American Bar Association - Law Student Division

Air and Space Law Society

The Air and Space Law Society at Cumberland School of Law serves to educate interested students about air and space law, how it functions, and its implementations. The Air and Space Law Society brings together a diverse group of students with a common goal of networking and learning about the issues within Air and Space Law. Students will connect and learn about the current issues through discussions, lectures and presentations.

Alabama Student Bar Association

The Alabama Student Bar Association aims to promote awareness and increase knowledge of pertinent legal issues in Alabama while providing and atmosphere for social activity with peers.

American Constitution Society

American Journal of Trial Advocacy

The journal is a law review dedicated to trial advocacy as a specialty within the law. The American Journal of Trial Advocacy’s successful endeavors are consistently listed as worth reading in the National Law Journal. Attaining membership on a legal publication during your law school career represents a high level of analytical skill and writing ability and will open doors that might otherwise remain closed. If you maintain a class standing within the top third of your class by the end of your first year, you will receive an invitation to participate in the American Journal of Trial Advocacy’s candidate writing program. Learn more about the American Journal of Trial Advocacy.

Black Law Students Association

The Black Law Students Association is an organization created and designed to articulate and promote the professional needs and goals of black law students; to foster and encourage professional competence; to focus upon the relationship of the black attorney to the American legal system; to instill in the black attorney and law student a greater awareness of and commitment to the needs of the black community; to utilize their expertise to initiate a change within the legal system that will make it more responsive to the needs and concerns of the black community; to do any and all things necessary and lawful for the accomplishment of these goals. For more information, contact blsa@samford.edu.

Cambridge Scholars Society

The Cambridge Scholars Society is a new student organization for students who have attended the Cambridge Study Abroad Program or are interested in attending. Membership is automatic by virtue of registration for and participation in the program but the organization is open to anyone with an interest in studying abroad or in English history. There are no membership fees. The organization is a great venue for you to connect with other students who either have gone to Cambridge or will be going in the future. It certainly can provide a good forum to discuss travel plans and points of interest while in Europe. Best of all, you will be able to interact with alums who have gone on to work or do graduate studies abroad and explore opportunities that you might not have previously considered.

Carolina Student Bar Association

Christian Legal Society

Christian Legal Society (CLS) is a national non-denominational membership organization of attorneys, judges, law professors and law students working in association with others, to follow Jesus’ command “to do justice with the love of God” (Luke 11:42; Matthew 23:23). Founded in the Chicago area in 1961 by four lawyers who met to pray together at an American Bar Association convention in 1959, CLS is today a wholly religious not-for-profit 501(c)(3) Illinois corporation with its principal place of business now in Annandale, Virginia (a suburb of Washington, D.C.). Acting through its national staff, its member volunteers, its attorneys and the law student chapters, the society’s mission is to identify, equip and mobilize “a national grassroots network of lawyers and law students committed to proclaiming, loving and serving Jesus Christ, through all we do in the practice of law, and by advocating biblical conflict reconciliation, public justice, religious freedom and the sanctity of human life.” The Cumberland chapter is very active in many activities that serve the student body through fellowship, community service, scholastic and career development.

Cordell Hull Speakers Forum

The Cordell Hull Speakers Forum is one of the many outstanding voices on campus. It is an organization responsible for educating the student body in a variety of areas through its guest speakers. In the past, the speaker’s forum has included such renowned figures as former Presidents of the United States George Bush and Ronald Reagan, United States Supreme Court Justices Anthony Kennedy and Clarence Thomas, Attorney General Janet Reno, author John Grisham and Alabama Governor Bob Riley.

Cumberland Council for Student Athletes (C-SAR)

Cumberland Democrats

The Cumberland Democrats work to promote discussion and examination of progressive solutions to the problems that plague Alabama in an enjoyable social setting. They seek to increase discourse of political events and ideas without divisiveness. The organization is not tied to any single course of ultra-liberal or ultra-moderate advocacy but instead embraces the plethora of political thought that is common among all grassroots Democratic Party organizations.

Cumberland Health and Wellness Society

The Cumberland Health and Wellness Society provides an outlet to discuss and learn about ways to balance their professional and personal lives.

Cumberland Independents

The Cumberland Independents student group promotes discussions and examinations of the issues occuring on the national and subnational level. The organization seeks to foster genuine understanding and respect amongst people of differing political dispositions.

