Alabama State Bar

The Susan B. Livingston Leadership Award was established in 2016 by the Women’s Section of the Alabama State Bar to honor women lawyers in Alabama who reflect the values of Susan Bevill Livingston. Livingston practiced for 29 years at Balch & Bingham in Birmingham. She was a tireless advocate of mentoring. She also had a strong commitment to her community and volunteered for many civic opportunities, as well as being an outstanding leader in both her personal and professional life.

In 2021, six sites in Alabama were chosen by the William G. Pomeroy Foundation to receive commemorative historic Votes for Women markers for the National Votes for Women Trail.

Retaining female attorneys is an important issue. Polls, surveys, reports, and articles have been conducted and written on this subject offering solutions. Businesses with more diverse employees have been shown to be more financially successful and the employees more satisfied and content with their firms.[1]

I have found wisdom and wit in the fictional character Forrest Gump, a creation of my friend, author Winston Groom. The movie based on Groom’s novel, Forrest Gump, contains a scene in which Forrest is running mile after mile with a crowd following him, and for no particular reason, he just stops running. It is difficult to stop running in an active law practice, but when I finally did, I began to reflect on my situation.

Cumberland School of Law is celebrating its 175th anniversary this year, and the women of Cumberland are a substantial part of that history. In fact, the school’s current first-year class, the class of 2024, boasts a record 59 percent female law students.