Livingston celebrated

News

Thursday, 20 March 2025 10:01

98-year-old Jack Livingston was recently recognized by the Alabama State Bar Association as the longest practicing member of law in Alabama. Livingston was admitted to the Alabama State Bar on February 27, 1950. Livingston was born in Centre, Alabama in the fall of 1926 to John “Speer” and Haynie Livingston. Jack’s parents had a small cotton farm in Cherokee County.

He enrolled in the Alabama Polytechnic Institute, now known as Auburn University, and joined the Navy in 1944 and was stationed in the Saipan Harbor and in the Philippines. Jack was married to Ann McArthur Livingston in 1948, and together they had two children, Steve and Susan. Following Jack’s return from service, he completed his pre-law studies and went on to complete his law degree at the University of Alabama in 1950. However, his practice of law was put on hold when he was called into the Korean War from 1950 until 1952.

Upon his return from the Korean War, Jack worked with the Alabama Attorney General’s Office and served as the Cherokee County Solicitor General. Nine years later, Jack was appointed as the Ninth Judicial Circuit (Jackson, DeKalb and Cherokee Counties) Circuit Judge. He remained in that position until his resignation on September 1, 1966, so that he could open his long-standing law practice in Scottsboro.

Judge John Graham stated, “Not because of lack of skill or ability, Jack told me following a trial that he wasn’t coming back because he couldn’t hear. The first two trials I ever had, Mr. Livingston was one of the lawyers. Opposing council was a young attorney from Huntsville in one of those. When he got here, the young attorney told me how he expected it would be easy to win the case with such an elderly lawyer on the other side. I warned him, ‘Listen my friend, Jack Livingston is the oldest rat in the barn. He knows where every hole is, every loop hole, every exception. He will run circles around you before you even realize.’ The trial ended in a Defendant’s verdict by the Jury, very quickly. And then we had another case that ended in a hung jury. The Defendant had gone to Walmart to buy eggs to make a cake. During the wreck, the eggs never moved off the seat and didn’t break. That was Jack’s theory of the case. The wreck was so mild that not even the eggs broke.”
Jack was also on the original committee who wrote the Alabama Rules of Civil Procedure.

Following the celebration, I asked Judge John Graham for a quote to sum up Jack Livingston. Graham replied, “Jack Livingston is consummate professional and gentleman. He has a brilliant mind and great insight into the history of our law and how it evolved and came into being over the years. Once when he was arguing one of the finer points of the Alabama Rules of Civil Procedure and how I should interpret and apply that rule, he said, ‘Well, Your Honor, you see, when we wrote this rule in 1973, we intended it to be applied …’ in such and such a manner – or words to that effect. It was quite remarkable to hear one of the authors of the rule tell me how it applied in his case now, 50 years later. It was quite persuasive – a little like listening to Moses tell you what one of the Ten Commandments means!”

Congratulations, Mr. Livingston, on this amazing milestone. Jackson County is lucky to have you.

by Heather Dohring