Cumberland Law Review

The Cumberland Law Review is the student organization responsible for publishing a traditional law review three times annually. It publishes significant articles authored by law professors, judges, attorneys and other legal scholars. The Cumberland Law Review also publishes superior student written comments and hosts a symposium in the spring. If you maintain a top fifteen percent ranking in your class, you will be invited to participate in the Cumberland Law Review candidate writing program at the end of your first year. Learn more about the Cumberland Law Review.

Cumberland Public Interest and Community Service Organization

The mission of Cumberland's Public Interest and Community Service Organization (CPICS) is to promote, encourage and organize ongoing community service and public interest projects with organizations such as Habitat for Humanity, Big Brother Big Sister, local high schools and elementary schools, Legal Aid and Legal Services, animal rescue organizations and others. By providing students opportunities to serve their campus and community, the Public Interest and Community Service Organization provides contact with public interest career opportunities for future legal professionals.

Cumberland Republicans

The Cumberland Republicans host speakers who are leaders in the local and state Republican Party. Further, the Cumberland Republicans maintain communication with the Alabama State Republican office to learn of any events or speakers coming to the Birmingham area, allowing students the opportunity to hear first-hand from Republican leaders and candidates.

Cumberland Society of the Arts

The Cumberland Society of the Arts fosters the growth and development of the arts within the context of a law school education. The group strives to embrace the balance between being a lawyer and being artistic in many ways. Membership is open to any Cumberland School of Law student with an interest in art of any kind.

Cumberland Student Animal Legal Defense Fund

The Cumberland School of Law Animal Legal Defense Fund is dedicated to providing a forum for education, advocacy and scholarship aimed at protecting the lives and advancing teh interests of animals through the legal system, and raising the profile of the field of animal law.

Environmental Law Society

The purpose of the organization is to seek better understanding of issues pertaining to both the environment and environmental law.

Federalist Society

The Cumberland School of Law chapter of the Federalist Society fosters critical thought and debate about the application of small government, decentralizing principles to the law. The society embraces the principle tha tthe state exists to preserve freedom, that the separation of governmental powers is central to the Constitution of the United States of America, and that it is emphatically the province and duty of the judiciary to say what the law is, not what it should be. The society seeks both to promote an awareness of these principles and to further their application through its activities.

Florida Student Bar Association

Membership in the Florida Student Bar Association provides a great opportunity for students to develop contacts with attorneys practicing in that state.

Georgia Student Bar Association

Membership in the Georgia Student Bar Association provides a great opportunity for students to develop contacts with attorneys practicing in that state.

Hispanic Interest Law Students Association

The purpose of the Hispanic Interest Law Students Association (HILSA) is to promote understanding and awareness of Hispanic culture and of issues facing the Hispanic and legal communities in the Birmingham area. Membership to this organization is open to all students. As the largest minority in the United States, the Hispanic community, particularly in the southeastern U.S., will need representation in all areas of law.

Honor Court

Cumberland School of Law's Honor Court is the organization tasked with enforcing the law school’s honor code. The Honor Court is made up of 16 elected justices: a chief justice (third-year student), a deputy chief justice (third-year student), four other third-year student justices, six second-year justices, and four first-year justices. The Honor Court meets on an as-needed basis when it receives reports of alleged violations of the honor code. In that same vein, the Honor Court is available to answer any questions students may have concerning the honor code or Honor Court procedure.

Intellectual Property Law Society

The Intellectual Property Law Society promotes law students' interest in intellectual property law, including patents, trademarks, copyright, IT, and trade secrets law. The organization provides and sponsors speakers, seminars, conferences, and a forum for the exchange of ideas.

Military Justice Society

Within the military justice system there exists an opportunity for attorneys to render significant service to the men and women serving or having served, in the United States Armed Forces. The purpose of the organization includes furthering the study and appreciation of military justice with an emphasis on the application of research and trial skills in the legal service to service members; to prepare interested students, mentally and physically, for the Armed Forces of the United States; and to offer students an opportunity to operate in a service capacity in efforts to benefit current and former service members.

Moot Court Board

The Henry Upson Sims Moot Court Board has actively participated in national moot court competitions, winning high national and regional honors in these events. The board is composed of junior and senior students who have demonstrated excellence in both their writing and appellate advocacy skills. New members are selected each fall and spring based on the applicant’s appellate experience, writing skills and G.P.A. The moot court competitions resemble appellate arguments with each side arguing for their client in front of three appellate judges. The moot court competitions are a great way to enhance legal arguing skills.

