Hand Arendall Harrison Sale LLC

Roger Bates serves as the Managing Lawyer for the firm and is Chair of the firm’s Health Care Practice Group. Mr. Bates has extensive experience in complex business and commercial litigation, including business and contract disputes, insurance and financial service products, labor and employment and healthcare related litigation. Mr. Bates also has extensive experience in representing our clients before state and federal regulatory agencies and assisting them with governmental relations issues. Mr. Bates also serves as chief outside counsel to the Alabama Community College System.

Mr. Bates has tried numerous cases in both federal and state courts (both jury and non-jury), and has handled many arbitrations and meditations. Mr. Bates has served as a specially appointed Deputy Attorney General in Alabama since 1995 and often represents the State of Alabama in complex and institutional reform litigation. Mr. Bates was also appointed to serve a term as the City Attorney for the City of Hoover, Alabama and currently serves as the County Attorney for Chilton County, Alabama where he performs a variety of governmental and economic development services.

Mr. Bates has served on numerous committees of the Birmingham Bar Association and has lectured on a variety of topics for continuing legal education seminars. Mr. Bates is active in the Birmingham area community and has served on the Allocation Committee of the Birmingham Area United Way. Mr. Bates is a member of the American Bar Association, and of its State and Local Government Law and Litigation Sections. He is also a member of the American Health Lawyers Association, and the Alabama Association of Municipal Attorneys. In 2015, he was named a Fellow of the Alabama Law Foundation in recognition of his service to the community.

Mr. Bates was born in Clanton, Alabama. After being admitted to the Alabama State Bar in 1982, he was a law clerk to Senior U.S. District Judge C. W. Allgood until 1983. In 1979, Mr. Bates received a B.S. degree from Auburn University, and in 1982, he obtained his J.D. from Cumberland School of Law. While attending law school he was awarded the Donald E. Corley Best Advocate Award, served on the National Mock Trial Team, and was an associate member of the American Journal of Trial Advocacy.