Jack Cummings Receives Tax Notes’ Award for Excellence in Tax Commentary

By Herman Spence III

Jack Cummings, a white man with grey hair and wire-rimmed glasses, wears a pale blue shirt, red tie and black jacket.

Jack Cummings

Jack Cummings received Tax Notes’ inaugural Award for Excellence in Tax Commentary on May 3 at the ABA Tax Section’s annual meeting. Jack is counsel in Alston & Bird’s Raleigh and Washington offices.

The quality and quantity of Jack’s tax articles and other scholarly work are extraordinary. Many of us are like Salieri in “Amadeus.” Our lesser talents allow us to appreciate, but not replicate, Jack’s insightful work.

Congratulations, Jack! Below is a conversation with him:

Over the years, what percentage of your time was spent on client work, and what percentage on scholarly pursuits?

That’s a good question. Only in the last few years has it become pretty heavily weighted towards articles, scholarly or not!

How have you found time to write so many excellent and thorough articles?

Often an article grows out of a practice issue, so research can do double duty.

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The Professor Who Changed the Trajectory of My Career

Lauren, a white woman with long brown hair, wears a black turtleneck.By Lauren Jones 

I came into law school having no interest in commercial law. So, how did I spend the past summer in Rome drafting international factoring law at a prestigious international institution? How did I get the opportunity to spend my fall break presenting at the 14th Annual Transnational Commercial Law Professor Conference? The answer: an outstanding professor who believed in me and taught me how commercial law can be more than it seems.

During my first week of 1L, the older students warned me about Professor Gabriel. I was told he was an “old-school” law professor with high expectations for his students. Hence, I was nervous when winter term came around because I had him for Contracts. Going into the first class, I was expecting someone who would do his thing and leave, not caring whether or not we understood the material. That couldn’t be farther from the truth. It was evident from the first day that, although his humor was extremely dry, he cared about the material and hoped we would, too. As the trimester continued, I knew I would take every class he offered. Fast forward one year and two more classes with Professor Gabriel: it was my 2L Winter trimester, and I figured I would ask Professor Gabriel how to get involved in this field of law. He asked me if I had an internship lined up for the summer and if I was open to international travel. Read more

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Pro Bono Spotlight: John Noor and the Western North Carolina COVID Legal Hotline

John, a white man with brown hair, wears a white shirt, red tie, and black jacket.

John Noor

By Paul Yale

Approximately four years ago, on March 10, 2020, Gov. Roy Cooper issued an executive order declaring a state of emergency in North Carolina due to the covid-19 outbreak which had originated in Wuhan, China in the late Fall of 2019 and began spreading to the United States in early 2020. The public is aware of the doctors, nurses and other medical workers who helped so many North Carolinians through the covid-19 crisis. The public is less aware of the significant role that lawyers played in providing pro bono legal services to North Carolinians with covid-19 legal issues, one of whom was attorney John Noor with the Asheville law firm of Roberts and Stevens.

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