Attorney and civil rights advocate Julian L. McPhillips Jr. will speak at the Selma-Dallas County Public Library’s Lunch at the Library event next week.

McPhillips will talk about his newest book, a memoir titled, Civil Rights in My Bones: More Colorful Stories from a Lawyer’s Life and Work, 2005-2015.

Born in Birmingham and raised in Cullman, McPhillips attended Princeton University and Columbia Law School before moving back to Alabama in 1975. Today, McPhillips continues to practice law as the senior partner, founder, and president of Phillips Shinbaum, LLP.

The six-lawyer, 15-employee firm operates from a renovated 1870s Victorian house near downtown Montgomery. McPhillips’ partners share his belief that “law practice is not just a business, not just a profession, but a ministry.”

As an honors graduate of Princeton, McPhillips has recruited dozens of bright young Alabamians to his alma mater. He awards an annual scholarship in honor of a deceased brother and helps sponsor a literary contest for local high school and college students through the F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald Museum.

In a career stretching more than 40 years, McPhillips has earned a reputation as a determined advocate for the rights of consumers, victims of police abuse, falsely accused criminal defendants, the unborn, immigrants and the environment.

A previous book, The People’s Lawyer, covered his life and career up to 2005. Civil Rights in My Bones provides additional background about his family roots in Alabama, his parents’ political activism, his education and athletic competition as a amateur wrestler, his religious convictions, and his wife, children and grandchildren.

Everyone is invited to the library Thursday, Sept. 15 at noon for lunch and McPhillips’ program.

Reservations can be made by calling the library at 874-1725. Lunch is $8.