Posted by Mary Wimberley on 2009-03-30

Birmingham attorney J. Mark White was named 2009 Distinguished Alumnus of Samford University's Cumberland School of Law Friday (March 27).

White, a 1974 graduate of the law school, received the award at Cumberland's National Alumni Association dinner at Ross Bridge Golf Resort and Spa. He has served as 2007-09 president of the national alumni group.

Founder of the Birmingham law firm of White, Dunn & Booker, now White Arnold & Dowd, P.C., White is president of the Alabama State Bar Association. He is a past president of the Birmingham Bar Association and a member of the Cumberland School of Law Advisory Board.

White has been chair of Alabama Supreme Court committees on judicial canons & ethics and judicial campaign oversight, co-chair of a national committee on judicial campaign conduct, and a member of the Judicial Inquiry Commission for the State of Alabama.

Also during the dinner, Birmingham attorney Lenora Pate was introduced as incoming president of the 7,200-member Cumberland National Alumni Association for 2009-2011. A 1985 law graduate, Pate is a member of the Sirote & Permutt law firm.

The dinner was one of several events held during Cumberland's annual Alumni Weekend.

 
Located in the Homewood suburb of Birmingham, Alabama, Samford is a leading Christian university offering undergraduate programs grounded in the liberal arts with an array of nationally recognized graduate and professional schools. Founded in 1841, Samford is the 87th-oldest institution of higher learning in the United States. Samford enrolls 6,101 students from 45 states, Puerto Rico and 16 countries in its 10 academic schools: arts, arts and sciences, business, divinity, education, health professions, law, nursing, pharmacy and public health. Samford fields 17 athletic teams that compete in the tradition-rich Southern Conference and ranks with the second highest score in the nation for its 98% Graduation Success Rate among all NCAA Division I schools.