Law Professor Elected to Prestigious National Legal Association

A School of Law professor was elected into the most prestigious professional organization in the legal profession, the American Law Institute (ALI).

Ann Graham, a law professor specializing in banking and commercial law, joins seven other Texas Tech law professors including Dean Walter Huffman, Marilyn Phelan, Bill Casto, Susan Fortney, Jennifer Bard, Brian Shannon and Bryan Camp as elected members of ALI.

"It is a testimony to the strength of our law faculty that with Professor Graham's election we now have seven members of this prestigious organization at Texas Tech Law," Huffman said.

Graham's background in banking and commercial law includes both state and local government service as well as major private law firm experience. State and federal lobbying for financial institutions and legislative drafting have been a significant part of her legal practice. Graham served on the board of directors of the Texas Association of Bank Counsel and as general counsel to the Texas Banking Department and Regional Counsel for FDIC.

Graham's teaching experience includes the University of Texas School of Law, St. Edward's University’s MBA program, the MBA program administered jointly by Sul Ross State University and La Universidad Autonomo de Chihuahua in Chihuahua, Mexico, and at International Black Sea University, Tblisi, Georgia.

As a trained mediator, Graham served as president of the board of directors for the Travis County Dispute Resolution Center.

The elite membership of ALI is selected from judges, lawyers and law teachers in the United States and many foreign countries on the basis of professional achievement and demonstrated interest in improving the law. ALI membership is limited to 3,000 or just three-tenths of a percent of the more than 1.1 million lawyers in practice in the United States – making election to membership a distinct professional honor.

ALI was founded in 1923 by a group of prominent American judges, lawyers and law teachers to address the uncertainty and complexity of early 20th-century American Law. Since that time ALI has devoted itself to improving the law and the administration of justice in a scholarly and scientific manner.