Julian L. McPhillips

Admissions

• New York, 1972
• U.S. Court of Appeals, 2nd Circuit, 1975
• Alabama, 1975
• Supreme Court of Alabama, 1975
• U.S. District Court, Middle District of Alabama, 1976
• U.S. Supreme Court, 1976
• U.S. Court of Appeals, 5th Circuit, 1982
• U.S. Court of Appeals, 11th Circuit, 1982

Career Highlights

• Senior Partner, President and Founding Attorney, McPhillips Shinbaum, LLP and predecessor firms, 1978–2014
• Assistant Attorney General, State of Alabama, 1975–1977
• Chief Counsel, Alabama Securities Commission, Alabama Banking Department, 1975–1977
• Associate Counsel, American Express Company, 1973–1975
• Associate Attorney, Davis, Polk & Wardwell, 1971–1973

Professional Affiliations and Memberships

• American Association of Justice, 1979–2014
• Alabama Association for Justice, 1979–2014
• American Bar Association, 1972–2014
• Alabama Bar Association, 1975–2014
• Montgomery County Bar Association, 1975–2014
• Montgomery County Trial Lawyers Association, 1980–2014
• Alabama Criminal Defense Lawyers Association, 1980–2014
• Association of the Bar of the City of New York, 1972–2014
• Ordained minister, Global Evangelical Christian College Seminary & Accrediting Commission, January 2005

Civic Affiliations

• Co-founder, former senior warden and member, Christ the Redeemer Episcopal Church, 1981–2014
• Member, Holy Spirit Anglican Church, 2007–2010
• Co-founder, president, and board chairman, Scott & Zelda Fitzgerald Museum, 1987
• Board member, Alabama World Affairs Council, 1979–2009
• Member, Board of Visitors, St. James School, Montgomery, Alabama, 2005–2011
• Co-founder, president, and board chair, McPhillips International Center for Religious and Racial Reconciliation
• National board member, Anglicans for Life
• State board member, Alabama Lawyers for Life
• The Auburn Black Caucus

Public Distinctions

In an Associated Press feature story in state-wide newspapers in 1983, McPhillips was referred to as the “Public Watchdog of Alabama” and a 1984 Montgomery Advertiser column named McPhillips as the “Private Attorney General of Alabama.” In the 1997 Montgomery Advertiser “Reader’s Choice Award,” McPhillips was voted by Montgomery Advertiser readers as “Best Attorney in Montgomery.” McPhillips is the subject of a book first published in 2000 and republished in 2005 entitled “The People’s Lawyer: The Colorful Life and Times of Julian L. McPhillips, Jr.” (NewSouth Books).

Honors and Awards

• Alabama State Conference NAACP Attorney of the Year Award, 2011
• Candidate, Alabama Attorney General, 1978 (finished second in a nine-candidate race)
• Candidate, U.S. Senate, 2002 (made Democratic Primary runoff, but lost)
• Twice-elected delegate to Democratic National Convention (1980, 2000)
• Winner, 1985 Communication & Leadership Award, Toastmasters International
• Leadership Award, Southern Christian Leadership Conference, 2000
• Legacy of the Dreamer Award, Southern Christian Leadership Conference, 2001
• Martin Luther King, Jr.  Social Consciousness Award, Southern Christian Leadership Conference, 2003
• Humanitarian Award, Southern Christian Leadership Conference, 2005 (presented jointly to Julian and Leslie McPhillips)
• Humanitarian Award, Alabama State Association of Elks, 2008
• Individual Community Leader Award, Alabama Citizens for Life, 2008
• Wrestling awards
  • All-American collegiate wrestler at Princeton University, 1967
  • Two-time Eastern AAU heavyweight wrestling champion (1971, 1973)
  • Finalist, 220 lb. class, 1972 Summer Olympics tryouts

Publications

• Author, “From Vacillation to Resolve:  The Role of French Communist Party in the Resistance Movement Against the Nazis, 1939–45” (unpublished thesis, Princeton University,1968)
• Co-author, “The People’s Lawyer:  The Colorful Life and Times of Julian L. McPhillips, Jr.,” 2nd ed., NewSouth Books, 2005
• Author, “History of Christ the Redeemer Episcopal Church”, NewSouth Books, 2005