Eighteen-year-old Andrew Brasher, fresh off earning high school valedictorian honors, envisioned himself pursuing a career in academia. Until a series of talks with college advisers altered that trajectory and led Brasher to become a lawyer and judge.

“I had done mock trials and debate in high school, and I enjoyed writing, research, history and government,” Brasher said. “But on the PhD track I thought about pursuing, you were dealing with problems that were abstract and writing papers for academic journals. The conversations with my advisers helped me realize how the law was a way to put my interests into real-world use, to have an immediate impact on people’s lives.”

Remembering these influential professors like Mark Baggett and Fred Shepherd, prompts Brasher to marvel over his transformative time on Samford’s campus, where he studied international relations, taught French labs and met his future wife.

Everything that transpired after—Harvard Law School, private practice litigation, becoming Alabama’s solicitor general, a U.S. District judgeship, and ultimately being appointed to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals— he can trace back to Samford.

Brasher chose Samford for college partly because of church connections, and partly because his best friend’s older sister happened to be attending at the time.

“I’m struck by how serendipitous things are,” Brasher said. “It’s more than just a right-place-at-the-right-time kind of thing.”

Entering Harvard Law, he questioned if he was in the right place, and worried over being outclassed among students at one of the nation’s iconic institutions. However, Brasher immediately earned validation through his selection to the Harvard Law Review—a distinction typically reserved for about 30 students from a class of 500.

“That’s when I realized I was actually doing well and not just treading water,” he said. He ultimately graduated cum laude and received the Victor Brudney Prize for his paper on corporate law.

During a post-graduate internship in Washington, D.C., Brasher lived just blocks from the Supreme Court, affording him the chance to attend arguments. A decade later, he would argue SCOTUS cases himself as the Alabama solicitor general, what he described as “a dream job for a young lawyer.”

In May 2019, Brasher was confirmed as a U.S. District Judge in Alabama, following his nomination by President Donald Trump. Six months later, Trump nominated Brasher for the U.S. Court of Appeals, with confirmation from the Senate following in February 2020.

“I could have stayed in private practice, could have stayed in a government job, but I needed to keep challenging myself,” Brasher said. “Now I probably have the last job I’m ever going to have.”

Professor Shepherd recalled Brasher as a “fantastic student from day one,” eager to challenge himself through upper-level courses.

 “It was obvious from the start that he was an independent thinker who had the intellectual tools to thrive in whatever career he chose,” Shepherd said. “His time at Harvard and on the bench has shown that he is very much his own person when it comes to important legal and political matters. I think his experience in the classroom at Samford may have been an important part of this evolution.”   

The 11th Circuit’s jurisdiction spans Alabama, Georgia and Florida, with headquarters in Atlanta. Brasher is one of two Samford graduates on the 12-judge court, joining Kevin Newsom ’94 who was seated in 2017. The caseload can appear staggering—the current average exceeds 4,500 filings annually and Brasher authors more than 100 opinions a year.

When at home in Birmingham, the 43-year-old Brasher jokes about settling into “normal old-man activities” such as crossword puzzles, lake fishing and, of course, reading.

“I read all the time for work and then I read more at home,” he said. “I really love learning. I love the process of coming to understand something that I didn’t know previously. I tell my kids I got into a profession where I just do homework for my job.”

ALUMNI OF THE YEAR: ANDREW BRASHER

Samford: BA 2002, summa cum laude

Harvard: JD 2006, cum laude

Career highlights: Solicitor general for Alabama (2014-2019); Confirmed to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 2020.