Hill Hill Carter is honored to announce that Shareholder Shawn Junkins Cole is the recipient of the Montgomery County Bar Association’s 2023 Service and Achievement Award. This Award honors one Montgomery attorney annually who has distinguished themselves through service to the bar and the community. This award recognizes an attorney who displays the highest standard of professionalism and is highly respected by the legal community for outstanding legal ability.
Mrs. Cole is recognized for her dedication to Montgomery’s legal community and volunteer efforts. Because access to justice is important to Mrs. Cole, she regularly provides pro bono legal counsel and mediation services to individuals in need. She is a frequent lecturer on various topics, including specific legal issues related to the workers’ compensation industry. However, her favorite topic to teach is Ethics. Mrs. Cole participates at the county and state level in matters involving law student and attorney ethics issues. She serves on the Bench and Bar Committee of the Alabama State Bar and is one of the Chairpersons for the Alabama State Bar’s Character and Fitness Committee. She was named recipient of the National Work Comp Central’s Comp Laude Award for Workers’ Compensation Defense Attorney of the Year in 2023, is an Alabama Law Foundation Fellow, President of the Montgomery Kiwanis Foundation, Treasurer of Alabama Workers’ Compensation Defense Lawyers Association, and is involved in many other workers’ compensation trade organizations. She is outside general counsel for the Municipal Workers’ Compensation Fund, Alabama ForestFund, and Alabama Home Builders Self Insurers Fund. Mrs. Cole is also heavily involved in community outreach, working with nonprofit organizations, acting in an advisory capacity, and serving on Boards for various nonprofits in the River Region.
A Shareholder who leads Hill Hill Carter’s Workers’ Compensation practice group, Mrs. Cole’s practice involves workers’ compensation matters and other related and ancillary issues, including retaliatory discharge/wrongful termination. She is a certified mediator and focuses her mediation practice on employment-related matters. Mrs. Cole represents insurance companies, Funds, governmental entities, corporations, and other large and small businesses throughout Alabama in various workers’ compensation-related legal matters, including consultations on preventative measures to alleviate on-the-job injuries and counsel businesses on handling work-related claims before litigation. She has worked in private practice and as in-house counsel dealing with litigation and regulatory compliance matters for companies that underwrite workers’ compensation and employers’ liability coverage.