The legal system is predicated on a hermetically sealed simulacrum of reality. Jurors don’t see the whole picture, but what lawyers and judges tell them are the “facts.” Within this carefully constructed world, parties play by certain rules about what can and cannot end up on the record in a bid to ensure that the jurors only know what they’re supposed to.
The court of public opinion, on the other hand, doesn’t behave by these rules, something Alabama Law School doesn’t seem to understand.
Earlier this year, Alabama gave up over $20 million from attorney Hugh Culverhouse Jr., for whom the school was briefly named, in a spat that might have stemmed from the state government’s commitment to unconstitutional stunt legislation but probably had more to do with Culverhouse hoping the school would use his money to build a better law school instead of… whatever it was doing with it. Culverhouse called on students to boycott the school and the school released a series of emails that they seemed to think would make Culverhouse look bad but really just made them look dumb.
Now, with the money refunded, the name stripped off, and everything settled, the parties released a joint statement announcing that they agree to disagree about the future of the school:
All other statements made by either party regarding the decision to return Hugh Culverhouse Jr.’s donations, or the removal of Hugh Culverhouse Jr.’s name from The University of Alabama School of Law are hereby withdrawn.
That’s not how this works! There’s no court reporter striking comments from the record — this all happened! Right in front of us! It’s perfectly fine to say we’ve come to an agreement and this is now our official line, but there are no permanent take-backsies here in the real world.
Forget What We Said: Hugh Culverhouse Jr., University of Alabama Settle Feud [Daily Business Review]
Donor Tells Students Not To Go To Law School Bearing His Name
Alabama Releases Emails Proving Law School Donor Split Had Nothing To Do With Abortion… And Yet Somehow Make Alabama Look Worse
Alabama Law School Gives Up Over $20 Million To Own The Libs
Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.