Hubbard Coleman, PC
418 Scott Street
Montgomery, AL 36104
(334)832-1001 /  

Joseph “Joe” is a 2006 graduate of Cumberland School of Law of Samford University where he received a Scholar of Merit. He also has a BA in Cultural and Religious Studies from Huntingdon College where he graduated cum laude in ’03. At Huntingdon, he was the recipient of the Louise Panigot Award for Excellence in the Study of Religion. Joe is a founding shareholder for Hubbard Coleman P.C. His areas of practice are General Litigation, Government Liability, and Criminal Defense.

After graduating from Cumberland, Joe clerked for Justice Champ Lyons of the Alabama Supreme Court. He then worked at Webb & Eley, P.C., and served as a representative to District 73 for the House. Joe’s activities at Cumberland included Articles Editor, American Journal of Trial Advocacy, Chair of Cordell Hull Speakers Forum, Judge Abraham Caruthers Teaching Fellow, and member of Henry Upson Sims Moot Court Board. He is a member of the Hugh Maddox Chapter, American Inns of Court, the Young Lawyers Program with the Montgomery Bar Association, Volunteer Lawyers Program through the Alabama State Bar, Montgomery Area Chamber of Commerce, Montgomery Kiwanis Club, the Vestry at Episcopal Church of the Ascension, on the Board of Trustees for Holy Cross Episcopal School, and on the Board of Directors of Alabama National Fair and Ascension Day School.

The attorney who recommended Joe said, “I have known Joe Hubbard all his life, as his godfather and long time friend to his family. I have also seen him overcome the loss of his mother during his high school years, to continue his education graduating with honors at Huntingdon College, and then at Cumberland School of Law, where he was also active in extracurricular activities as I trust his resume will reflect. From his earliest years, Joe has exhibited servant-leader qualities, perhaps due in part from genes passed down from his great-grandfather, Senator Lister Hill. Most of his life, Joe has been active in his Episcopal church and diocese, serving in leadership roles in the vestry as well as various ministries and committees. I was frankly surprised a few years ago when he advised he had decided as a Democrat to campaign against the incumbent for House Seat No. 73, a long time Republican seat. He tirelessly and steadfastly ran that campaign and was successful against incredible odds, including one of the strongest GOP swings in election history. Less than a dozen Democratic candidates across the country were so successful. In his first general session, he was elected minority whip by his party and went on to pass his two major legislative initiatives – a bill to provide a means to save Montgomery’s Garrett Coliseum (a key local economic generator) from extinction and a bill to de-regulate Alabama’s micro-brewery business, also an important initiative for economic development of Montgomery and other cities. Clearly, Joe has a calling to servant leadership, whether in his church, his community or his state.”

In his own words Joe said, “I pursued the legal profession as a career and calling, because my grandfather, John C. Godbold, taught me at a young age the service that lawyers can provide. As a trial lawyer in Alabama early in his career, as Chief Judge of the old Fifth and the Eleventh Circuits, and as the Director of the Federal Judicial Center, my grandfather was an unwavering advocate of justice for all. As I develop my own law practice, I remember the stories my grandfather told me about clients bringing fresh produce to his back door in payment and gratitude for his service. These stories remind me that the attorney-client relationship entails much more than a mere business transaction. My grandfather taught me lawyers render a public service, and public service is a calling not to be entered into lightly. I entered that calling with the same careful deliberation I gave the calling to public service as a Representative in the Alabama State House. I serve in both capacities with a sense of duty and responsibility to my clients, my constituents, and my community. As both a lawyer and a legislator, I believe my participation in the Alabama State Bar Leadership Forum will help me grow and mature as a public servant. When I initially entered private practice, after a year-long clerkship with Justice Champ Lyons on the Alabama Supreme Court, I thought that success as a lawyer meant winning cases. I counted every written decision by a District or Appellate court as a step towards success. In 2008, however, my understanding of success as a lawyer changed. At a docket call on a worker’s compensation case in Crenshaw County, I listened to Judge McFerrin recommend that an elderly woman, who appeared pro se in a collections matter, speak with an attorney in the courtroom about her case. No one in the crowded courtroom volunteered to speak with Ms. Wise, but riding down the elevator with her, I offered for her to come by my office to discuss the matter. Needless to say, Ms. Wise did not impress the partners to whom I answered, as an associate at an insurance defense firm in Montgomery. She couldn’t afford to pay me, and she owed the county mental health hospital a good deal of money. But I believed she had a viable defense, so I pressed on. After extensive research and numerous and candid conversations with the attorney for the hospital, the debt was released. Although Ms. Wise couldn’t afford to pay me for my services, her heartfelt letter was compensation enough. My representation of Ms. Wise did not significantly alter the legal landscape in Alabama. It did, however, change my understanding of what success as a lawyer really means. Since that time, my approach to the practice of law has more closely mirrored the calling my grandfather described, to render a public service. And, if Ms. Wise’s story can help me convince fellow lawyers to treat our profession as a public service, that will be the greatest contribution of all. Public service, for me, is something that extends beyond the walls of the courtrooms where I practice law, or even the Statehouse where I help create laws. It is a mindset, a way of life. Since returning to Montgomery to practice law, I have tried to carry that mindset into all aspects of my personal and professional life.”