After finishing law school, I was eager to enter private practice and begin what was for me a new and exciting second career. But I was given the opportunity to accept a clerkship working for Chief Justice Sonny Hornsby of the Alabama Supreme Court. It wasn’t an opportunity I could turn down and, little did I know, that one year would turn into five years working for the Court. My clerkship with Chief Justice Hornsby led to a position as staff attorney for retiring Justice Henry Steagall for the remaining six months of his term. Then I stayed on as a staff attorney to help his replacement on the Court, newly-elected Justice Terry Butts, get a good start. However, instead of staying on a…