Nori D. Horton

Profile

Ms. Horton’s legal knowledge spans a wide range of areas including general counsel services, labor and employment, governmental liability, constitutional law, police civil liability, and other complex civil issues. Ms. Horton’s broad legal experience combined with her pragmatic approach to problem solving results in providing clients with thoughtful, real-world advice.

Ms. Horton most recently served as in-house counsel at an R1 university with over 9,000 students and 1,500 employees, providing legal advice, risk assessment, and representation to high level administrators, faculty, and staff on a wide range of issues, including labor and employment, regulatory compliance, sponsored research, government investigations, Title IX, FERPA, the Clery Act, financial aid, open records requests, third-party subpoenas, and environmental health and safety.  Ms. Horton also developed policies and procedures, represented the University’s interests in criminal and civil matters, managed outside litigation and discovery, and prepared and reviewed contracts.

In addition to her general counsel experience, Ms. Horton had the unique opportunity to clerk for two federal judges after practicing law for eight years. Not only did she aid both judges in establishing their chambers operations, but she also consistently provided them with trusted on-the-spot legal advice, including at court hearings, status conferences, settlement conferences, and trial. Moreover, she prepared numerous memorandum opinions addressing large-scale and complex discovery disputes, summary judgment motions, motions to dismiss, motions to suppress, habeas petitions, Social Security appeals, and a wide range of other civil and criminal issues before and during trial.

Prior to her clerking experience, Ms. Horton litigated police civil liability, constitutional, and employment issues in federal and state courts, which included a six-day trial in federal court and oral argument before the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, and provided legal services to victims of human trafficking.

Representative Cases

Garcia v. Killingsworth, 425 Fed. Appx. 831 (11th Cir. 2011).

Brown v. City of Huntsville, 608 F.3d 724 (11th Cir. 2010).

Walker v. City of Huntsville, 310 Fed. Appx. 335 (11th Cir. 2009).

City of Huntsville v. Stove House 5, Inc., 3 So. 3d 186 (Ala. 2008).

Publications

• “Officer Liability: Unintended Injuries of Third Parties,” For the Defense Magazine (November 2007)

Presentations

• Due Process in the Student Context, 2023
• Behavioral Intervention Teams (BIT), Standards and Legislative Update, 2022

Professional Affiliations

• Huntsville-Madison County Bar Association
• Alabama State Bar
• State Bar of California (inactive)

Education

• J.D., 2005, Pepperdine School of Law, Malibu, CA
  • Pepperdine Law Review
  • Interscholastic Moot Court Team - Federal Bar Association Constitutional Law Competition (Best   Brief) and Stetson Environmental Law Competition (Quarterfinalist and Third Place Respondent Brief)
  • Order of Barristers
• B.A., summa cum laude, 2001, Auburn University, Auburn, AL
  • Phi Beta Kappa
  • Phi Kappa Phi
  • Pi Sigma Alpha, Top Political Science Student
  • The English Center, Tutor

Bar Admissions

• Alabama, 2006
• California, 2005 (inactive)

Court Admissions

• U.S. Supreme Court
• U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
• U.S. District Court, Northern District of Alabama
• All Alabama Courts

Community Involvement

• WEDC Foundation, Board of Directors
• Little Mountain Forest School, Board of Directors
• Leadership Huntsville-Madison County, Connect Class 7
• Committee of 100 YP (2008-2010)

Other Experience

• Term law clerk to the Hon. Liles C. Burke, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama, 2018-2019
• Career law clerk to the Hon. Colin H. Lindsay, U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky, 2015-2018
• Judicial extern to the Hon. Lourdes C. Baird, U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, Fall 2004