Representing Plaintiffs Since 1895

Bruce began his law practice in his hometown of Florence, Alabama. He then served as the central staff attorney for the Alabama Supreme Court for several years. While living in Montgomery, Bruce also served as a professor of law at the Thomas Goode Jones School of Law of Faulkner University. Bruce moved to Birmingham in 1986 to take a full-time teaching position at the Cumberland School of Law of Samford University, where he later served as the assistant dean. In 1989, Bruce joined the Hare Wynn firm, but continued to teach civil procedure as an adjunct professor at Cumberland for the next 17 years.

Within the Hare Wynn firm, Bruce has the primary responsibility over most of the firm’s appellate work. At the trial court level, his role is to research and write briefs and motions and pleadings that raise unique or difficult issues, especially on subjects relating to procedure, jurisdiction, and tort law theory. Bruce also devotes much of his time to researching issues and investigating relevant matters for cases the firm is considering.

Bruce has always been active in a wide variety of professional law-improvement organizations, in addition to his law school activities. For example, Bruce is currently a member of the Uniform Law Commission, whose stated mission is to provide the states with non-partisan, well-conceived, and well-drafted legislation that brings clarity and stability to critical areas of the law. Bruce also serves on several Alabama Law Institute drafting committees that prepare proposed legislation for Alabama. Bruce has served on several Alabama Supreme Court rules advisory committees, as well. In the role of advocate, Bruce has, for nearly 20 years, worked on or with the amicus curiae brief committee of the Alabama Association for Justice (formerly, Alabama Trial Lawyers Association).

Affiliations

• Alabama Association for Justice (Alabama Trial Lawyers Association)
• Alabama Law Institute, Member; Alabama Commission on Uniform State Laws, Member
• Alabama State Bar Association
• Alabama Supreme Court, Member, Advisory Committee on the Rules of Evidence
• Alabama Supreme Court, Member Emeritus, Advisory Committee on the Rules of Civil Procedure
• American Association for Justice
• American Bar Association
• Birmingham Bar Association
• National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws, Member

Published Works

• Alabama’s Substantive Tort Law is Decidedly Not Pro-Plaintiff, 18(6) Business Alabama 68 (June 2003)
• Alabama: A Jurisdiction Out of Control?, 41 New York Law School Law Review 539, 637 (1997)
• The Implications of BMW v. Gore for Future Punitive Damages Litigation: Observations from a Participant, 48 Alabama Law Review 175 (1996)
• The Batson Application to Civil Trials, 6 Alabama Defense Lawyers Association Journal 19 (1990)
• The Legal System of the P.R.C., 9 Modern Legal Systems Cyclopedia 206 (1985); Finality of Judgments, Alabama Appellate Handbook 73 (1985); Alabama Supreme Court Practice, 44 Alabama Lawyer 320 (1983)