Terri Sewell - Legal Career

Legal Career

After graduation, Sewell served as a judicial law clerk in Birmingham, Alabama to the Honorable Chief Judge U. W. Clemon, United States District Court (AL-ND), Alabama’s first black federal judge.

Sewell began her legal career in 1994 at the Wall Street law firm of Davis Polk & Wardwell. A securities lawyer for more than a decade, she had much exposure to finance and the capital markets. Sewell provided free legal services to the homeless, mentoring girls of color in NYC high schools through the program Dreams into Action and serving on the Alumni Advisory Board of Sponsors of Educational Opportunity, a not-for-profit organization providing education, leadership training and Wall Street internships to students of color. Through her involvement with SEO, she served as the co-chair of the Community Assistance Fund, which provided $100,000 of aid and assistance to organizations serving communities of color affected by the events of September 11, 2001.

Sewell moved back to Alabama in 2004 to assist her mother in the care of her father.

As the first black female partner in the Birmingham law firm of Maynard, Cooper, & Gale, P.C., Sewell has distinguished herself as one of the only black public finance lawyers in the State of Alabama. She served as a lawyer helping to raise money for public projects for some of the state’s most underserved public entities, many in the 7th Congressional district, including the City of Selma, Dallas County Water Authority and Lowndes County Board of Education. Sewell made educational finance a particular focus of her practice representing the historically black colleges in the State of Alabama including Alabama State University, Tuskegee University, and Stillman College as well as other state higher education institutions like Wallace State-Hanceville, Jefferson State Community College, Chattahoochee Valley Community College and the State of Alabama’s Public Schools and University Authority.