A native of Piedmont, Alabama, Heather left her high-school teaching career in 2003 to pursue her law degree, graduating cum laude from the University of Alabama School of Law in 2006. Heather is active in her state and community, having served as Chair of the Family Law Section of the Alabama State Bar from 2014-2016, and currently serving on the Board of Directors of the ACLU of Alabama and the Birmingham Volunteer Lawyers Program. All families are created equal, and the firm believes in equal treatment for litigants and their children regardless of age, race, ethnicity, gender/gender identity, or sexual orientation. Ms. Fann’s practice has always focused on civil rights aspects of family law, leading up to same-sex marriage and family victories in the Strawser v. Strange matter in federal court (striking down unconstitutional Alabama statutes prohibiting same-sex marriage) and the United States Supreme Court’s recognition for equal treatment of same-sex adoptive parents in V.L. v. E.L. (requiring Alabama’s recognition of a Georgia same-sex parent’s second-parent adoption). She was recently honored for her work on such cases with the Leading Practitioner Award by the National LGBT Bar Association at their annual meeting in 2017.  Heather’s practice seeks to preserve the dignity of clients through healthy paths for their changing families, employing both modern and traditional means of resolution including collaborative practice and methods such as use of Parenting Coordinators, as well as mediation, though she stands ready to litigate where necessary. Heather is an adjunct professor at Cumberland School of Law, where she teaches Family Law and Advanced Domestic Relations. At her previous firms, Heather contributed to both the Lexis (Family Law in Alabama: Practice and Procedure) and West (Alabama Family Law) family law reference books, and publication of a regular column in the Birmingham Bar Bulletin. In law school, she published “Desperately Clinging to the Cleavers: What Family Law Courts Are Doing About Homosexual Parents, and What Some Are Refusing to See” in the Law & Psychology Review.