Throughout the holiday season, Christian & Small will feature a special blog series here on Nonstop Insights called “Advocates in Our Community” that will be focused on how our attorneys and staff members actively contribute to the good of the Birmingham community outside of the office.
When Christian & Small Partner Jeremy Carlson left the public education system several years ago to attend law school, he always hoped to have the opportunity to teach again. And because our firm encourages its attorneys to be active in the community, he has recently had that opportunity.
For the last two semesters, Jeremy has been an adjunct professor at the University of Montevallo (UM) – a campus that is near the area of Birmingham where he grew up and where he himself was enrolled in classes earlier in his academic career. He thinks the school fills an important niche for the state being the only public liberal arts university in Alabama and offers an experience that is ideally suited for so many students who want a liberal arts education at a more affordable cost.
Jeremy teaches a Business Law class, “The Legal Environment of Business.” It’s valuable to many undergraduate business students and focuses on how business and economic life are shaped and directed by government, including the U.S. Constitution, federal and state legislation, federal regulatory agencies and leading federal and state court decisions.
While Jeremy loves the law, at heart he says he is a teacher. He enjoys interacting with students, communicating ideas and facilitating learning.
“Teaching is actually similar to practicing law in many ways, and I think being a teacher has made me a better lawyer,” Jeremy said. “It takes you out from behind a desk and puts you on your feet, having to think, question and interact in real time.” Jeremy’s favorite part of teaching is that it forces him to take complex, difficult, broad concepts and condense them into easily intelligible pieces of information that students can understand.
Several other Christian & Small attorneys have supported Jeremy in his teaching engagement at UM by serving as guest lecturers. “Our attorneys are excellent in their fields, and they have been willing to speak about their experience,” Jeremy said. Dan Sparks spoke on bankruptcy law, Richie Thayer spoke on corporate formation and corporate litigation, Jon Macklem spoke on white collar crime and David Walston spoke on employment law.
The firm is proud to support Jeremy as he steps out of his office to be an advocate for our community, and we appreciate our other attorneys who are supporting him in his endeavors.