Alice K. Nelson
Ms. Nelson has practiced with Southern Legal Counsel (SLC) (a public interest law firm) since 1988 and was Executive Director from 1988 to 2004. She was recently awarded a Fulbright grant to be a Senior Lecturer at the University of Ankara Law School to teach a graduate seminar on the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment. She also is an Adjunct Professor for Nova Southeastern University’s Shepard Broad Law Center where she teaches a Masters Level course in Contemporary Issues in Education Law.
Ms. Nelson is the Board Chair for the Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates (COPAA), and has previously chaired COPAA’s Amicus Committee. She has been Lead Trainer for Advanced Attorney Skills Trainings since 2004 for COPAA’s national annual conferences, and has been Amicus Committee Chair for many years. She is a member of The Florida Bar Public Interest Law Section and served as chair of The Florida Bar's Disability Law Committee from 1983-85. For eight years prior to coming to SLC, she was in private practice specializing in plaintiffs' employment law, special education issues, guardianship, and general civil rights. At SLC, she has litigated on behalf of adults with developmental disabilities and severe mental illness, on behalf of children with special needs for special education, and general civil rights.
Ms. Nelson received her B.A. from City College of New York in 1965, an M.S.W. from the University of Georgia in 1967, and a J.D. from Stetson College of Law in 1976. She has worked for the Developmental Disabilities Law Project at the University of Maryland and Bay Area Legal Services. She was a law clerk to the Honorable Thomas A. Clark when he was on the old Fifth Circuit (now the Eleventh Circuit). She is a member of The Florida Bar; the Middle, Southern and Northern Districts of Florida; the Fifth, Eleventh, and District of Columbia Circuit Courts of Appeal; the District of Columbia Bar (inactive status), and the United States Supreme Court.