Native American Student Bar Association

The Native American Student Bar Association at Cumberland School of Law promotes awareness within the Cumberland community of legal, political and social issues affecting Native Americans and other indigenous peoples. The group also aims to increase the awareness of the needs of the native community as a whole.

Phi Alpha Delta

Phi Alpha Delta is the largest law fraternity with more than 200,000 members worldwide. Distinguished alumni include six presidents, two current Supreme Court justices and numerous congressional representatives. Joining Phi Alpha Delta is a great way to become part of a worldwide network of leaders. One out of every six attorneys in the United States is a member of Phi Alpha Delta.

Founded in 1902 in South Haven, Michigan, Phi Alpha Delta is composed of law students, attorneys, judges, and educators and is dedicated to promoting professional competency, service and achievement within the law profession.

On a national level, Phi Alpha Delta provides many opportunities for networking and benefits for its members. It is the only law fraternity with an online directory. It can be searched by name, state, zip code or specialty. This is a great tool for networking within the fraternity. Phi Alpha Delta also offers benefits such as discounted auto insurance and car rentals and provides five service scholarships annually based on outstanding service.

On a local level, Phi Alpha Delta is a great way to get involved at Cumberland School of Law. There are opportunities in the area of both service and social activities with other law students.

Sports and Entertainment Law Society

The Sports and Entertainment Law Society is comprised of students interested in the fields of sports and entertainment law. It is committed to promoting awareness and support of those pursuing careers in these areas.

Student Bar Association

Cumberland School of Law's Student Bar Association (SBA) works as the umbrella organization for the various student organizations active on campus, providing a form of government for the supervision of student activities and concerns. It also provides a forum for the expression of student views and interests, as well as encouraging broad participation. It creates, promotes and preserves student honor, academic responsibility and student rights; improves and promotes the students’ social and physical welfare and intellectual development; and fosters the recognition of the ethical principles and responsibilities of students to their profession, community, nation and humanity.

Student Healthcare Lawyers Association

This organization is the school chapter associated with American Health Lawyers Association, the nation’s largest nonpartisan educational organization devoted to legal issues in the healthcare field. Health Lawyers provide in-person and distance learning educational programs; an annual conference; public interest colloquiums, briefings and teleconferences; and books, practice guides, monographs and publications, as well as practice groups that focus on specific areas of health law or special employment settings.

Tennessee Student Bar Association

The primary purpose of the Tennessee Student Bar Association is to serve as a resource for students to meet and get to know one another in the law school environment. The majority of the association consists of Tennessee residents who are attending the Cumberland School of Law and would like to return to Tennessee to practice law. Nevertheless, the Tennessee Student Bar Association is open to residents of all states who either want to learn more about Tennessee or possibly want to practice there. The Tennessee Student Bar Association would like to serve as a networking resource for those looking to find summer clerkships and post-graduation employment in Tennessee. Cumberland School of Law has a broad network of alumni groups in East, Middle, and West Tennessee, and in the past, the Tennessee Student Bar Association has taken steps to continue contact with those groups.

Thomas More Society

Thomas More Society is an organization based in Catholicism, Legal Reasoning, and Ethics in the Law. The organization operates to stimulate interest in the moral and ethical responsibilities of the legal profession, to facilitate an academic approach to the law through writings of Thomas More, to form a community that breeds growth and learning as Catholic pre-professionals in the legal field, and to form relationships with professionals and mentors that embody the qualities of Thomas More.

Transactional Law Advocacy Organization

Cumberland School of Law's Transactional Law Advocacy Organization advocates for students and student interests of those who wish to pursue a career in the field of transactional law.

Trial Advocacy Board

Cumberland's Trial Advocacy Board is dedicated to educating and training law students to become competent, aggressive and ethical trial attorneys. Cumberland School of Law’s clinical program is nationally recognized. The trial board sponsors mock trial competitions each semester in which students compete in various mock trials that resemble real federal trials judged by experienced student advocates, attorneys and judges. The trial board encourages freshmen to participate as witnesses during their first semester and in the freshman competition the second semester. In addition, the board sponsors negotiation, mediation and client counseling competitions.

