Leadership Lessons Learned In

Alumnus Profile: Joyce White Vance – 2 | ISSUE 1 | MAY 2014 Alumnus Q&A: babc.com Aman Kahlon – 3 A NOTE | From Firm Chairman Beau Grenier Welcome to Alumni Connect, our multi-faceted alumni program for current and former Bradley Arant Boult Cummings attorneys. We greatly appreciate the contributions our alumni have made to the firm, and we value our continued relationships with you. Our goal is to provide an opportunity to reconnect with former colleagues, to make new connections, and to expand your professional network. Our alumni program includes a members-only LinkedIn group and a semi-annual newsletter to keep you informed of firm news as well as the whereabouts and accomplishments of fellow alumni. We will keep you posted as we roll out new features of this professional networking program, and we look forward to hearing from you. Alumni on the Move – 6 ALUMNUS SPOTLIGHT | Mike Warren Also in this Issue: Firm Updates – 2 Leadership Lessons Learned in Law New Attorneys – 4 CEO of Children’s of Alabama and former Bradley Arant Opportunities – 4 Rose & White (BARW) attorney, Mike Warren is quick to Community Impact – 6 credit his BARW mentors—Douglas Arant, Bew White, John Firm History – 6 Coleman, Hobart McWhorter, and John Morrow—as being Charitable Giving – 8 instrumental in his professional success. Scholarships – 8 Partner Promotions – 9 “Douglas Arant taught me to make every client feel valued and important,” said Warren. “That is one of the most In the News – 9 valuable life lessons a young lawyer or anyone should learn.” And Warren should know. As Alabama’s “CEO of the Year” and leader of a company named one of the “100 Best Companies to Work for in America,” he’s built a career on making both STAY CONNECTED clients and employees feel valued and supported. With Your BABC “As I look back at my development as a lawyer and the Colleagues organizational culture changes during my career, those experiences have stood me in good stead for the last six Through years at Children’s,” said Warren. Alumni Connect After returning from active duty in Vietnam in 1972, Warren resumed his labor and general To learn more about litigation practice at BARW. During this time, he realized the aspects of lawyering that he most the Alumni Connect enjoyed and identified this skill set as what prepared him to be a leader: orchestrating solutions program, join our for complex problems, giving advice, and participating in decision-making. “Law school prepares mailing list, or people to think differently and to approach problems and situations differently,” Warren said. update your contact “Attorneys can transfer those abilities to a wide variety of settings where we can problem-solve information, visit us at and create solutions for any industry or sector.” www.babc.com/alumni. In 1983, he went to work as General Counsel for his main client, Alagasco. One year later, the skills he had honed as an attorney at BARW were parlayed into his new position as President of Continued on next page 1 babc.com | ISSUE 1 | MAY 2014 FIRM UPDATES ALUMNUS SPOTLIGHT | Mike Warren . continued What’s New? Alagasco. His next high-profile leadership role was as President and CEO of Energen where he served as the company’s Chairman from 1998 until his departure at the end of 2007. BIRMINGHAM When Warren was a young attorney, his BARW mentor Bew White advised him to get involved David G. Hymer elected to with Children’s of Alabama. “Mr. White told me that I’d do a lot of community and civic work the American Board of Trial throughout my career and that Children’s should be at the top of the list,” Warren said. He Advocates (ABOTA) served on the Board of the hospital for 20 years before he took the helm of the nonprofit pediatric healthcare center in 2008. Warren cites his interest in organizational dynamics as E. Mabry Rogers and John the force that drew him to the stand-alone organization, a business structure which he found E. Goodman named 2014 “intriguing and complex.” BTI Client Service All-Star Attorneys He reiterates his appreciation for what he learned from his mentors at Bradley Arant, saying they taught him “the importance of visibility of senior management, so the employees know Jim Rotch elected as that the CEO is approachable and cares about what they are doing. Part of my job is to be their Chairman of the Board of the cheerleader.” Like a player at the top of his game, Warren is drawn to the challenges of complex National Cement Company, business organizations because he not only enjoys tailoring creative solutions, but he excels in Inc. that arena—and he knows from the lessons he learned in law, that how he treats each person is integral to that success. J. David Stewart named