Cumberland School of Law Names Sharon D. Stuart 2026 Distinguished Alumna

AIM is pleased to announce that President and Claims Council Sharon D. Stuart has received Samford University’s Cumberland School of Law’s 2026 Distinguished Alumna Award. 

Each year, Cumberland School of Law recognizes alumni and friends whose professional achievements, leadership, and service exemplify the values of the Cumberland community. 

AIM director Gaynor St. John is also being recognized as a “Friend of Cumberland."

We are so proud of both Sharon and Gaynor for their many years of service to the school and the legal profession.

As the child of a Cumberland School of Law professor, Sharon Donaldson Stuart practically grew up at Cumberland, even serving as a witness and juror for the mock trial program as a teenager.

A 1987 graduate of Samford University and a 1990 Cumberland graduate, Stuart served as associate editor of the Cumberland Law Review and competed as a member of the ABA National Trial Team. After beginning her legal career in Dallas, Texas, she returned to Birmingham to clerk for U.S. District Judge Sharon Lovelace Blackburn during the judge’s first two years on the federal bench.

In 1993, Stuart joined Rives & Peterson, P.C., which later became Christian & Small LLP. She is a founding partner of the firm and has practiced alongside the same group of colleagues for more than three decades.

Since 2019, Stuart has served as president and claims counsel for Attorneys Insurance Mutual of the South, the legal malpractice insurer established by the Alabama State Bar. In this role, she assists attorneys navigating malpractice and ethical claims while supporting professionalism throughout the legal community.

Stuart’s lifelong devotion to Cumberland endures. She served on the Dean’s Advisory Board for years before joining the Samford University Board of Trustees, where she currently serves. She was also a member of the formation committee for the Judge James Edwin Horton American Inn of Court, where she served as a master bencher.

Over the years, Stuart has judged countless mock trials, mentored students, spoken in law school classes and co-chaired class reunions. In 2004, she and her siblings established the Frank W. Donaldson Scholarship in Law, awarded to students who demonstrate superior academic achievement and exemplify qualities of civility and professionalism.

Stuart is active in the legal community, serving on the Alabama State Bar Board of Bar Commissioners, chairs the Alabama Supreme Court Standing Committee on the Rules of Civil Procedure and is a member of the Alabama Board of Legal Specialization. She is a past president of both the Birmingham Bar Association and the Alabama Defense Lawyers Association, and, in 2025, Stuart was recognized with the Alabama State Bar’s Tony McLain Professionalism Award.

Click here to read the press release from Cumberland School of Law.