Joyce Vance

Member of the Editorial Board

Joyce White Vance (@JoyceWhiteVance) is a Distinguished Professor of the Practice of Law at the University of Alabama School of Law. She served as the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama from 2009 to 2017. She was nominated for that position by President Barack Obama in  May of 2009 and unanimously confirmed by the Senate in August of 2009. Professor Vance served on the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee and was the Co-Chair of its Criminal Practice Subcommittee. As U.S. Attorney, she was responsible for overseeing all federal criminal investigations and prosecutions in north Alabama, including matters involving civil rights, national security, cybercrime, public corruption, health care and corporate fraud, violent crime and drug trafficking. She was also responsible for affirmative and defensive civil litigation on behalf of the government and for all federal criminal and civil appeals.

Before becoming U.S. Attorney, Professor Vance served as an Assistant United States Attorney in Birmingham for 18 years. She spent ten years as a criminal prosecutor, before moving to the Appellate Division in 2002. She became the Chief of that Division in 2005. Prior to her work as a federal prosecutor, she spent six years as a litigator in private practice, first at Arent, Fox, Kintner, Plotkin & Kahn in Washington D.C., and then at Bradley, Arant, Rose & White, now Bradley, Arant, Boult & Cummings, in Birmingham. Professor Vance received a B.A. from Bates College in Lewiston, Maine, magna cum laude, and a J.D. from the University of Virginia School of law.

Professor Vance is the 2017 recipient of the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Public Health’s Lou Wooster Public Health Hero Award for her leadership in creating a community-engaged initiative that included partners from law enforcement, the medical and business communities, and educators to address the heroin and opioid epidemic in northern Alabama. She is a frequent legal commentator on MSNBC and other news outlets. Professor Vance is also on LinkedIn.

Articles by this author:

The Fulton County Disqualification Allegations: Myths, Facts and Unknowns

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Jan 30th, 2024

Why Fani Willis Is Not Disqualified Under Georgia Law

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Jan 21st, 2024

Model Prosecution Memo for Trump Classified Documents

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Jun 2nd, 2023

Our Prosecution Memo Points the Way for the Special Counsel

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Nov 21st, 2022

Mar-a-Lago Model Prosecution Memo

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Nov 17th, 2022

Questions the January 6 Select Committee Should Ask Its Witnesses

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Jul 26th, 2021

United States of America v. Rudolph W. Giuliani

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Oct 24th, 2019

Expert Summaries of Mueller Report: A Collection

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Aug 20th, 2019

Will the Public Find Out if Trump Directed Campaign Contact with Stone on Wikileaks?

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Feb 5th, 2019