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Officers
President
Margaret Simmons
margaret.p.simmons@usace.army.mil
Vice-President
Devinti Williams
National Delegate
Walter (Tony) Baker
Treasurer
Devinti Williams
Parliamentarian
Mike Colopy
Membership Chair
Len Cohen
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A Message From The Chapter President
The North Alabama Chapter of the Federal Bar Association covers the Tennessee Valley area and has over fifty members. Chartered in 1958, the chapter has rich history of service to the community with members comprised of attorneys working in public service and private practice. A majority of members are government attorneys working for the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command (SMDC), U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command (AMCOM), Marshall Space Flight Center, NASA, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The chapter hosts an annual Symposium on Government Acquisition in conjunction with the Eastern States Briefing Conference. This coming November’s symposium will be our thirty-third edition. The chapter will also host its third annual Symposium on Government Employment Law this April in Huntsville. The chapter endows the Andrews Scholarship Fund at the University of Alabama School of Law named for Howard Andrews, a law school graduate and former U.S. Army judge advocate who was killed in a helicopter crash in Vietnam. The chapter also provides monetary awards recognizing law students for outstanding performance in the study of federal jurisdiction at the University of Alabama School of Law. If you have not already done so, I invite you to join the Federal Bar Association and, if in our geographical area, the North Alabama Chapter. Please make plans to attend one of our monthly luncheons or other programs. I look forward to meeting you.
Mary B. Richards
North Alabama Chapter President
Upcoming Events
Recent Events
The Thirty-Second Symposium on Government
Acquisition and the annual Eastern Briefing Conference sponsored by the
North Alabama Chapter was held on November 3-4, 2004 in Huntsville, Ala.
The symposium, attended by more than 90 attorneys and contracting professionals
focused on a broad range of government contracting issues, with an emphasis
this year on ethical conduct in government contracting. Among the distinguished
speakers were Stephen L. Schooner, associate professor and co-director
of the Government Procurement Law Program at George Washington University
School of Law, and LTC Michael Benjamin, chair of the Contract and Fiscal
Law Department at the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General’s School.
Presentations were also made about emerging issues in deployment contracting
and fiscal law by W. Darrell Phillips, chief of international and operations
law, Air Force Judge Advocate General’s School, and David M. Ward
of White, McCann & Stewart of Winchester, Kentucky, who served as
chief of operations law in 2003-04 with the U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne
Division headquartered in Mosul, Iraq.
— A reception in conjunction with the symposium was held at the
U.S. Space and Rocket Center Museum in Huntsville on the evening of Nov.
2, 2004. FBA President Thomas R. Schuck attended the reception and presided
over the swearing-in of the new chapter officer the next morning.
— On Jan. 6, 2005 the chapter made a presentation to retiring Huntsville
attorney, Carl Ray Stephens during a retirement ceremony at U.S. Army
Aviation and Missile Command. Stephens has been an active member of the
North Alabama Chapter of the FBA for the past 39 years having served in
many leadership positions including chapter president and vice-president
for 10th Circuit in 1974-75. Stephens also hosted the “You and the
Law” television program that aired in Huntsville during the 1970s.
Stephens was an outstanding mentor to many of the younger attorneys in
the chapter and continues to be an important member encouraging the chapter
to engage in many worthwhile activities.
— On Jan. 27, 2005 the chapter held a luncheon featuring local Huntsville
attorney Joe Ritch of Sirote & Permutt, P.C. Ritch is the co-chair
of the Tennessee Valley Base Closure and Realignment Commission (BRAC)
Committee. His talk centered on the upcoming Department of Defense BRAC
2005. Ritch discussed DOD’s criteria for determining closures for
this round of BRAC and what the Tennessee Valley Committee had done to
boost the prospects that Redstone Arsenal will remain open.
— March 17, 2005: Chapter Treasurer Margaret Simmons presented the
North Alabama Chapter’s Annual Award for Excellence in the Study
of Federal Jurisdiction at the University of Alabama School of Law Awards
Program in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
— On April 6, 2005 the chapter held a luncheon with guest speaker
Rhonda Brownstein, staff director for litigation and legal affairs for
the Southern Poverty Law Center, Montgomery, Ala. Brownstein discussed
the current cases that the center is working on as well as other initiatives
of the center including its Intelligence Project for tracking hate groups
and extremists nationwide and the project Teaching Tolerance, an educational
program that combats hate for children in grades K-12. The chapter presented
Brownstein a check for $500 in support of the center’s programs.
November 7–8, 2006
35th Symposium on Government Acquisition: Recent Developments in Government
Contracting
Location: Huntsville Marriott, 5 Tranquility Base, Huntsville, Ala.
Regstration: View Flyer for more details