by the Birmingham Business Journal as one of its “Top 40 ALUMNUS PROFILE | Joyce White Vance Under 40” As the top-ranking federal law enforcement official in the Northern Beau Byrd elected as a District of Alabama, Joyce White Vance says, “I’ve learned that there Fellow of the American is no such thing as a routine day when you are a U.S. Attorney.” College of Mortgage The former Bradley Arant Rose & White attorney spent six years Attorneys (ACMA) in private practice before entering the U.S. Attorney’s office in 1991. She worked her way through the Criminal and Appellate Marc James Ayers appointed Divisions before her Senate confirmation on August 7, 2009. She to the Alabama Advisory says the biggest difference between private practice and federal Committee on the U.S. law is the client: the people of the Unites States. Specifically, Vance Commission on Civil Rights serves more than four-and-a-half million people, approximately 60 percent of Alabama’s population, and her priorities include J.S. “Chris” Christie, Jr. terrorism and national security, civil rights, financial fraud, public interviewed live on CBS 42 corruption, environmental crime, child exploitation, violent crime, regarding the ADA’s Safe at and narcotics. School legislation She credits her BARW colleagues with teaching her a lesson that serves her well in her current role, saying, “I learned the value of collegiality from some really CHARLOTTE fine lawyers—people like Jerry White, Sam Franklin, Tricia Mandt, and Linda Friedman. I learned how important it is to remember that all business is personal and to develop strong Dana C. Lumsden named to relationships so that you can do the best possible job for your clients.” And she has applied this On Being a Lawyer of Color lesson in the U.S. Attorney’s Office where she takes great pride in mentoring young lawyers magazine’s “Power List” for and teaching them to become extraordinary prosecutors. She also takes a personal interest in 2014 the issues that are thrust upon Alabama, such as tackling the resurgence of heroin in 2012. Her office organized an aggressive federal task force that diverted the supply of heroin and greatly Joycelyn J. Eason, Nader S. minimized the state’s overdose death problem. “There is a lot of satisfaction in working on a Raja, and Monica L. Wilson case that does something really powerful for the community,” says Vance. And she delivers on listed as “Rising Stars” by this commitment to the community, as she is currently working with doctors, educators, and North Carolina Super Lawyers business people to further combat the heroin problem through a public awareness initiative Magazine that will be launched in June. Robert A. Cox, Jr. listed in She says that the most challenging aspects of her job are also the most rewarding. She was 2014 North Carolina Super appointed to the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee, where she had the opportunity to Lawyers Magazine help craft Justice Department policies that addressed long-term, systemic practices that were out of sync with current fiscal realities, among other things. She explains: Continued on next page Continued on next page 2 babc.com | ISSUE 1 | MAY 2014 FIRM UPDATES ALUMNUS PROFILE | Joyce White Vance . continued What’s New? That work is really challenging because every time you write a policy you have to . continued get a lot of people to buy in, and you can go fast alone, but if you want to go far, you have to go slow and build a lot of support and work through things like the HUNTSVILLE law of unintended consequences. You have to be really detail-oriented and careful to craft just the right policy to make sure you are achieving the goals you want to H. Harold Stephens appointed achieve and serving the community. It’s very challenging but when you get it right, to Alabama Supreme Court it’s ultimately very satisfying. Commission on Dispute Resolution A mother of four, she realized that she truly valued working when her second child’s heart condition required her to stay home for a year. Her then-boss, Judge Caryl Privett, recognized her professional drive and made it possible for her to work from home. “For everything that I JACKSON have sacrificed in order to work, I feel like [my family] has also gotten something from it,” says Vance. “My boys, in particular, have grown up thinking that it is unremarkable for a woman to J. William Manuel named a work. It never occurs to them that mom is the one who should cook dinner.” director of the Capital Area Bar Association (CABA) While she takes pride in her boys’ view of a highly effective professional woman as “unremarkable,” she admits that the position itself is remarkable.

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