Fall 2008 - Cumberland School of Law - Samford University

A Brush with the Law 1
Music Major Roby Finds Way to
City Council 3
Charles D. Cole Leaves a Legacy 4
Clapp Oversaw Library Expansion
A Weekend to Remember
6
Alumni Weekend 2008 7
Letter from Mitzi Davis 7
Letter from Mary T. Miller 10
Women in Law 11
Hughes Court 17
Legacies Class of 2008 18
Master of Comparative Law 19
Faculty Notes 22
Class Notes 24
Births 28
In Memoriam 29
Planned Gift Funds Scholarship 29
The Cumberland Lawyer is a semiannual
publication of the Cumberland School of
Law, Samford University
Editor James Lewis
Associate Editor Lauren McCaghren
Contributing Editor J. Mark Baggett
Director of
Creative Services JanicaYork Carter
Copy Editor Laine Williams
Designer Carlie Cranford Stamper
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Contact: Lauren McCaghren
Cumberland School of Law
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©2008 Samford University
Samford University is an Equal Opportunity Institution and
does not discriminate in its educational and employment
policies on the basis of race, color, sex, age, disability, or national
or ethnic origin.
Women
have a
long and
distinguished history
at Cumberland.
Records are a bit
unclear about who
was the first woman
admitted, but it
seems to be Mildred
ThomasVaughn Bouton. Born in 1867 in
Tippah County, Miss., at age 17, she married
Dr.William Paisley Bouton, who was 20
years her senior. In 1902, they moved to
Lebanon,Tenn., with their three sons, who
enrolled at the newly established Castle
Heights Military Academy.
The doctor retired from medicine and
used his newfound leisure as an occasion to
study law at Cumberland University.
Mildred, then age 35, agreed that studying
law at nearby Caruthers Hall would be
interesting. She and her husband studied
together and practiced in the moot courts.
Family lore holds that her grades were higher
than his.While neither practiced law, the
education helped in business dealings, and
aided Mildred in her passion for genealogy
and the preservation of historical records.
Other women may have been enrolled
in the early years, but university records
often only recorded first initials and last
names.The class of 1906 had two female
names: Edith Likens and Lena K.Vaughn.
As in many areas, Cumberland
University was ahead of its time.While the
Supreme Court of Tennessee opened its bar
to women in 1907, Cumberland
University’s early rival, Harvard University,
did not admit women to law classes until
1950.The 1922 catalog made it clear that
women were welcome at the law school,
declaring “Women are admitted to the same
classes with men as students.”
A small but steady stream of women
attended the little school in Lebanon.The
parents of former Dean Parham H.Williams
both graduated from Cumberland
University in 1925. Richard and Margaret
Peters enrolled in 1930 and Mrs. Peters
remembered there were several women in
her class, but she was the only married one.
She enrolled through the “family plan,”
which allowed a spouse to attend for onethird
of regular tuition.According to Profs.
Howard Walthall and David Langum in
their history of Cumberland School of Law,
From Maverick to Mainstream, this was a way
the law school facilitated the education of
women, years ahead of most other schools.
Though the Lebanon years opened the
door for women students, the Birmingham
era has seen a significant rise in the number of
women students and their role in the law
school. Elizabeth Eshelman, a 1944 graduate
of Howard College (now Samford University)
enrolled as the first female law student at the
Birmingham campus. She graduated in 1964.
In 1967,Audrey Lattimore Gaston, wife of the
grandson of businessman and civil rights
leader A. G. Gaston, was the first black student
admitted to Samford. In 1970, she became the
first African American to graduate from the
university or the law school.
In 1965, Janie Shores was the first
female law faculty member in Alabama, and
in 1967,Annette Dodd joined as librarian.
Today, eight women serve as full-time faculty
members, three as department directors and
two as assistant deans of the law school.
Enrollment shows 41% of the first-year class
and 46% of the total population as female.
The 1980s and 1990s saw the emergence
of women in leadership roles.Today, journal
editors in chief, the chief judge and chief
justice of the advocacy boards, the Student
Bar Association president and the National
Alumni Association president are just as likely
to be women as men.Three of the four
members of the National ChampionshipTrial
Team this year are women.
For this issue, Prof. Mark Baggett interviewed
more than 30 alumnae.These interviews
have been captured in a narrative that
weaves their experiences over the four
decades the law school has been in
Birmingham, while reflecting the breadth
and depth of a diverse alumnae base. It is
not possible to include them all, but we
hope the ones we share adequately represent
all who serve in so many remarkable ways.
To those who opened their lives to us,
we thank you.To those who represent the
school and profession in such outstanding
ways every day, we thank you, too.
John L. Carroll
Dean and Ethel P. Malugen Professor of Law