About

 

About Alabama Appellate Watch

Alabama Appellate Watch is a web blog devoted to Alabama civil appellate issues. This site was created and is maintained by the Birmingham, Alabama law firm of Lightfoot, Franklin & White, L.L.C. 
 


About the Authors

Ivan B. Cooper
 

                                  

After practicing in Tuscaloosa, Alabama and Dallas, Texas, Ivan Cooper joined the firm in 1997.  His practice is focused primarily on written and appellate advocacy in both state and federal courts.  Ivan is admitted to practice in Alabama and Texas, as well as the United States Supreme Court, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, and the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Ivan is often retained post-verdict to handle post-trial motions and appeals in cases handled at the trial level by other firms.  He is a member of several appellate organizations, including the Council of Appellate Lawyers, the Appellate Practice Section of the American Bar Association, the Appellate Advocacy Committee of the Defense Research Institute, and the Alabama State Bar Appellate Practice Section.  Ivan was appointed to the Task Force to form the Appellate Practice Section of the Alabama State Bar, and has been elected to the positions of Secretary, Vice-Chair, and Chair of the Appellate Practice Section of the Alabama State Bar.  He also served on the Planning Committee for the inaugural Eleventh Circuit Appellate Practice Institute.   He can be reached at [email protected]

Areas of Practice:

  • Appellate

Education:

  • J.D., Vanderbilt University Law School, 1994.
  • B.S., University of Alabama, 1991, magna cum laude.

Bar Admissions:

  • Texas, 1996
  • Alabama, 1994

Madeline H. Haikala

Madeline helps clients obtain relief from adverse judgments, particularly multi-million dollar damages awards. After practicing general commercial litigation for a number of years, Madeline helped the firm develop its specialization in post-trial and appellate work. Convinced that appellate success lies in the details of a case, Madeline works to master a trial record quickly so that she may work with her client and with trial counsel to identify, shape and creatively argue the issues that an appellate court will find most persuasive. Madeline also knows that significant verdicts may impact a company in various ways, so she strives to work with clients to achieve the result best-suited to their circumstances.

Madeline taught Appellate Advocacy as an adjunct professor at Samford University’s Cumberland School of Law for ten years, and she is a contributing author to Lawyer’s Cooperative’s Eleventh Circuit Appellate Practice Guide. Madeline graduated magna cum laude from Tulane Law School in 1989 where she was named to the Order of the Coif. Madeline earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from Williams College in 1986.

When she is not practicing law, Madeline pursues her interest in education. She has tutored in the Birmingham City Schools for many years. She is a member of the Board of Trustees for Highlands School, an independent elementary school, and she serves on the Women’s Committee for Cornerstone Schools of Alabama, a private elementary school that offers Birmingham’s inner-city students an alternative to public school and is funded almost entirely by community donations. Madeline’s favorite teachers are her four children.  She can be reached at [email protected].
 

Areas of Practice:

  • Appellate

Education:

  • J.D., Tulane University School of Law, 1989, magna cum laude.
  • B.A., William College, 1986.

Admissions:

  • Alabama, 1989

Nikaa Jordan

Nikaa's practice is devoted to brief-writing at all phases of litigation. The focus of her trial-level work is the exclusion of expert testimony and complex dispositive motions. Nikaa has written briefs in support of excluding a host of expert witnesses, including physicians, toxicologists, economists, and alternative design theorists. Her case-dispositive practice raises a host of issues under state and federal law for a broad spectrum of clients. Her work in this regard has ranged from cases alleging simple claims of fraud to class actions based on antitrust law.

Nikaa's post-trial and appellate work has likewise touched upon a range of issues--including bad-faith, ERISA, toxic torts, and products liability. She also has significant experience in procedural motion practice before federal appellate courts. Nikaa is a member of several appellate organizations and recently served as the Secretary of the Appellate Section of the Alabama State Bar.

