BBA News & Updates

Celebrating a successful 2025

The year 2025 came to a close for the Birmingham Bar Association, Birmingham Bar Foundation, Volunteer Lawyers Birmingham, and the Legal Aid Society of Birmingham with their joint annual Membership Meeting (please review the BBA's 2025 Annual Report below). The event showcased several notable highlights, which include:

• The Birmingham Bar Association honored Leslie Barineau with the Lifetime Achievement Award and Nicole E. King with the L. Burton Barnes III Public Service Award.
• The Legal Aid Society’s Flame of Justice Award was bestowed upon to Alice Westery, Executive Director and Founder of Youth Towers.
• Andrew Nix, the Bar Association’s Election Official, revealed the winners of the Executive Committee election.
• We honored the memories of those Birmingham Bar Association members who passed in 2025.
• We celebrated the attorneys who have been Birmingham Bar Association members for 50 years.
• Fred Helmsing, Alabama State Bar President, delivered remarks about the initiatives that ASB has implemented.
• We heard a recap of 2025 from Outgoing President Bob Battle and a preview of 2026 from Incoming President Rebecca Beers.
• The presidents of the Birmingham Bar Association, the Birmingham Bar Foundation, and Volunteer Lawyers Birmingham each passed the gavel to their incoming presidents.

Please plan to join us on Friday, December 11, 2026, to celebrate what we promise will be a great 2026!

2025 Birmingham Bar Association's Annual Report: view document

Congratulations to the Nominees!

  2026 Birmingham Bar Association Executive Committee Slate

*Click here to view the slate and the candidates' bios.*

Online voting will be open to Regular Active members and Government/Non-Profit members from Thursday, December 4, 2025, at 12:00 pm through Thursday, December 11, 2025, at 5:00 pm.

To vote on-line during the designated period, please visit birminghambar.org and click "Member Login" at the top right corner.

Vote now -- HERE!

Per the BBA By-Laws, Honorary, Associate, and Law Student members are not eligible to vote - all other members are eligible to vote.

Election results will be announced at BBA's Annual Meeting on Friday, December 12, 2025, at 4:00 pm. The Agenda for this year's Annual Meeting will be available soon.

The End-of-Year Party will be from 5:00 to 8:00 pm on Friday, December 12, at the Holy Trinity + Holy Cross Greek Orthodox Cathedral (307 19th Street South, Birmingham, Alabama 35233).

We look forward to seeing you at both events!

Dear BBA Members,

We are excited to share with you on the following pages the Birmingham Bar Association’s 2025-2030 Strategic Plan Summary and Comprehensive Guide. The Strategic Plan updates the BBA’s Mission, Vision, and Purpose statements to better reflect our values and goals. It also provides the BBA’s Executive Committee and its Sections and Committees a road map for the coming years. The objectives of the Strategic Plan include growing membership by offering high-quality programming and improved services and benefits to our members, as well as attracting and keeping young lawyers engaged while assisting senior lawyers with succession planning.

We believe that it is important for the BBA to be the “home court” for all Birmingham lawyers, that it should leverage technology, encourage diversity and inclusion, and offer more community service opportunities to better serve the needs of its members and the greater Birmingham community. We think the Strategic Plan will allow the BBA to accomplish these goals in practical and realistic ways and allow the BBA to work even more closely with its sister organizations, the Birmingham Bar Foundation, Legal Aid Society of Birmingham, and Volunteer Lawyers Birmingham..

Finally, we want to thank the Strategic Planning Committee for their dedication and tireless efforts in developing the plan this year. Committee members included Bill Athanas, Melody Eagan, Ben Goldman, Tina Lam, Manning Russell, John Saxon, Al Vance, and Leila Watson.

We hope you will take some time to read the Strategic Planning documents and provide us with any feedback or ideas you may have to help the BBA accomplish its mission of better serving its members.

Very truly yours,

Sharon D. Stuart
2024 President, Birmingham Bar Association

Robert E. Battle
2025 President, Birmingham Bar Association

View the 2024 Annual Report and 2025-2030 Strategic Plan (here)