About Carol
Carol practices in the firm’s Business and Litigation sections, focusing in the area of condominium law and complex business torts litigation. She is the author of the “Condominium Law” chapter in Legal Aspects of Real Estate and, in 1994, completed the Alabama section in Real Estate Transaction Series: Condominium Law and Practice (Matthew Bender). She is a regular lecturer in the areas of condominium and community association law.
Carol was admitted to the Alabama and Georgia Bars in 1982 and to The Florida Bar the following year. She became a member of the Tennessee Bar in 2009. She recently completed a nine-year term on the Board of Bar Commissioners of the Alabama State Bar, where she served on the Disciplinary Commission and the MCLE Commission. She currently serves as a Panel Chairman of the Character and Fitness Committee of the Alabama State Bar and has served as Chairman of the Business Torts and Antitrust Section of the State Bar. Carol served on the Executive Committee of the Birmingham Bar Association in 2000 and is a past president of the Women’s Section of the Birmingham Bar. She currently serves as a Trustee of the Bar Aid Trust of the Birmingham Bar. She is also a member of the American Bar Association, Alabama State Bar, Georgia Bar Association, The Florida Bar and the Tennessee Bar. Carol serves on the Alabama Law Institute and is a Fellow of the Alabama Law Foundation and the American Bar Foundation. Also, Carol serves on the Cumberland School of Law at Samford University Advisory Board. She is listed in The Best Lawyers in America for her work in Real Estate Law and is recognized in Alabama Super Lawyers. Chambers USA named Carol in 2009 and 2010 as a “Leader in their Field” in the area of real estate law and LexisNexis Martindale-Hubbell has awarded her the status of AV Preeminent Rated Lawyer. In addition, she was selected as the 2007-2008 Lawyer in Residence at Cumberland School of Law at Samford University. The Lawyer in Residence Program recognizes the accomplishments of Cumberland alumni.
Carol was honored by the Birmingham Bar Association for her public service in 2001 when she was awarded the L. Burton Barnes Award for Public Service. In 2003, Carol received the Volunteer of the Year from Cumberland School of Law and in 2003 Carol received Board Member of the Year award from Hand-in-Paw, an animal assisted therapy organization.
Carol received her B.S. in chemistry from University of North Carolina at Charlotte, and her M.S. degree in forensic sciences from University of Alabama at Birmingham. She received her J.D., magna cum laude, from the Cumberland School of Law at Samford University. During law school, she served as Recent Decisions Editor for the Cumberland Law Review and Law Day Chair. Later, she became Law Clerk to Chief Judge Sam C. Pointer, Jr. of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama.
Carol Cross-Examined
![[Image] Carol H. Stewart](../ppics/4407.jpg)
Besides her grandchildren, Judson and Alice McLean, Carol’s passion is dogs. She and her husband, Rusty, have six furry companions and have fostered hundreds of abandoned dogs and puppies from local animal shelters. She has devoted years of service to animal organizations including serving as president of Hand-in-Paw, an animal assisted therapy organization, and the Greater Birmingham Humane Society. She participated in Big Brothers/Big Sisters over ten years and is a member of The Cathedral Church of the Advent, The Women’s Network, a 1999 participant in Leadership Birmingham, and formerly served on the Board of PATHWAYS, an organization that serves homeless women and children. Carol is currently involved in several fundraising and awareness efforts for the Parkinson Association of Alabama, Inc.
How has the current financial crisis affected your practice?
In the past two years our practice has shifted from creating condominiums to enforcing contract provisions, assisting lenders as they become involved in troubled projects, and helping community associations deal with the real life affects of this economy.
How do you maintain two areas of practice that are so totally different?
Actually, my two areas of expertise are not so different. I love complicated legal issues that I can break apart and deal with a little at a time. Developing a condominium and trying a complex lawsuit have that similarity.