Two rooms well-used by students at Samford University’s Cumberland School of Law have been named to honor two respected faculty members.
The naming of the John L. Carroll Moot Courtroom and T. Brad Bishop Conference Room, both in Memory Leake Robinson Hall, was announced during Cumberland reunion weekend activities Friday, March 25.
The new name for the 189-seat moot courtroom coincides with Carroll’s 10th anniversary as dean of the law school. The designation honors a request from law school benefactors Bettye and Cecil Cheves of Columbus, Ga., whose 2002 gift allowed for a complete renovation of the moot courtroom and continued incorporation of state-of-the-art technology. The room is the site of classes, trial practices and competitions, special lectures and other events.
Cheves and Carroll, both 1974 Cumberland graduates, were law school friends and moot court competition participants, even one year alternating top honors. Carroll won the spring, 1972 rounds of the Gordon T. Saad Moot Court Competition in the same courtroom that now bears his name. Cheves placed first in the event the following fall.
The naming underscores Cheves’ appreciation for Carroll’s leadership of the law school, where he is also Ethel P. Malugen Professor of Law, and his involvement as a student. Immediately prior to joining the Cumberland faculty, Carroll was a U.S. magistrate judge in the Middle District of Alabama for 14 years.
Bishop, whose gifts to the law school prompted the naming recommendation, has taught at Cumberland since graduating from the law school in 1971. He was honored as 2011 Distinguished Alumnus of the Year.
The Bishop Conference Room, formerly known as the dean’s conference room, is the site of meetings, special luncheons, mediation classes and sessions, and other events. It contains photos of all former Cumberland deans, including Bishop, who was interim dean during 1984-85.
The naming of both spaces was approved by the Samford Board of Trustees at a meeting of the executive committee on March 22.