Hall of Fame honors 5 alumni

The first set of inductees will be recognized during the annual Law Alumni Weekend held on campus each spring.

Charles Clark (LLB 48) attended Millsaps College and then transferred to Tulane University, where he received his bachelor’s degree.

In 1945, Clark was commissioned as an ensign in the U.S. Naval Reserve and served aboard a destroyer in the Pacific during World War II. After the war, Clark returned to Mississippi and attended the UM School of Law. He began practicing law soon after graduation at the firm of Wells, Wells, Newman & Thomas in Jackson. In 1951, Clark re-enlisted with the Naval Reserve as a lieutenant.

In 1961, Clark helped form the law firm of Cox, Dunn & Clark in Jackson. In 1969, President Richard M. Nixon appointed Clark to serve on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. He held this post until 1992. He served as chief judge of the Fifth Circuit from 1981-92. In 1992, Clark joined his former law partners Dunn and Cox at the Watkins & Eager law firm in Jackson as an appellate advocate and mediator.

Robert J. Farley (LLB 24), who was first employed by the UM School of Law in 1926 as an assistant professor, served as law dean from 1946-63. He also served as president of the Mississippi Bar from 1954-55.

The former law school building was named Farley Hall in honor of his service and the service of his father Leonard J. Farley, UM law dean from 1913-21.

In a history of the UM School of Law, former UM law dean Parham Williams said, “With the advent of World War II, most of the faculty and students entered military service . ... When Bob Farley was appointed dean in February 1946, he faced many of the problems which confronted (L.Q.C.) Lamar in 1866; the academic program had been disrupted, the faculty was scattered, and there were few students.”

“Upon his retirement in 1963, Farley could reflect with justifiable satisfaction upon the growth and progress of the School of Law under his leadership,” Williams wrote. “In statistical terms, the enrollment had quintupled, the faculty had grown two-fold, the library holdings had doubled and the building had been substantially enlarged. More important, the reputation of the school as an institution of academic strength and integrity had been firmly established.”

William F. Goodman Jr. (LLB 51) received his undergraduate degree, with honors, from Millsaps College. After graduation from law school, Goodman served in the U.S. Army, reaching the rank of first lieutenant.

Goodman joined the law firm of Watkins & Eager in 1953, where he continues to practice today. Goodman has been honored with invitation-only memberships in the Mississippi Bar Foundation, the American Bar Foundation, the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers and the American College of Trial Lawyers. For 25 consecutive years, he has been listed in The Best Lawyers in America. He has served as president of the Mississippi Defense Lawyers Association and of the Hinds County Bar Association.

The UM School of Law named Goodman its Alumnus of the Year in 2008. In 2001, he received the Professionalism Award presented by the Hinds County Bar. In 2004, he was honored with the Professionalism Award of the Mississippi Bar Foundation.

James McClure Jr. (LLB 53) currently serves as a senior partner of McClure & Shuler law firm in Sardis, Miss. McClure attended The University of Mississippi as a freshman. He went on to graduate from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1946.

McClure served three years in Germany as a U.S. combat engineer, then returned home in 1950 and entered the UM School of Law.

McClure served in the state Legislature as senator from 1952-56.

Throughout the years, McClure has provided service to the university by serving as chair of the Lamar Order and as a member of the Intercollegiate Athletics Committee, the chancellor search committee and the UM Foundation board. In 1980, McClure was honored as the school’s Law Alumnus of the Year, and he was inducted into The University of Mississippi Hall of Fame in 2007.

William F. Winter (LLB 49) was born in Grenada, Miss., and was Mississippi’s 58th governor. In 1943, Winter received his undergraduate degree from The University of Mississippi. He then served as an infantry officer in the Philippines during World War II.

Winter returned to Oxford to attend law school. While he was still a student in law school, he was elected to the Mississippi House of Representatives in 1947 and re-elected in 1951 and 1955. From 1950-51, he served as the legislative assistant to U.S. Sen. John Stennis. He was recalled to active military duty to serve in the infantry during the Korean War.

In 1956, Winter conducted his first statewide campaign and was elected state tax collector. He was then elected Mississippi state treasurer in 1964 and then lieutenant governor in 1972.

In 1989, he held the Jamie L. Whitten Chair of Law and Government in the UM law school.

Winter was also instrumental in the conception and creation of the William Winter Institute for Racial Reconciliation, which was established at UM in 1999. Most recently, he received the 2008 Profile in Courage Award from the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library.