Nikaa received her law degree magna cum laude from the University of Alabama School of Law in 2000, where she was a Hugo Black Scholar, a member of Order of the Coif, a recipient of the Dean's Award for Service, and a member of the managing board of the Alabama Law Review.  She received her undergraduate degree summa cum laude in 1996 from Auburn University where she was elected to Phi Kappa Phi.  She can be reached at [email protected].

Areas of Practice:

  • Appellate
  • Business Litigation

Education:

  • J.D., University of Alabama School of Law, 2000, magna cum laude.
  • B.S., Auburn University, 1996, summa cum laude.

Bar Admissions:

  • Alabama, 2000

M. Christian King

Mr. King was one of the founding partners of the firm in 1990.  He has been a member of the Alabama Bar and admitted to practice in all Alabama federal courts since 1982.  He is also admitted in the Fifth and Eleventh Circuit Courts of Appeals.

Mr. King focuses his practice on handling high stakes litigation, often involving class action allegations or significant punitive damages claims, at both the trial and appellate levels.  He has handled high exposure cases throughout the Southeast, and has tried a number of them to verdict.  In addition, Mr. King is often retained post-verdict to handle post-trial motions and appeals in cases he did not try.  Through this work, he has gained extensive experience with Alabama's unique procedures dealing with the post-trial and appellate review of punitive damage awards.  Mr. King has presented oral argument in the Alabama Supreme Court in numerous cases, including the appeal of the largest judgment in Alabama history, and has also presented a number of arguments in the Fifth and Eleventh Circuit Courts of Appeals.  Mr. King is a member of the Adjunct Faculty at The University of Alabama School of Law, and teaches a course on Appellate Advocacy each Fall semester.  He also lectures frequently at CLE events on punitive damages and related issues.

Mr. King is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, and a member of the Alabama Defense Lawyers Association, the Defense Research Institute, and the International Association of Defense Counsel.  He has been listed, for years, in The Best Lawyers in America in the Business Litigation category, and is also listed in that book's new Bet the Company Litigation category.  In addition, he has been listed in the Alabama Super Lawyers magazine from its inception, having been listed as one of Alabama's Top Fifty in the inaugural edition.

Mr. King is the son of an outstanding Mississippi trial lawyer, is married to the daughter of an outstanding Alabama trial lawyer, and is the proud father of four sons.  He can be reached at [email protected].

Areas of Practice:

  • Appellate
  • Consumer Fraud and Bad Faith
  • Business Litigation
  • Software and Technology Litigation
  • Class Actions
  • Environmental and Toxic Torts

Education:

  • J.D., University of Virginia School of Law, 1982.
  • B.A., Rhodes College, 1979, with distinction.

Bar Admissions:

  • Alabama, 1982

Craig N. Rosler

Mr. Rosler's practice focuses exclusively on brief-writing, both for post-trial and appellate work, as well as in support of trial. His trial work centers on case-dispositive practice and the exclusion of expert testimony. In the latter area he has dealt with testimony ranging from alternative product designs, to toxicological and epidemiological analyses, to economic modeling.

Mr. Rosler telecommutes from Atlanta, Georgia. In his personal time, he uses his legal experience in the service of animal rights and welfare.

Mr. Rosler received his undergraduate degree cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania in 1991. He received his law degree, with honors, from Duke University School of Law in 1995. He can be reached at [email protected].



Areas of Practice:

  • Appellate
  • Class Actions
  • Consumer Fraud and Bad Faith
  • Product Liability

Education:

  • J.D., Duke University School of Law, 1995, with honors.
  • B.A., University of Pennsylvania, 1991, cum laude. Honors program in major.

Bar Admissions:

  • Alabama, 1998
  • Georgia, 1995

About Lightfoot, Franklin & White, L.L.C

Lightfoot, Franklin & White is one of the largest litigation-only law firms in the Southeast. Representing many of the world's leading corporations in such varied industries as financial services, manufacturing, energy and communications, our sixty-one lawyers bring a wealth of trial and appellate exerience to bear. Lightfoot, Franklin & White: When it matters.

For more information, visit www.lightfootlaw.com.