Alex joined Appalshop in 2014 as our Executive Director. He graduated from Berea College in 2008 with a B.A. in Philosophy and earned his J.D., Doctor of Laws from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 2012. Alex also holds certificates in International Comparative Law from Queen Mary at the University of London, England, and in Thai and Southeast Asian Studies from Payap University in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Before joining Appalshop, Gibson practiced law within the torts, insurance, and business litigation practice groups at Stites & Harbison, PLLC in Louisville, and in the business litigation group at Ballard, Spahr, Andrews, and Ingersol in Philadelphia. He also served as a federal law clerk for the Honorable Thomas W. Phillips, U.S. District Judge for the Eastern District of Tennessee, where he assisted in the resolution of multi-million dollar lawsuits, federal criminal trials, and questions of constitutional law concentrating on the First Amendment. Alex has provided pro bono legal services to asylum seekers from central and west Africa; conducted tax workshops in West Philadelphia; and served as part of a delegation that went to serve Mombasa, Kenya, in order to teach constitutional law to women’s rights groups in the wake of Kenyan constitutional reform. He was raised in Jackson County, Kentucky on a tobacco farm and will play anyone in 1-on-1 basketball — as long as his opponent signs an embarrassment release form.
