The Dr. Ernest Bainbridge Lipscomb III Memorial Scholarship Endowment will provide financial aid for students in the University of Mississippi School of Law. First preference will be given to those participating in the Academic Success Summer Program, which helps prepare law students for positive outcomes in their classes and on the bar exam. Photo by Hunt Mercier/ Ole Miss Digital Imaging Services
Honorees represent ‘excellence and impact’ of school
By Scott Thompson
The University of Mississippi School of Law will induct five distinguished attorneys into its Alumni Hall of Fame during a March 29 ceremony as part of Law Alumni Weekend.
This year’s honorees are Steven E. Farese Sr. (BA 71, JD 77), of Ashland; the late Martha W. Gerald (LLB 44), of Jackson; Betty W. Sanders (JD 79), of Tupelo; D. Briggs Smith Jr. (BSPh 62, JD 66), of Batesville; and William C. Trotter III (BA 69, JD 72), of Belzoni.
“Each year, we have the privilege of honoring outstanding alumni whose careers and contributions exemplify the excellence and impact of our law school,” said Frederick G. Slabach, dean of the School of Law. “This year’s Hall of Fame inductees continue that tradition, demonstrating the leadership, integrity and dedication to justice that define our alumni community.”
The event is scheduled for 7 pm in the Gertrude C. Ford Ballroom of The Inn at Ole Miss. The banquet and a 6 pm reception honoring the inductees are open to the public.
Tickets range from $35 to $65 and can be purchased online by clicking here or by calling Laurie Thompson at the Ole Miss Alumni Association at 662-915-2401.
Farese earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from Ole Miss in 1971. As an undergraduate, he played point guard for the Rebels Basketball team. He completed his law degree in 1977 and began practicing at the family’s law firm in Ashland.
Specializing in criminal defense, personal injury and civil litigation, Farese has handled many high-profile cases. His success in his field has landed him in publications such as Vanity Fair and People magazine. He has also been featured on the Oprah Winfrey Show, A&E’s City Confidential, Larry King Live, and Good Morning America.
Gerald was a Leland native and a 1944 graduate of the law school, where she served as editor-in-chief of the Mississippi Law Journal. Before her legal studies, she attended Millsaps College, earning a degree in 1941 in social studies and English.
Gerald is considered a trailblazer for female lawyers in Mississippi, eventually becoming a partner in the firm that hired her. She also was known as Mississippi’s dean of oil and gas lawyers, writing “Title Problems in Mississippi,” the treatise most referred to by oil and gas lawyers.
Before her legal career, Sanders was an educator. She received her bachelor’s degree in business education from Alcorn State University in 1966 and master’s in business education in 1971 from Bowling Green University. She taught business classes at Coahoma Junior College and business law and court systems at Mississippi Valley State University.
She earned her law degree in 1979 and worked with North Mississippi Rural Legal Services from the Greenwood office and practiced in her husband’s law firm. In LeFlore County, she became the first African American to serve as co-counsel to the Greenwood Public School District.
She was the first African American to be elected to Subdistrict 3 of Mississippi’s Fourth Circuit Court, where she helped establish a drug court and became the state’s first African American circuit court magistrate judge. Mississippi Supreme Court Chief Justice Michael Randolph presented her with the 2023 Chief Justice Award in recognition of her accomplishments and service.
Smith, a Meridian native, earned a pharmacy degree from Ole Miss in 1962. He served with the 186th United States Air Force Combat Support Squadron as a medic/pharmacist and worked in the family pharmacy in Meridian and at the University of Mississippi Medical Center before enrolling in law school. He earned his law degree in 1966 and moved the following year to Batesville, where he began practicing law.
In 1974, he became a founding partner of the Smith-Phillips law firm. He handled cases involving products liability and personal injury. Following the legalization of casinos in Mississippi, he became one of the first attorneys in the state to practice gaming law.
Smith is past president of the UM Law Alumni Chapter’s board of directors, past chair of the Lamar Order and a past Ole Miss Alumni Association board member. The School of Law school named him its 2003 Alumnus of the Year.
A Greenville native, Trotter has practiced law at Garrard & Trotter PLLC in Belzoni for more than 50 years. He earned his bachelor’s degree in English from Ole Miss in 1969 and his law degree in 1972.
From 1980 until his recent retirement, he served as circuit and youth court public defender for Humphreys County. In 1973, he became a municipal judge in Belzoni and Louise and served continuously until his retirement. He has volunteered in numerous capacities within the Mississippi Bar and was elected as its 2001-02 president.
He served as president of the Law Alumni Chapter’s board of directors and as chair of the Lamar Order. Trotter was named the law school’s 2015 Alumnus of the Year and earned the Mississippi Bar’s 2023 Lifetime Achievement Award.