Women in Law

The Cumberland School of Law chapter of Women in Law is a source of support, information and networking opportunities for current female law students. The organization strives to create an environment where an informed dialogue on issues of women, law and society is encouraged and analyzed and to increase the community’s awareness of legal, political and social issues, emphasizing women’s perspectives. Women in Law strives to educate the community regarding gender issues by encouraging a broad-based exchange of ideas. In addition, the organization serves to support, inspire and encourage legal work affecting, advancing or impacting women. Members assist the law school in recruiting female law students and keeping meaningful lines of communication open between female students and the law school administration, faculty and students.

Volunteers for Income Tax Assistance (VITA)

Alabama Bench and Bar

Alabama Defense Lawyers Association

The Cumberland School of Law student section of the Alabama Defense Lawyers Association (ADLA) began as a way to provide students with a truly professional organization similar to its counterpart, the ADLA, which is the largest specialty legal organization within the Alabama State Bar Association. Cumberland ADLA’s purpose is to promote awareness, fellowship, and professional development among law students who have an interest in dedicating themselves to the defense of civil actions and the promotion of fairness and integrity in the civil justice system.

Literally every civil defense firm in Birmingham, as well as hundreds of other civil defense firms from around the state comprises the membership of the ADLA. As a member of the Cumberland ADLA, you will have an opportunity to learn more about the type of work that these defense firms perform. You will also have an opportunity to meet members of these firms at conferences and conventions you will be eligible to attend as a student member. Membership is open to any interested Cumberland School of Law student or faculty member.

Asian Law Student Association

Association of Trial Lawyers

Business & Transactional Law

Cumberland International Law Students Association (CILSA)

Catholic Law Student Association

Cumberland Libertarian Society

Cumberland Second Amendment Appreciation Society

The mission of Cumberland Second Amendment Appreciation Society (CSAAS) is to demonstrate an appreciation for the second amendment of the Constitution of the United States by providing a forum for the non-partisan discussion of second amendment issues, the provision of information pertaining to the rights and liberties granted by the second amendment and the safe exercise of the rights the second amendment renders to all American citizens.

Cumberland Softball Club

The softball club is an organization of sportsmanship, integrity, honor and respect. One of the main objectives is to send team(s) to the National Law School Softball Tournament in Charlottesville, Virginia, each year.

Cumberland Swim Club

Cumberland Wildlife Society

Defense Research Institute—The Voice of the Defense Bar

Defense Research Institute (DRI)—The Voice of the Defense Bar is an international membership association of lawyers engaged in the defense of civil actions. DRI provides professional information to its members through continuing legal education, publications and other member services. It is also a forum for exchanging ideas on current issues of importance to defense lawyers, corporations and insurance companies.

Jewish Law Students Association

Joint Degree Students of Cumberland

Law, Science & Technology Society

The objectives of this society are to raise awareness of intellectual property–related legal issues; to generate student interest in intellectual property law; to facilitate an ongoing dialogue regarding intellectual property law and related legal issues; and to act as a representative between students interested in intellectual property law and professionals practicing in the field of intellectual property law.

Media & Law Practice Group

Nathaniel Green Debate Society

Pro Confesso

Transition and Welcome Society

The purpose of the Transition and Welcome Society is to help transfer and visiting students acclimate to the Cumberland School of Law community, discuss common challenges and provide support where possible.

Mississippi Student Bar Association

North Carolina Student Bar Association

Texas Student Bar Association

Virginia Student Bar Association

Phi Delta Phi

If a law student would like to start a new organization, he/she is welcome to. There are some steps required for an organization to be recognized such as having an organization constitution. To establish a new organization, it is best to first schedule a meeting with Tona Hitson, director of Student Services. You may contact her by emailing tlhitson@samford.edu.

The mission of Campus Recreation is to provide recreational programs and outdoor adventure activities that will enhance students’ social, spiritual, emotional, intellectual, physical and vocational needs. Students have access to Seibert Gym, Bashinsky Field House, Hanna Fitness Center, outdoor complex, fitness programs, club sports, tennis complex and outdoor climbing area.

Intramurals

Whether you are a top-level student-athlete or just like to have fun, Samford has an intramural event designed for you. Students can play in leagues and tournaments for men’s, women’s and corecreational teams. Championship teams receive T-shirts and are eligible to participate in extramural events around the country.

• Flag football
• Volleyball
• Basketball
• Softball
• Dodgeball
• Soccer
• Ultimate Frisbee
• Tennis
• Texas Hold ’em
• Billiards
• Table tennis
• Racquetball
• Bowling