Donald Sweeney to Receive Alabama School Boards Legacy Award

Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP is pleased to announce that Birmingham partner Donald B. Sweeney Jr. will be presented with the Alabama Association of School Boards’ (AASB) Legacy Award on December 9. The award was created specifically to recognize Mr. Sweeney’s leadership and service in the practice of education law.

“This is a special award that AASB created to honor Mr. Sweeney’s unique and immense contributions to the Association and to local school boards,” said AASB Executive Director Sally Smith, J.D. “For more than 40 years, his name has been synonymous with the practice of education law in this state, and his sound counsel has been invaluable to AASB, its members and countless school board attorneys throughout the state.”

The AASB represents all of the state’s public local school boards. The organization’s mission is to develop excellent school board leaders through quality training, advocacy and services. The AASB Board of Directors unanimously approved the Legacy Award, which will be formally presented to Mr. Sweeney during AASB’s Annual Convention.

“Mr. Sweeney is an esteemed and valued member of the Bradley family. He is truly deserving of this distinctive honor,” said Bradley Chairman of the Board and Managing Partner Beau Grenier. “We are so pleased to see that his diligence and talents are recognized and appreciated by his clients, colleagues and the education community.”

Mr. Sweeney is nationally recognized as an authority in public education law and represents numerous school boards and schools throughout Alabama, including Mountain Brook Schools, Homewood City Schools and Hoover City Schools. As a member of Bradley’s Labor and Employment and Litigation teams, Mr. Sweeney has also had a diverse practice specializing in employment law, civil rights litigation and transportation law. He was the founder and first president of the Alabama Council of School Board Attorneys and is the only Alabama attorney to serve as president of the National School Board Association’s Council of School Board Attorneys. Mr. Sweeney has also served as attorney for the last three Governor’s Task Forces on Education, as chairman of the State Attorney General’s Public Education Task Force, and as state chairman for the National Organization on Legal Problems of Education.

Mr. Sweeney is an adjunct professor of law at Cumberland Law School. He authored Education Law: A Legal Reference, was selected as Lawyer of the Year for the City of Birmingham, and has served as President of the Rotary Club of Birmingham and the Country Club of Birmingham. He also served as a law clerk to the Honorable Walter P. Gewin on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

Mr. Sweeney’s award presentation is one of several highlights of AASB’s 2016 convention. The training event is expected to draw more than 400 school board members and other education leaders. Alabama State Superintendent of Education Michael Sentance will deliver a keynote address on The Future of Education in Alabama for the December 9 afternoon session, immediately following the Legacy Award presentation.

Contact: Vivian Hood
904.220.1915
vhood@jaffepr.com