Alabama lawyer William T. Coplin, Jr. will be honored with the 2022 Outstanding State Chair Award from the Fellows of the American Bar Foundation (ABF). Coplin will receive the award during the 66th Annual Fellows Awards Banquet, an event which will be held on February 15, 2022. The Outstanding State Chair Award is given annually to an ABF Fellows State Chair who has demonstrated dedication to the work of the ABF and the mission of the Fellows through exceptional efforts on behalf of the Fellows at the state level. Coplin is the Fellows chair for the State of Alabama, having been elected in 2015.
“William has dedicated his life serving the public and legal profession,” said Cynthia E. Nance, Chair of the Fellows and a current Patron Fellow . “He exemplifies the very best of what it means to be a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation and demonstrates to all the principles upon which this organization was founded.”
“Thank you to the Fellows of the ABF for this recognition,” Coplin said. “Being a Fellow is something special, and this group of talented lawyers continues to be a backbone to the vital mission of the ABF. With Fellows support, the forward-thinking and comprehensive research the ABF takes part in can help shape our society and legal institutions.”
A Benefactor Fellow of the American Bar Foundation and a member of the Atticus Finch Society of the Alabama Bar Foundation, Mr. Coplin served as municipal judge for the Cities of Demopolis and Faunsdale, as Assistant District Attorney for the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit of Alabama and as City Attorney for the Town of Myrtlewood. From 1997 through 2015, he represented Alabama lawyers in the House of Delegates of the American Bar Association. He is admitted to practice before the U. S. Supreme Court, the Alabama Supreme Court, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, and the Northern, Middle and Southern Districts of Alabama.
Mr. Coplin’s additional service includes President of the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit Bar Association, President of the Demopolis Area Chamber of Commerce and President of the Marengo County Historical Society. In 2012 he was appointed for a three-year term on the Board of Governors of the American Bar Association, representing District 5, which is composed of lawyers in Alabama, North Carolina and Kentucky.
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About the American Bar Foundation
The American Bar Foundation (ABF) is the world’s leading research institute for the empirical and interdisciplinary study of law. The ABF seeks to expand knowledge and advance justice through innovative, interdisciplinary, and rigorous empirical research on law, legal processes, and legal institutions. To further this mission the ABF will produce timely, cutting-edge research of the highest quality to inform and guide the legal profession, the academy, and society in the United States and internationally. The ABF’s primary funding is provided by the American Bar Endowment and the Fellows of The American Bar Foundation.