Ralph D. Cook

Over the course of his 50-year career, Justice Cook has held just about every position an attorney can hold: city attorney, plaintiff's lawyer, law professor, trial judge, and Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court. Growing up in Birmingham, his vision to affect change in Alabama, particularly for African-Americans, led him to law school. After graduating from Howard University School of Law, he embarked on a career spanning many areas of law. He has taught at a number of schools in Alabama and California and served as Dean of Miles Law School for over 20 years. He worked as an assistant district attorney in Bessemer, the city attorney for Birmingham, and has been a plaintiff's attorney at Hare Wynn since 2001. The most instructive period of his career was 24 years of judicial service. Appointed to the Bessemer Division of the Tenth Judicial Circuit in 1981, he continued to rise through the Alabama judiciary until his election to the Supreme Court of Alabama in 1994. He is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers and an elected member of the American Law Institute.