Sam Clyde Pointer Jr. (November 15, 1934 – March 15, 2008) was an attorney in Birmingham, Alabama, and a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama from 1970 to 2000. He was a noted figure in complex multidistrict class-action litigation.
Sam Clyde Pointer Jr.
Alabama Northern District Court
Chief Judge — U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama
Born 1934 in Birmingham, AL
Died 2008
FJC ID: 1900
Career output and lasting influence
Opinions attributed per year · peak 2/year
Later decisions citing those opinions, per year · peak 9/year
Alabama Northern District Court · 1970–2000
Both charts share the same year axis. Opinion counts include only opinions in our corpus attributed to this judge so far — a year at zero can mean an attribution gap, not judicial silence. Influence typically outlasts the career: citations keep climbing after the last opinion.
- Gender
- Male
- Race
- White
Prior employment
- Judicial Conference of the United StatesMember · 1987–1990
Member · 1980–1987
U.S. Army Reserve1957–1970- Private practice, Birmingham, Alabama1958–1970
- U.S. Army1957
Appointments
1970–2000 · Appointed by Richard M. Nixon (Republican)Term ended: Retirement
Education
LL.M. · 1958
J.D. · 1957- Vanderbilt UniversityA.B. · 1955