Please join us, Thursday Oct. 19th from 2:00-4:00pm in the Jefferson County Public Defender’s Training Room – 950 22nd Street North, Suite 1000, Birmingham, Alabama. We will have 2 hours of CLE credit (pending Bar Approval) on the issues listed below. FREE for members and $25 to join/get free CLEs.
Schedule:
2-3pm: “Navigating the Landscape of Mental Health Court & Forensic Evaluation”
- Speakers
- The Honorable Stephen Wallace, Circuit Court & Mental Health Court Judge*
- Staff of the Jefferson County Mental Health Court Program
- Materials – Presentation slides
3-4pm: “What’s the Cost? Mitigating the Costly Effects of Criminal Convictions.”
- Speaker:
- Ms. Leah Nelson, Research Director, Alabama Appleseed*
- Materials – Fines and Fees handout & Presentation slides
Bios:
Judge Stephen Wallace is a native of Birmingham, Alabama and received his B.S. Degree from Birmingham-Southern College. He earned his law degree from the University of Alabama School of Law.
For nearly ten years, he practiced law with Dawson & Wallace, specializing in criminal, civil rights, and employment cases. He tried multiple civil and criminal jury trials. Wallace also served as a specially assigned court prosecutor.
In 2010, he was elected to serve as a circuit court criminal Judge in Jefferson County. As part of his duties, he also presides over the newly reinstated mental health court. This court established a specialized case management team and diversion program to assist defendants and connect them with mental health and substance abuse treatment. In 2016, Judge Wallace was re-elected without opposition.
Wallace is a member of the Birmingham Bar Association. He is a 2018 graduate of Leadership Birmingham. He also serves as President of The Historic Young Men’s Business Club (YMBC). Finally, he regularly volunteers his time at the Project Homeless event at Boutwell Auditorium.
Stephen and his wife, Paige, have two boys.
Leah Nelson serves as Research Director at Alabama Appleseed, where she coordinates and conducts original research into drivers of poverty and incarceration in Alabama. She is Appleseed’s principal expert on the collateral consequences of fines, fees, and other legal financial obligations and leads our effort to end revocation of drivers’ licenses for reasons unrelated to dangerous driving.
Leah brings expertise in civil asset forfeiture, drug policy and drivers of incarceration to Appleseed’s reform agenda.
Prior to joining Alabama Appleseed, Leah spent five years in the Capital Habeas Unit of the Middle District of Alabama Federal Defenders, supporting the appeals of death-sentenced individuals seeking new trials. Before that, she worked as a reporting fellow at the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Leah is a 2006 graduate of Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism, and a 2002 graduate of the University of Connecticut.