W. Joseph McCorkle Jr.

I represent some of the best people I know. Although most of my clients are "its,", they are comprised of "hims" and "hers". They are generally hardworking, competitive, passionate people, and are often the smartest people in the room, literally. At the same time, they are understanding and have well-developed and strict ethical standards. My clients make my work very enjoyable.

I participate in activities and organizations that I believe will enhance the community in which I live. I am currently a member of the Board of Directors of the Central Alabama Community Foundation and the Capri Community Film Society, Inc. (a non-profit, independent film theatre). I have served on the board of directors of the Montgomery Symphony Orchestra and as a member of the board of trustees of the Montgomery Academy (a private, non-sectarian college preparatory school). I am also involved in trying to improve mental health care in Montgomery.

Technology. Technology. Technology. When I began practicing law in 1986, a senior partner at Balch & Bingham told me that the biggest change in his law practice came with the advent of the copying machine. Cases became document intensive, he said, and less about a person's word than about what the documents said. Then came the fax machine, which sped up the practice of law considerably. Electronic mail has supplanted the copying machine and the facsimile transmission as the game changer, both in the way lawyers practice law (we are now open 24 hours a day) and in how we represent our clients, who are often either seeking or producing thousands of "pages" of electronically stored information, some of which records thoughts that were at best casual and unformed and at worst should have been left unsaid.

One of the biggest challenges that any litigator faces is to organize and present information in ways that help judges and juries to understand it. Technologies that can help separate the important from the less important and unimportant effectively and cost efficiently will be highly prized. 

Before I went to law school in 1983, I worked for my father for three years as a manufacturer's representative in the furniture business. I called on retail furniture stores in Alabama, northwest Florida, and north Mississippi to sell them furniture. Not only did I get to know my father better, I had the opportunity to meet and work with small businesses throughout Alabama and to develop an understanding of challenges they faced and how they addressed those challenges to be successful. As a result of working for my father, there are very few places in Alabama that I have not been.