PROMINENT ATTORNEY JOINS TIDE’S APPEAL
Feb 19, 2002
from the Montgomery Advertiser Digital Edition
MOBILE – A lawyer known for getting a record $3.5 billion in a case
against Exxon Mobil last year will help represent the University of Alabama
in its appeal to the NCAA.
Robert Cunningham Jr. told the Mobile Register on Monday the NCAA’s
punishments against Alabama were exceedingly harsh, and at the least they
should be toned down.
Cunningham, a senior partner at the Mobile law firm of Cunningham, Bounds,
Yance, Crowder and Brown, said his firm insists on representing the university for free.
The Crimson Tide was hit with a two-year playoff ban and scholarship losses
by the NCAA on Feb. 1. The school was held responsible for boosters who
were accused of giving high school players money to attend college at Alabama.
Cunningham won a $3.5 billion judgment for Alabama in a case against Exxon
Mobil last year. The state charges the company underpaid royalties from
offshore gas leases.