March 2021

COMMUNITY
City of Montgomery Awarded
The City of Montgomery received the Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting by the Government Finance Officers Association of the United States and Canada (GFOA). The award is indicative of Mayor Steven L. Reed’s commitment to instilling a culture of transparency, accountability and efficiency within city government. Crafted under the leadership of Finance Director Betty Beville, the City’s comprehensive annual financial report was judged by an impartial panel to meet the high standards of the program. Criteria include demonstrating a constructive “spirit of full disclosure” to clearly communicate its financial story and motivating potential users and user groups to read the report, among other factors. Mayor Reed appointed Beville as finance director in May. Beville is the first woman to as finance director for the City and one of few in the state of Alabama.
 
YMCA Names 69th Man of the Year
Montgomery County Sheriff Derrick Cunningham was named 2020 YMCA Man of the Year. He has served as a dedicated YMCA member for many years and is currently active on the Kershaw YMCA Board of Directors. He is passionate about service to the youth of Montgomery through his YMCA work, providing free ACT prep programs to the YMCA Achievers club and hosting the Sheriff’s Camp at YMCA Camp Chandler as well as many other community events.
 
ACHIEVEMENTS
Bradley Attorneys Honored
Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP announced that the firm’s Construction Practice Group was named among Law360’s 2020 Practice Groups of the Year, one of only five firms in the nation to receive this honor. In addition, 83 attorneys in the firm’s Alabama offices were selected as 2020 Mid-South Super Lawyers or Rising Stars. In Montgomery, the Mid-South Super Lawyer for 2020 is Charles Stewart (Business Litigation), and the Mid-South Rising Star for 2020 is Sarah Sutton Osborne (Civil Litigation: Defense).
 
Sasser, Sefton & Brown Lawyers Named 2020 Mid-South Super Lawyers or Rising Stars
Three Sasser, Sefton & Brown, P.C. lawyers were named 2020 Mid-South Super Lawyers or Rising Stars. Only the top 5 percent of lawyers in Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi and Tennessee are named Mid-South Super Lawyers. No more than 2.5 percent of lawyers in these states are selected as Rising Stars, who must be 40 years old or younger or have been in practice for 10 or fewer years. The firm’s ranked attorneys are Bowdy J. Brown (Creditor/Debtor Rights), Patrick L. W. Sefton (Banking Law) and William R. Cunningham (Rising Stars - Real Estate).
 
Jackson Thornton Named to Forbes “Best” List
Jackson Thornton, a certified public accounting and consulting firm headquartered in Montgomery, was named one of America’s Best Tax & Accounting Firms by Forbes for the second year. Only 278 firms nationwide were selected and only 10 in Alabama. Jackson Thornton was selected as being a top recommendation in both the tax and accounting areas.
 
Faulkner’s Thomas Goode Jones School of Law Ranked Among 2021 Best Law Schools
Faulkner University’s Thomas Goode Jones School of Law was named to The Princeton Review’s 2021 Best Law Schools list. The Princeton Review’s rankings are widely considered the national gold standard for colleges and universities. Faulkner Law was also ranked fourth on The Princeton Review’s Most Competitive Students list as well as the Most Conservative Students ranking. In addition, Faulkner Law placed sixth on the Greatest Resources for Minority Students ranking.
 
Faulkner Law Names “Most Outstanding First Year Student”
Faulkner University’s Thomas Goode Jones School of Law announced Soren A. Geiger from Montgomery as the recipient of its 2019–2020 Most Outstanding First Year Student Award. Every year, the Most Outstanding First Year Student Award is presented to the first-year student considered most outstanding based upon the student’s cumulative GPA, professional character and contributions to Thomas Goode Jones School of Law and Faulkner University. Geiger was on the Dean’s List both semesters of his first year in law school and wrote multiple best papers in his classes. He is now an editor of the Faulkner Law Review, a Dean’s Fellow and a member of the law school’s National Moot Court Competition team.

AWARDS
Bryan Stevenson Honored as 2020 Global Citizen of the Year
Activist, lawyer and founder of the Montgomery-based Equal Justice Initiative Bryan Stevenson has added another accolade to his long list of achievements: the 2020 Global Citizen of the Year award. The award honors an individual who has proven exceptional and sustained impact toward ending extreme poverty and its systemic causes, and the winner is chosen by a committee of judges, based on criteria-based evaluations created by an independent group of researchers.
 
Local CPA Earns National Award
The American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) and CPA Practice Advisor honored 25 leaders in the accounting profession with the 2020 Most Powerful Women in Accounting Award, and Phyllis Ingram, Partner, Carr, Riggs & Ingram, LLC in Montgomery was among the women honored. The awards, now in their ninth year, were created by CPA Practice Advisor and are administered jointly by the AICPA and celebrate and support the success of female leaders.