ABA members nominated Alabama lawyer H. Thomas Wells Jr. as their next president-elect. The association's House of Delegates must now approve the nomination in August. If elected, Wells would serve a one-year term as president starting in August 2008 and would succeed William William H. Neukom.

Wells is a founding member of Maynard, Cooper & Gale, a 160-lawyer firm with offices in Birmingham and Montgomery. He is a litigator, with emphasis on administrative, regulatory, environmental, toxic tort and products liability law.

The 56-year-old attorney is no stranger to the ABA leadership, having served as chair of the House of Delegates from 2002 to 2004. He is currently the co-chair of the ABA's Special Committee on Disaster Response, which was commissioned after the Katrina disaster. He also has been a member of the association's Commission on the American Jury and the ABA Commission on the Future of the Legal Profession.