Alumni Spotlight: AK Sherman ’23L AK Sherman is University Counsel at the University of Alabama.

AK Sherman ’23L

AK Sherman ‘23L was born and raised in Mobile, Alabama. She graduated from the University of Alabama in 2020 with a B.S. in psychology and a B.A. in Spanish. In law school, AK was SBA Class President all three years, the Vice Chair of the Moot Court Executive Board, and a member of the Washington and Lee Law Review. After graduation, she worked at law firms in Birmingham, Alabama, and New York, New York, before accepting her current position as University Counsel for her alma mater, the University of Alabama.

Discuss your career path and how it led you to being at The University of Alabama as the University Counsel.

I’ve had a fairly unusual career path thus far—in the three years since graduation, I’ve had three different jobs in three different cities. In Birmingham, I practiced commercial litigation and in New York, I practiced international arbitration. Having such a varied background certainly helped prepare me for the breadth of legal issues we work on in the Office of Counsel, but the truth is I also got really lucky!

What sort of legal issues do you handle on a day-to-day basis?

The best part of the role of University Counsel is that we handle all sorts of legal issues. I consider it to be one of the few remaining opportunities to truly practice law as a generalist. I have enjoyed working on a wide range of matters, including athletics, employment, Title IX, intellectual property, and bankruptcy, just to name a few.

What do you like about your current job?

Serving my alma mater in my home state feels like a dream job. As I mentioned, I love that on any given day I can be working on several different types of law practice. The variety keeps me engaged and I’m always learning something new, which feels exciting. The cherry on top is that I’m working for a place that is so special to me—the university I attended and have been a fan of my entire life. Roll Tide! (Sorry, I had to.)

What are some practices you have in your daily life as an attorney to maintain wellness?

My best days start with exercise and end with reading fiction. Both practices are dedicated portions of my day that I get to prioritize my mental health, and I strive to do one or both every day.

Looking back, what do you think is the most formative experience you had in law school?

My favorite parts of law school were those that involved getting to know and learn from my classmates. Specifically, serving as SBA Class President each year provided the opportunity to represent my classmates’ interests to the administration, but also to plan our events, which was just a great way to get to know everyone better. Similarly, in my role on Moot Court Executive Board, I got to participate as a judge for all five of W&L Law’s internal student competitions. Spending my evening hours at the law school nearly every week of my 3L year definitely brought me closer to the students in my class and the class below me, which are memories that I still treasure.

Which W&L classes and/or experiences do you think were most helpful in preparing you for this job? 

Judge Carson’s in-class portion of the judicial externship stands out as the most concrete preparation for the actual practice of law. Our assignments included research prompts given to us during class that had to be completed and submitted before the end of class. That exercise of finding the answer to a legal question in a time crunch has proved greatly helpful for doing so in practice.

What advice do you have for prospective law students?

Well, if you’re a prospective law student reading an interview of an alumni, I already feel confident in your zealousness—but my advice to anyone in law school is to enjoy it. I know it sounds trite, but I mean it! Three years will fly by. In those six semesters, you have the opportunity to form long-lasting friendships with potential future judges, scholars, professors, politicians, etc. in your classmates. W&L Law has a unique environment that develops a tight-knit community. Taking advantage of that and forming long-lasting relationships with my peers remains one of my greatest takeaways.

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