Julian McPhillips has well earned the title of “The People’s Lawyer” and his law firm McPhillips Shinbaum, L.L.P. is well known as “The People’s Law Firm.”
In 1985, Julian filed the race discrimination class action suit against the Alabama Highway Department. Known as the famous Johnny Reynolds case, the suit helped open the department to African-Americans, and influenced other state departments and agencies to do the same.
Julian also brought the 1986 case in federal court that stopped Montgomery police from harassing and arresting poor people without identification papers. This included many blacks. Julian and his firm have also stood up against many police brutality cases, and won large judgments for victims of personal injuries and business frauds.
Julian and his partners Kenneth Shinbaum, Joe Guillot, Aaron Luck, and Jim Bodin, along with associate attorneys Chris Worshek and Charlie Hawthorne, have tirelessly taken on the government and business establishment for civil rights violations, auto accidents, employment discrimination cases, worker’s compensation claims, social security cases, contract disputes, and criminal defenses.
Julian laughingly recounts how a federal judge once questioned how he (Julian) was “white on the outside, but black on the inside.” Julian has received 5 different awards over the years from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. In 2011, he was named the Alabama NAACP Attorney of the Year. In 1997, the readers of the Montgomery Advertiser voted Julian the Attorney of the Year, and press has referred to McPhillips as the “Private Attorney General and Public Watch Dog.”
“We don’t represent any big corporations or insurance companies; we don’t represent any agencies or departments of state and we don’t represent the city or county of Montgomery,” said Julian. “We just represent the people who have problems with them all.”
As 2014 dawns, the McPhillips Shinbaum, L.L.P. firm is poised to begin its 36th year of law practice. With a heart for defending underdogs and standing up to bullies, McPhillips, Shinbaum, Luck, Bodin, and Guillot are ready, willing, and eager to get the best results possible for their clients.
