EDUCATION: Cumberland School of Law, J.D. cum laude 2000; Samford University, B.A., 1982; UMS Preparatory School, 1978.
MILITARY EXPERIENCE: In January of 1983, Patterson entered the United States Navy as an Aviation Officer Candidate, receiving his commission in April of 1983. After completing flight training, Patterson served in the Atlantic fleet on various aircraft carriers including USS Nimitz, USS Theodore Roosevelt, USS Saratoga, USS John C. Stennis, USS John F. Kennedy, and in various air wings and squadrons primarily as a helicopter attack pilot and nuclear weapons delivery pilot. Collateral duties included command security manager, nuclear weapons training officer, nuclear weapons safety officer, squadron maintenance quality assurance officer and maintenance test pilot, and various others. His first long deployment was during the 1985 TWA hostage crisis off Beirut Lebanon. Other long deployments included during various Cold War era confrontations, and to world hot spots after the Cold War. Military decorations include the Navy Commendation Medal (3 awards); the Navy Achievement Medal (3 awards); the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal; the NATO Medal; the Navy Meritorious Unit Commendation; the Kuwaiti Liberation Medal; the Sea Service Deployment Ribbon (5 awards); and others. Patterson also holds the distinction, pursuant to Naval Helicopter Association archives, of being pilot on a flight crew on the longest over-water Medevac in United States Navy history, when his crew flew a critically burned Sailor from the USS Iowa in mid-ocean during a major fleet exercise monitored by the Soviet Navy, through a North Atlantic gale, to Gander Newfoundland and back to the rapidly moving fleet-- traveling over 1000 miles over open ocean doing so.
PRACTICE OF LAW: Licensed to practice in Alabama (2001), Florida, (2001), and Mississippi (2014). Admitted to practice before all Alabama, Florida, and Mississippi State Courts. Federal Court Admissions include the U.S. District and Bankruptcy Courts for the Northern, Middle, and Southern Districts of Alabama; the U.S. District Courts for the Northern District of Florida, and the Northern and Southern Districts of Mississippi, and the United States 5th Circuit Court of Appeal. Private practice of law with Galloway, Johnson, Tompkins, Burr & Smith; Alford, Clausen & McDonald, LLC, Vernis & Bowling of Southern Alabama and Southern Mississippi as Managing Attorney.
Contact Information
Office Staff:
Julie Bradford- Judicial Assistant
Courtroom 6300
205 Government Street
Mobile, AL 36644
Phone: (251) 574-8474