Una To Hold Convocation For Freshmen And New Transfer Students Wednesday

Sep. 17, 2012

Michelle Eubanks, UNA, at media@una.edu, 256.765.4392 or 256.606.2033

FLORENCE, Ala. - The University of North Alabama will hold its annual Fall Academic Convocation for freshmen and new transfer students Wednesday at 11 a.m. in Norton Auditorium. The event, jointly sponsored by UNA and the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi, will host attorney and UNA alumnus Marcus Maples, of Birmingham, as keynote speaker. Maples, a 2002 graduate of UNA, was president of UNA Student Government Association, vice president of the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity and a founding member and captain of the UNA Mock Trials Team. The Mock Trials Team qualified for nationals three of the four years Maples was involved. In 2001 and 2002, he was named All-American Attorney, placing as one of the top three student attorneys in the country. While at UNA, Maples was also awarded the Gregory K. Engle Memorial Scholarship and named a Promising Alumnus. Following graduating, he worked with Sen. Richard Shelby's office in Washington, D.C., and later served as director of logistics for the National Youth Education Council. Maples earned his law degree from The University of Alabama School of Law in 2006. While in law school, he served as president of the Bench and Bar Legal Honor Society, vice president of the Black Law Students Association, vice president of the Law Democrats and senator for the Student Bar Association. He is a recipient of the George Peach Taylor Excellence in Advocacy Award, the V. Nathaniel Hansford Leadership Award and Best Oral Advocate at the National Tax Moot Court Competition. He was also a member of the John A. Campbell Moot Court Board and National Trial Team. Maples is currently a senior associate in the Birmingham office of Sirote and Permutt P.C., where he specializes in shareholder disputes, insurance defense and complex commercial litigation, primarily representing banks, insurance companies and small businesses. He frequently lectures and publishes nationally on legal issues that impact his practice. He is active in the leadership of his local, state and national bar associations, including service on the executive board of the Alabama State Bar Young Lawyers Section and the Defense Research Institute. Maples' wife, Kwoya Maples, of Charleston, S.C., is a poet and professor of English. They are expecting twin girls in November.