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Cabaniss, Johnston Scholarship: Meeting the FutureAlexee Deep has wanted to be a lawyer since she was seven years old. Currently a second-year law student at Cornell University, the Alabama Law Foundation is proud to award her the $5000 Cabaniss, Johnston Scholarship. Alexee was born and raised in Birmingham and is the daughter of Rima and Larry Deep. In junior high school Alexee developed, in addition to her interest in law, a passion for science, particularly genetics and technology. She graduated from Indian Springs School, and in college decided to pursue connections between law and science—specifically medicine, technology and public policy. She obtained her bachelor’s degree from Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public Policy and International Affairs and her master’s degree in bio-ethics from the University of Pennsylvania. Upon receiving her law degree, she will be poised to work with vanguard legal issues in medicine and science. Alexee is intrigued with legal complications arising from technology. “For instance,” she says, “there are issues involving embryo custody. What if an infertile couple sets aside embryos for implanting but then divorces— who do the embryos belong to— him or her?” Alexee’s unique combined interest in law and science extends to areas where new medical research could influence the legalities of the everyday workplace. She calls these situations issues in “the field of genetic discrimination.” In one example she explains, “Say a company’s employee is susceptible to certain workplace toxins. What obligations does the company have to that employee?” Alexee sees opportunities to work in many different areas of the law and has not yet decided which path to pursue. She says she might work for a large medical complex such as UAB or counsel corporations on health-related issues. Although her exact career path is not yet certain, she is adamant about returning and settling in Birmingham. Alexee is a shining example of the type of student the Cabaniss, Johnston Scholarship seeks to honor. Now in its seventeenth year, the scholarship is endowed by the law firm of Cabaniss, Johnston, Gardner, Dumas & O’Neal of Birmingham and Mobile and is administered by the Alabama Law Foundation. The scholarship’s aim is to recognize and assist academically outstanding second-year law students who are also Alabama residents, and, further, to help promising law students become lawyers who will make a positive impact on society. The committee can select runner-up scholarships at their discretion. In 2004, in addition to Alexee, runner-up scholarships were awarded to Reni Adadevoh and Monica Sekhon. Certainly, new technologies, breakthroughs in research, and medical advances will create intriguing legal issues in the future. The Cabaniss, Johnston Scholarship is proud to support Alexee in her quest to confidently meet that future.
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