Augusta S. Dowd Installed as President-Elect of the Alabama State Bar
June 25, 2016FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Sandestin, FL – White Arnold & Dowd P.C. is pleased to announce that managing lawyer Augusta S. Dowd has begun her year of service as president-elect of the Alabama State Bar. Ms. Dowd was installed as president-elect during the Bar’s annual meeting in Sandestin, Florida. Following her year as president-elect, she will become president of the Bar in July 2017.
The following biography of Ms. Dowd was published in the March 2016 edition of The Alabama Lawyer:
Born and raised in Birmingham, Augusta graduated from the University of the South (“Sewanee”) and Vanderbilt University School of Law, where she served as Articles Editor for the Vanderbilt Law Review. After graduating from law school in 1982, Augusta clerked for the Honorable Judge Seybourne H. Lynne of the Northern District of Alabama. Augusta began her law practice in 1983 with the Birmingham firm of Lange, Simpson, Robinson & Somerville, where she practiced until her third child was born in 1990. Augusta spent most of the 1990s at home with her children before returning to the practice of law in 2000 to join the firm that eventually restructured in 2003 to become White Arnold & Dowd P.C. She became managing lawyer when the firm restructured, and she continues to hold that position.
With well over twenty-five years’ experience as a trial lawyer, primarily in civil and complex litigation and white collar criminal defense, Augusta practices in federal and state courts as well as in administrative and regulatory proceedings and arbitrations. She represents both plaintiffs and defendants in a broad spectrum of cases including business, civil, class action, complex litigation, personal injury, mass tort, pharmaceutical, environmental tort, and whistleblower actions. Augusta has extensive experience representing defendants in white collar crime and criminal environmental matters. She also handles executive severance and compensation matters.
Committed to our state bar’s ideal that “lawyers render service,” Augusta has been meaningfully involved in bar activities on both the local and state level. Augusta was a member of the Birmingham Bar Association’s (“BBA”) Executive Committee (2004-2007) and Diversity Task Force (2006-2007) and is a Fellow of the Birmingham Bar Foundation. Augusta also served on one of the BBA’s grievance panels and as one of the co-chairs of the BBA’s Grievance Committee in 2009-2010. Augusta created the original course template for and led the inaugural class of the BBA’s Future Leaders Forum. Since 2009, Augusta has served as an Alabama State Bar Commissioner representing the 10th Judicial Circuit (Jefferson County) and on a State Bar Disciplinary Committee. In 2011, the Board of Bar Commissioners appointed Augusta to one of the two lawyer positions on the Judicial Inquiry Commission, where she is now serving her second term, and recently Augusta has been named as the Alabama State Bar’s President-Elect Designate. Augusta is a member of the Atticus Finch Society as well as a Fellow of the Alabama Law Foundation. Augusta is a member of the American Board of Trial Advocates, where she served as president (2015) of the Alabama Chapter. She is also a member of the International Academy of Trial Lawyers, a long-standing member of the American Bar Association, and a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation. Augusta is a member of the Women’s White Collar Defense Association, the National Association of Women Lawyers, and the Advanced Safety Engineering and Management Industry Advisory Council. Augusta has served as an adjunct professor at the University of Alabama School of Law where she instructed students in Advanced Civil Procedure.
Augusta has long held an AV-rating from Martindale-Hubbell. She has been named to multiple “best of” lists, including: The Best Lawyers in America (2007-Present); B-Metro Magazine, Top Women Attorneys (2015); Mass Tort Lawyer of the Year, Best Lawyers in America (2011); Alabama Super Lawyers (2008-2015); cover and featured article, Super Lawyers Magazine/Alabama (2012); Super Lawyers, Top 10 Lawyers in Alabama (2011); Super Lawyers, Top 25 Women Lawyers in Alabama (2008-Present); Super Lawyers, Top 50 Lawyers in Alabama (2008-Present); and Birmingham Business Journal’s “Who’s Who in Law and Accounting” (2011-2013). She was recognized as one of the “Top Ten Women in Business in Birmingham” (2006) and named to the Birmingham Multiple Sclerosis Leadership Class of 2007. Augusta is a member of the Alabama Committee of the Newcomen Society, and she is a graduate of both Leadership Birmingham (2007) and Momentum Women’s Leadership (2010).
Active in the Birmingham community, over the course of her career Augusta has volunteered her time and talents on behalf of multiple charitable, educational, and religious organizations. Her current service focuses on the YWCA of Central Alabama, where she has been a member of the Board of Directors since 2010, and the Episcopal Diocese of Alabama, where she has served as Assistant Chancellor to the Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Alabama since 2009.
Augusta and her husband David D. Dowd, III, a corporate attorney and partner at Burr & Forman LLP, have been married since 1982. They have three children: Bevan (29), Grace (27), and David IV (25).
About White Arnold & Dowd P.C.: From high-profile litigation to mediation and private disputes, the attorneys at AV-rated White Arnold & Dowd P.C. excel at finding creative strategies to minimize disruptions and help our clients keep moving forward in business and in life. We have a plan for the unplanned. For more information, visit www.whitearnolddowd.com.
Contact:
Kitty Rogers Brown
205-323-1888
[email protected]