On June 25, 2022, the Alabama Bar honored all 50-year members at its 145th Annual Meeting. Included in that list was attorney Tommy Gallion.
Over the years Gallion was one of the “Top Attorneys of North America,” served on many local boards, was an Alabama State University trustee, and served as chairman of the board of Woodmen Life Insurance, one of the country’s largest fraternal life insurance companies.
Gallion even helped defend the University of Alabama football coaches who were unjustly targeted by the NCAA investigation that attempted to ruin the university’s football program. His clients were awarded $30 million dollars.
So why would the Alabama State Bar Association disbar this retired, 83-year-old attorney?
The answer is simple: hatred, retribution, and retaliation for what Gallion has done all his life, namely, fighting for the underdog, fighting injustice, and taking on a corrupt system that rewards a few while destroying the least.
Over a decade ago, Gallion represented numerous families who were taken advantage of by a Montgomery, Ala., attorney. That attorney’s crimes included fraud, misappropriation of client trust funds, embezzlement, and writing himself into the final will and trust documents of clients.
Gallion brought these matters to the Bar in order to protect the public from a corrupt attorney. Yet these complaints fell on deaf ears and nothing was ever done to that particular attorney despite plenty of documentation and proof.
“If the Bar had only done something to take away this attorney’s ability to practice law, we would never be in the financial position that we are in now,” one family said. In that particular case, the attorney’s co-conspirator, who was housing all his stolen funds, went to prison. Yet despite the millions of dollars involved, which destroyed families and their businesses, the attorney himself was not arrested, prosecuted or disciplined by the Alabama Bar.
Enter Phillip McCallum, the executive director of the Alabama Bar, who resigned on Oct. 23, 2020, after he was found guilty of 17 violations of state ethics laws. He faced no criminal prosecution nor any disciplinary action by the Bar despite being fined $100,000 for ethics violations. Adding insult to injury, McCallum was paid $37,437 10 months after his resignation with no justification of the payment from the Bar.
The Alabama Examiners of Public Accounts’ last audit of the Bar raised some serious questions. According to the findings, the Bar was noncompliant with state laws and regulations, did not maintain accurate records, and transferred statutorily unauthorized investments totaling $604,000 from the State Treasury Fund to its Alabama State Bar Investment account. The Bar also didn’t adhere to the Fair Labor Standards Act, had a lack of internal controls, and reimbursed 19 venders without executed contracts in the amount of over $227,000.
Then a longtime, former employee of the Bar, Katherine Church, filed a lawsuit against McCallum and the Bar, alleging that McCallum had ordered Church to handle personal tasks while she was working for the Bar, leading to the 17 violations of state ethic laws. McCallum was forced to resign.
Gallion was the one who represented Church. Together, they filed a Bar complaint, noting the following:
Plaintiff does not understand why the Bar did not disbar McCallum after he was found guilty of 17 ethics violations. … Not only did they not disbar him and/or suspend Defendant McCallum, but they actually paid him $37,437 on August 19, 2021, 11 months after being forced to resign.
Church then revised her lawsuit, adding General Counsel for the Bar Roman Shaul and Assistant General Counsel Mark Moody as defendants to the case. In that filing, Gallion noted that “her intimate knowledge of the inner working of the Bar had led its leadership to go after Gallion.”
The revised lawsuit also stated:
Plaintiff alleges that the Bar and Bar Attorney Defendants Moody and Shaul are attempting to deprive the Plaintiff of her right to an attorney in this matter. Plaintiff alleges that she and her attorney know so much about the corruption and unethical conduct as described herein that they will do anything to silence both her and her attorney. …
Plaintiff alleges that if someone does not expose what has gone on at the Bar, then the safety and welfare of the public will not be protected.
This would be a pattern and practice that would plague Gallion over the next several years.
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At age 82, Gallion had a medical injury and decided to close his law office and live the good life at the beach with his family. Following the Bar’s advice, Gallion completed his medical retirement from the Bar, voluntarily surrendering his law license.
Unfortunately, Moody and Shaul continued harassing Gallion. Judge Gaines issued an order refusing to set aside the mediation agreement that resolved this matter and the Bar complaint. After another filing in the court by Moody and Shaul on behalf of the Bar, Gaines ordered a stay on “all bar proceedings against Gallion.”
Moody and Shaul refused to follow the order, and the court’s ruling is still in effect today.
The job of the Alabama State Bar should be to protect Alabama citizens, not corrupt attorneys. It’s also not their job to go on a vengeful witch hunt against an 83-year-old man who exposed the corruption at the State Bar.
Gallion recently suffered the greatest loss of his life when his beloved wife of 58 years died on March 1, 2026. During the last weeks of her life, she told Gallion, “Do not allow those two evil Bar attorneys to destroy our family.”
The family and friends of Gallion would ask the Bar to immediately place his status as “voluntarily surrender.”
The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the policy or position of 1819 News. To comment, please send an email with your name and contact information to [email protected].
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