Florida attorneys Kacy O’Brien Donlon ’89 and Doug Bates ’00 worked together in the Florida Bar Business Law Section for years before finding out they are both Birmingham-Southern graduates.

“We’ve joked as we’ve come up in leadership together that, if this track continues, we’re going to be a chair and chair-elect at the same time, both from the small college that is Birmingham-Southern,” Bates says.

And they were right. Donlon and Bates began their roles as chair and chair-elect, respectively, of the Florida Bar Business Law Section in June 2021. Both are amazed that two BSC graduates would end up working together outside of Alabama.

Donlon, partner at Johnson, Cassidy, Newlon & DeCort in Tampa, and Bates, shareholder at Clark Partington in Pensacola, are both longtime members of the business law section, a nearly 5,000-member organization that allows Florida attorneys to discuss and change state legislation relating to business.

“We work to advance legislation,” Donlon says. “Members have been involved in revising the corporation section of the Florida statutes and the LLC statutes, and we have other issues on the table this year that we’ll be working on to get legislation passed. It’s amazing to see the results that our section gets from the hard work of our members.”

For more than 20 years, Donlon has practiced law in Tampa, where she first moved after earning her law degree from the Washington and Lee University School of Law. (She and several other BSC alums, including Tamara Dickerson ’89, Rima Fawal Hartman ’90, Joelle James Phillps ’89, and Brant Phillips ’91, all ended up at Washington and Lee around the same time.) Donlon’s interest in law followed her international undergraduate and post-grad experiences, many of which were supported by her McWane Scholarship from BSC.

Contracting her major in international business, Donlon spent all four January interims away and abroad – she interned in D.C. her first year and later traveled to Australia, New Zealand, China, and Egypt. She also earned a scholarship from the Ensley Rotary Club to study management, economics, and politics at the University of St. Andrews in St. Andrews, Scotland.

As a law student, Donlon clerked for District Judge Seybourn Lynne and clerked at Maynard Cooper & Gale, working with attorneys focused on securities litigation and insurance sales practices litigation. This work experience led her to become the securities editor for her program’s law review, and she continues to focus on securities and commercial litigation.

Like Donlon, Bates also studied business at BSC, and he says he always uses his business administration degree as an attorney and in the business law section. He earned his law degree from the University of Florida College of Law and has practiced with focus on litigation and insolvency in his hometown of Pensacola for eight years – only a few blocks down from his father’s law office.

“In the Birmingham-Southern baseball media guide in 2000, I said that I wanted to follow my dad’s footsteps and be a lawyer,” Bates says. “As someone who took BA 499 during my interim, I now get a chance to take the law and apply it to business to marry up my degrees.”

Though they live in different parts of the state, Donlon and Bates got to know each other through their active involvement in the business law section.

“The section gives you assets and friends all over the state,” Donlon says, “from Doug in Pensacola to attorneys in Jacksonville, Orlando, Miami, and Naples. When you need help or need to refer a client, it’s nice to know you have somebody.”

As president of the organization, Donlon plans organization-wide meetings, which have currently returned to in-person events after two years of virtual meetings. All standing committees, substantive committees, and task forces meet during these events, and members hear updates on committee work.

Donlon is also in charge of the destination and planning of the section’s spring retreat, which will be held in Ireland this year. She is looking forward to traveling with other members again and bringing back the social aspects of the organization that were missing with virtual meetings.

“Kacy is a wonderful leader,” Bates says. “I’m thrilled to work in this supportive role with her.”

Bates, in his position as chair-elect, supports Donlon’s work and initiatives until he takes on the position in summer 2022 at the end of the bar year. In his time with the section, he has taught classes and worked on legislation related to financial literacy, something he will continue to emphasize.

“Financial literacy in the state of Florida – both at the educational level and in other forms – is something the business law section has focused on extensively for many years,” Bates says. “We have put many programs in place in Florida schools and have passed legislation relating to financial literacy curriculum.”

When they first joined the section, Bates was still in law school – his father was an active member and served as the section’s chair 25 years ago – and Donlon was new to Tampa and early in her practice. Their interests in business and hard work in their committees soon grew to multiple leadership positions throughout their membership.

“There are always opportunities in bar work to get involved and raise your hand,” Donlon says. “As a young associate, I went to different committee meetings and, within a couple years, I was chair of a committee. If you do good work, you keep moving up to different slots.”

Both Donlon and Bates appreciate their time on the Hilltop and often see the ways it impacts their work as they continue to grow their practices and step up as leaders in their state.

“It’s outside of the state of Alabama, too, that BSC graduates are making things happen,” Donlon says.

This story was included in a special law edition of From the Hilltop, Birmingham-Southern’s alumni email newsletter.

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