B.S., 2003
Attorney, The Perkins Group LLC
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“When I was studying psychology at UAB, I focused at first on abnormal child psychology, because I thought that was the area I wanted to go into. However, the more I studied psychology, the more I realized that having an understanding of human thought processes at all ages could benefit me in other professional areas as well.”
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Montgomery native Kimberly Perkins was a psychology major at UAB in 1999, but after graduating, mentors she met both on and off campus helped direct her into the field of law—and guided her toward becoming a rising star in Birmingham’s legal community. Less than a year after graduating from the Cumberland School of Law, Perkins started her own firm, The Perkins Group LLC, a general practice concentrating on contract work and criminal defense.
On her teachers and mentors:
“I liked UAB because it was an urban campus that wasn’t too far away from home, and I liked that it was a large school with many different disciplines of study. I found the study of human behavior very interesting, so I took some psychology classes as part of my core requirement, and those professors were always the most memorable; as for teaching style, I remember Dr. Rosalyn Weller—she’s a great teacher, and she made the material really fascinating. I also remember Dr. John Sloan [in the Department of Justice Sciences] vividly—his class helped pique my interest in the legal field.”
On choosing law as a career:
“By the time I graduated from UAB, I still had some questions about which direction I wanted to take—I didn’t know whether I wanted to be an attorney or a mental-health counselor. So about three or four months after graduating, I went to UAB’s Career Center and found a job as a receptionist in Donald Watkins’s office. Working for Mr. Watkins and observing his brilliance and skill were what really ignited my passion for the law. I realized that that was what I wanted to do!
“My current office is located in Mr. Watkins’s Alamerica Bank building, and I still work for him in addition to running my own practice. He has been and continues to be a great mentor, and over the years his guidance and support have been invaluable in helping me achieve my goals.”
Perkins started her firm in March 2008 and hit the ground running, making connections in the Birmingham legal community and picking up plenty of contract work from other firms. Lately, she’s taken on an increasing amount of criminal-defense work, which she says quickly impressed upon her the importance of the public defender to America’s legal system.
On serving as a public defender:
“There’s a huge need for more public defenders in the area, and being a new attorney, I knew I needed more experience in the actual courtroom. Even though I didn’t start out with a particular interest in criminal defense, I thought it was a good way to learn the court system, become familiar with local judges, and ‘get my feet wet’ in terms of actual litigation.
“I’m a little bit nervous every time I walk into the courtroom for those cases, but I think that’s healthy. Even though I feel very confident and competent in what I’m doing, with each case I realize I am dealing with someone’s life. I’ve never worked on something as serious as a capital-punishment case, but I feel strongly that when the prospect of someone losing their freedom for any amount of time is involved, that time is someone’s life, and you want to take it seriously and do your best. I never enter the courtroom taking a case lightly or being overconfident, either, because a victory in one case can very easily be followed by a loss in the next one.”
Even with her busy caseload, Perkins has found time to give back to the institution that started her on her current path: She serves on the Department of Justice Sciences Pre-Law Advisory Board. She says she’s excited about supporting a program that’s poised to give many other UAB students the same shot at success that she had.
On serving on the Pre-Law Advisory Board:
“I met [School of Arts and Humanities development director] Mary Balfour Van Zandt at an alumni function, and she told me about the board. It made me think back to my days at UAB, when the Pre-Law Program hadn’t yet evolved into what it is today, and I decided I wanted to reach back any way I could to be supportive of the program and help it stand out. I also served on the selection committee for the Camille Armstrong Scholarship in 2008, which is a scholarship for students who hope to enter the legal field.
“The big project for the Pre-Law Advisory Board each year is the Trial By Fire Chili Cook-Off, which is a lot of fun—it’s something that attorneys from all over Birmingham can participate in and just take a day off to enjoy themselves, but do it for a good cause. I’m really big on getting the word out about UAB’s Pre-Law Program, and it’s exciting to know that all these judges and attorneys are finding out about it and giving us their support.”
No representation is made that the quality of the legal services to be performed by Ms. Perkins is greater than the quality of legal services performed by other lawyers.