Cumberland School of Law Announces Members of the National ...

William G. Ross, Lucille Stewart Beeson Professor of Law
About Lucille Stewart Beeson
Lucille Stewart Beeson grew up near South Pittsburgh,
Tennessee, in a close-knit family that saved
and gave, and made the most of all available resources.
Her spunky, independent spirit was her trademark and
eventually inspired her to enroll in law school in the
1920s. She was one of the first women to earn a law
degree from the Atlanta Law School.
After law school, Mrs. Beeson went to work for Liberty
National Life Insurance Company (now NYSE-listed
Torchmark Corporation) where she met her future husband,
Dwight Moody Beeson. Together with Dwight’s
brother and sister-in-law, the Beesons were known for
their keen sense of responsibility and stewardship of
possessions. They were the close friends, admirers and
co-workers of Frank Park Samford, Sr. and as a result,
Samford University was one of the primary beneficiaries
of their generosity. They donated money to build
the Dwight and Lucille Beeson Center for the Healing
Arts, provided funds toward the Dwight M. Beeson
School of Business Building, gave millions for the magnificent
Lucille Stewart Beeson Law Library at Cumberland
School of Law and provided for the first fully
endowed professorship at Cumberland School of Law
in 1990. At the end of Mrs. Beeson’s life in 2001, she
and her family had bestowed gifts upon Samford University
that exceeded $100 million. At the dedication for
the Law Library in 1996, Mrs. Beeson was recognized
for her “trailblazing efforts as a lawyer, as well as her benevolent
sprit” by former Samford University President
Thomas Corts. “This family has been transformational
in Samford’s history. Their interest and generosity have
made it better than most people ever thought it could
be,” Corts said.
Mrs. Beeson was a member of the Royal Society of
Arts, London, The Advisory Board of the Ida V. Moffett
School of Nursing, the Boards of The Birmingham
Museum of Art and the Wegewood International
Seminar, Canturbury Methodist Church and Mountain
Brook Garden Club.
About William G. Ross
William G. Ross is Professor of Law at Samford
University’s Cumberland School of Law in Birmingham,
Alabama, where he has taught since 1988.
His courses include professional responsibilities, civil
procedure, constitutional law, and American legal history.
A graduate of Stanford and the Harvard Law
School, Professor Ross was a litigator in law firms in
New York City from 1979 until 1988. He has served as
a Visiting Professor of Law at Notre Dame (2001 –02);
Florida State (summer 2002); and Georgia State (spring
2000). Professor Ross has written extensively on legal
ethics, American legal history, and the federal judicial
appointments process.
A nationally-recognized expert on the ethics of legal
fees and judicial ethics, Professor Ross is the author of
two books on attorney billing issues, The Honest Hour:
The Ethics of Time-Based Billing by Attorneys (Carolina Academic
Press, 1996) and Legal Fees: Law and Practice (with
John W. Toothman, Carolina Academic Press, 2003), as
well as numerous articles about legal fees and judicial
ethics. His Honest Hour book was cited several times by
the U. S. Supreme Court in Gisbrecht v. Barnhart (2002).
Professor Ross is also a specialist on American constitutional
history. He is the author of A Muted Fury:
Populists, Progressives and Labor Unions Confront the Courts,
1890–1937 (Princeton University Press, 1994), and Forging
New Freedoms: Nativism, Education, and the Constitution,
1917–1927 (University of Nebraska Press, 1994). A
third book, The Chief Justiceship of Charles Evans Hughes
1930–1941, was published in 2007 by the University of
South Carolina Press. Professor Ross also has published
many articles and book reviews about American legal
history.
Also an authority on federal separation of powers issues,
Professor Ross has published many works on the
appointment of U.S. Supreme Court justices and other
federal judges. His Muted Fury and Hughes books and
several of his articles explore the relationship between
Congress and the Supreme Court, particularly the dynamics
of movements to curtail the powers of the federal
courts.
Professor Ross has been quoted as an expert on ethical
and constitutional issues in various publications, including
The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Washington
Post, USA Today, U.S. News and World Report, and
The ABA Journal. He also has been interviewed on CNN
and C-SPAN. His publications have been cited in approximately
one thousand scholarly articles and books.
Professor Ross loves to teach. In 2005, he became
the first recipient of Cumberland’s Harvey S. Jackson
Award for Excellence in Teaching for his instruction
in upper-level courses, and he was co-recipient of this
award in 2012.