Ralph I. Knowles
On May 16, 2016, Ralph Knowles, our law partner of 25 years, passed away. Our firm lost its heart and soul. The legal profession lost a passionate champion of the cause of justice and equality. Over his remarkable career -- from the mid-60s when as student body president at the University of Alabama he clashed with George Wallace to his leadership in later years of some of our nation's most significant civil cases -- Mr. Knowles was one of a kind, a courageous and principled lawyer devoted to doing right who made everyone around him a better person.
Prior to joining our firm shortly after it was founded, Mr. Knowles was a long-time partner with Drake, Knowles & Pierce in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Earlier in his career, Mr. Knowles served as Associate Director of the National Prison Project of the American Civil Liberties Union in Washington, D.C. and was staff attorney with the Selma Inter-Religious Project.
Mr. Knowles graduated in 1969 from the University of Alabama Law School. Finishing fourth in his class, he was selected for the Order of the Coif and the Farrah Law Society and served as an editor of the Alabama Law Review. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of Alabama where he was elected president of the student body.
Mr. Knowles represented plaintiffs in a large variety of cases which resulted in landmark constitutional decisions on behalf of prisoners, mental health patients, and others. He was also lead counsel in major political litigation. Mr. Knowles served as the co-chairman of the plaintiffs' steering committee in the breast implant litigation and was appointed to leadership positions in numerous other class actions and federal multi-district litigation proceedings. He authored many professional articles and spoke frequently on subjects involving complex civil litigation.
In 1982, a federal judge in Colorado included the following statement about Mr. Knowles in a published opinion that lauded his "experience and consummate ability as a trial advocate":
A general conclusion regarding his excellent ability and integrity is not sufficient. I must point out that during the entire time I have been connected with the profession of law as student, practitioner and judge I have never observed a lawyer who was more talented or accomplished in the art of cross-examination. Mr. Knowles undertook the cross-examination of most of the defendant's expert witnesses with devastating effect.
At the time of the trial, Mr. Knowles was only 10 years out of law school.
He was a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, a member of the American Law Institute, and a Past President of the Tuscaloosa County Bar Association. He received the highest awards of the Civil Liberties Union of Alabama and the Alabama Criminal Defense Lawyers' Association.
Previously, he was appointed by the Alabama Supreme Court to its Committee on the Promulgation of Rules of Evidence and was Chair of the Alabama State Bar Association Task Force on Judicial Election, Selection and Evaluation.
Mr. Knowles served on the Board of Directors of the NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund and the national Board of Directors of the American Civil Liberties Union. He was a Master of the Bleckley Inn of Courts.
Ralph I. Knowles