Attorney General Elect Luther Strange Announces Key Members Of His Staff

Attorney General-elect Luther Strange today announced members of his executive leadership who he said will be his top assistants in “guiding the Attorney General’s Office upon a path of integrity and adherence to the rule of law.  I am proud to have gathered a team of attorneys who exemplify the highest standards of excellence, dedication and the principled practice of law,” he stated.

Richard Allen returns to the helm as Chief Deputy Attorney General, a position he held throughout the administrations of former Attorneys General Jeff Sessions and Bill Pryor. Allen served briefly as Acting Attorney General following Pryor’s appointment as a federal judge, and most recently as Commissioner of the Alabama Department of Corrections since 2006. Before becoming an attorney, Allen distinguished himself in active military service commanding companies in Germany and Vietnam. and continued as a reserve officer, retiring in 1993 as a Brigadier General. From 1999 to 2003, he served as Civilian Aide for the Secretary of the Army for Alabama.  In 2001, Allen was inducted into the U.S. Army Ordnance Corps Hall of Fame. Allen earned his bachelor’s of arts degree from the University of North Alabama, where he was commander of the ROTC brigade and was honored as distinguished military graduate.  At the University of Alabama Law School he was managing editor of the Alabama Law Review, senior class president and most outstanding senior. Beginning his legal career as a law clerk for then Chief Justice Howell Heflin of the Alabama Supreme Court, Allen practiced law with Capell, Howard, Knabe & Cobbs in Montgomery before joining U.S. Senator Heflin from 1979 to 1981 as his chief legislative assistant in Washington, D.C.  He returned to private practice with Capell Howard in 1981 and became managing director of the firm in 1985, a position he held until he first came to the Attorney General’s Office as Chief Deputy in 1995.

Also returning to the Attorney General’s Office is Jessica Medeiros Garrison, who served from 1997 to 1998 as Director of Public Relations and Legislative Affairs for then Attorney General Pryor, previously having served as an intern and as Assistant Director of Public Relations and Legislative Affairs for then Attorney General Sessions. As an undergraduate at the University of Alabama, Garrison was president of the Student Government Association, and went on to earn her juris doctorate from the University of Alabama Law School. She clerked for then Tuscaloosa County Circuit Judge L. Scott Coogler (now a U.S. District Judge for the Northern District of Alabama) and in 1998 joined the law firm of Phelps, Jenkins, Gibson & Fowler in Tuscaloosa, where she earned a partnership. Garrison also successfully managed the campaign of Attorney General-elect Strange, for whom she will serve as Chief Counsel.

John Neiman Jr. leaves his partnership at Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP in Birmingham to become Solicitor General, supervising the State of Alabama’s handling of appellate litigation in state and federal courts. He earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, with highest honors and distinction, and graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School, where he was Supreme Court Chair of the Harvard Law Review. Following his service as law clerk for U.S. Circuit Judge Paul Niemeyer of the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, he taught at the law schools of the University of Georgia, Cumberland, and Alabama.

Prim Formby Escalona will be Deputy Solicitor General, coming from Maynard, Cooper & Gale, where she has been a litigation associate. Escalona graduated magna cum laude from Birmingham-Southern College and summa cum laude from the University of Alabama Law School, where she served as managing editor of the Alabama Law Review, was elected to Order of the Coif, and received the Dean M. Leigh Harrison Award. Upon graduation from law school, Escalona served as law clerk to Judge William H. Pryor Jr. for the United States Court of Appeals for the 11^th Circuit.  Escalona has also served as legislative assistant for U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions and U.S. Senator James Inhofe.

Kevin L. Turner will serve as Special Deputy Attorney General. Since 2007, he has been an associate at Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP in Birmingham. Turner graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor’s of arts degree in political science and economics from Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia, went on to earn a master’s degree in business administration at the University of Alabama, and graduated summa cum laude from the University of Alabama School of Law, where he served on the managing board of the Alabama Law Review and earned the Dean M. Dean Harrison Award.
“I am pleased that these outstanding people have agreed to join me in service to the people of Alabama,” said Attorney General-elect Strange. “Together, we are committed to provide an Office of Attorney General that our citizens can count on for responsible and fair leadership.”

In coming days, the Attorney General-elect expects to announce his plans to enhance the ability of the Attorney General’s Office to investigate and prosecute public corruption and white collar crime, as well as his plans to deal with continuing issues related to the massive oil spill in the Gulf Coast.