Miles Law School • Thomas Goode Jones School of Law (Faulkner Univ.) • University of Alabama School of Law Arkansas University of Arkansas School of Law • University of Arkansas at Little Rock School of Law Florida Dwayne O. Andreas School of Law (Barry Univ.) • FAMU College of Law • Florida Coastal School of Law • Florida International University College of Law • Florida State University College of Law • Fredric G. Levin College of Law (UF) • University of Miami School of Law • Shepard Broad Law Center (Nova Southeastern Univ.) • St. Thomas University School of Law (Florida) • Stetson University College of Law Georgia Emory University School of Law • Georgia State University College of Law • John Marshall Law School (Atlanta) • University of Georgia School of Law • Walter F. George School of Law (Mercer Univ.) Louisiana Loyola University New Orleans College of Law • Paul M. Hebert Law Center (LSU) • Southern University Law Center • Tulane University Law School Mississippi University of Mississippi School of Law • Mississippi College School of Law North Carolina Charlotte School of Law • Duke University School of Law • Elon University School of Law • Norman Adrian Wiggins School of Law (Campbell Univ.) • North Carolina Central University School of Law • University of North Carolina School of Law • Wake Forest University School of Law South Carolina Charleston School of Law • University of South Carolina School of Law Tennessee Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law (Univ. of Memphis) • Nashville School of Law • University of Tennessee College of Law • Vanderbilt University Law School

Coordinates: 33°27′57″N 86°47′32″W / 33.46570°N 86.79214°W / 33.46570; -86.79214