REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON LEGAL EDUCATION AND ADMISSION TO THE BAR.

BY ISAAC R. HINTON, Chairman.

Your Committee on Legal Education and Admission to the Bar, begs to submit the following report:

1. That the applicant for license to practice law shall be possessed of a good moral character, which shall be ascertained and determined by the Examining Board.

2. That all examinations for license shall be in writing.

3.

The applicant when applying for examination for licenses, shall be possessed of at least a good high school education, which shall be determined by the Examining Board.

4. That said applicant shall be possessed of sufficient legal information to enable him or her, to satisfactorily stand an examination on all subjects as now required by the Code of Alabama.

NECROLOGY OF THE ALABAMA STATE BAR
ASSOCIATION, 1912-1913.

BY THOMAS M. OWEN.

JUDGE ROBERT TENNENT SIMPSON, late one of the associate justices of the Supreme Court of Alabama, is the only member lost to the Association by death during the year 1912

1913.

Judge Simpson was born June 5, 1837, at Florence, and is the son of John Simpson, a native of County Tyrone, Ireland, who came to Lauderdale County, in 1818, and wife Margaret, daughter of William Patton and Miss Tennent, both of Belfast, Ireland. The Simpson and Patton families are Scotch-Irish.

Judge Simpson received his early education in the schools of Florence; graduated from Princeton College in 1857 with the degree of A. B., and received from his Alma Mater, in 1887, the honorary degree of A. M. He graduated in 1859 from the law department of the Cumberland University with the degree of LL. B. and went to Des Arc, Ark., for a location. After 1865 he practicd law in Camden, Ala., for some years, thence returned to Florence where he resided in the practice of his profession until his death.

In April, 1861, soon after the beginning of hostilities, he enlisted in the Fourth Alabama Infantry Regiment; was commissioned second lieutenant, First Alabama Battalion of Artillery, September, 1861, in which he was later promoted first lieutenant; adjutant of post at Fort Morgan; adjutant general of Liddell's brigade, captain in Sixty-third Alabama Infantry Regiment; and captured with the last named command at Blakeley, April 9, 1865. After capture he was taken to Ship Island, where he suffered many indignities, and was later paroled at Meridian, Miss., May 10, 1865. In 1882 he represented Lauderdale county in the General Assembly; in 1884 was elected State Senator and was chairman of the judiciary committee in

that body. In 1890 Mr. Simpson was appointed to the board of convict managers, serving four years. At the general election of 1902, he was again elected to the Legislature.

On Nov. 8, 1904, he was elected an associate justice of the Supreme Court; and on Nov. 3, 1908, he was re-elected for a full term of six years. He was a Democrat; and an elder in the Presbyterian Church. At Florence, on Sept. 2, 1861, he was married to Mattie, daughter of Wyatt Collier and wife, Janet Douglas Walker, the latter a native of Scotland. In the full maturity of his powers, he passed away on Aug. 12, 1912. He was interred at his old home in Florence.

ORGANIZATION.

Montgomery, Ala., Dec. 13, 1878. The undersigned members of the legal profession, believing that the formation of a Bar Association of Alabama is desirable, respectfully request the members of the Bar of each County to appoint one or more delegates to attend a Convention of the Bar of the State, to be held in the Hall of the House of Representatives, on the 15th day of January, next, at 7 P. M., and that E. W. Pettus and Wm. M. Brooks of Selma, and W. L. Bragg of Montgomery, are requested to prepare a plan of organization to be submitted to said Convention.

Pursuant to the foregoing call, a preliminary conference in reference to organizing a State Bar Association met in the Hall of the House of Representatives on the 15th of January, 1879.

On motion of D. S. Troy, L. P. Walker of Huntsville, was unanimously elected chairman of the meeting and on motion of J. J. Robinson, of Chambers, Geo. W. Taylor, of Choctaw, was elected Secretary pro tem., and the names of thirty members of the Bar, desirous of organizing a State Bar Association, were enrolled by the Secretary.

Messrs. E. W. Pettus, Wm. M. Brooks and W. L. Bragg, the Committee designated and requested in the call to draft a plan of organization to be submitted to the conference through W. L. Bragg, reported a Constitution and By-Laws for The Alabama State Bar Association.

The report of the Committee was received, and the Constitution and By-Laws, subject to amendment by the conference, were adopted.