Roger L. Bates

Biographical Information

Roger Bates has served as the firm’s Managing Lawyer for more than 10 years, and guided the firm through its geographic expansion into Florida.  Mr. Bates has extensive experience in complex business and commercial litigation, including business and contract disputes, labor and employment and healthcare-related litigation. He also represents clients before state and federal regulatory agencies and assists them with governmental relations issues. Mr. Bates regularly represents postsecondary educational institutions in litigation, compliance and regulatory matters. He serves as a Member of the Board of Trustees of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges, the body for accreditation of degree-granting higher education institutions in the Southern states.  Mr. Bates has served as a specially appointed Deputy Attorney General in Alabama since 1995 and has represented the State of Alabama and various agencies in state and federal courts. Mr. Bates was also appointed to serve a term as the City Attorney for the City of Hoover, Alabama and he currently serves as the County Attorney for Chilton County, Alabama. 

Mr. Bates has served on numerous committees of the Birmingham Bar Association and has lectured on a variety of topics for continuing legal education seminars. As General Counsel for the Alabama Pharmacy Association, Mr. Bates publishes a quarterly journal article on law and ethics. Mr. Bates is active in the Birmingham area community. Mr. Bates is a member of the American Bar Association, and of its State and Local Government Law and Litigation Sections. He is also a member of the American Health Lawyers Association and the Alabama Association of Municipal Attorneys. In 2015, he was named a Fellow of the Alabama Law Foundation in recognition of his service to the community.

Mr. Bates was born in Clanton, Alabama. After being admitted to the Alabama State Bar in 1982, he was a law clerk to Senior U.S. District Judge C. W. Allgood until 1983. In 1979, Mr. Bates received a B.S. degree from Auburn University, and in 1982, he obtained his J.D. from Cumberland School of Law. While attending law school he was awarded the Donald E. Corley Best Advocate Award, served on the National Mock Trial Team, and was an associate member of the American Journal of Trial Advocacy.