Jack B. Hood

Jack B. Hood was born in Clarkesville, Habersham County, Georgia in 1948. He graduated from Jordan Vocational High School in Columbus, Georgia in 1966. From the University of Georgia, he received an A.B. degree in 1969 and a J.D. degree in 1971. He received a Diploma in International Law in 1972 from the University of Cambridge (Darwin College) in the United Kingdom. He is a member of the Alabama, District of Columbia, and Georgia bars. He is a former member of the Canal Zone and Tennessee bars. He is a member of the Maritime Law Association of the United States, the Birmingham Bar Association, and the Arthur D. Shores-Robert S. Vance American Inn of Court (past President). He is a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation and the Birmingham Bar Foundation. He has been a JAG Captain in the USAF and served his active duty in the Canal Zone in Panama. He taught undergraduate courses as a part-time professor for Florida State University's extension program in the Canal Zone. He taught law school as a full-time professor with the Cumberland School of Law at Samford University in Birmingham, AL. In addition, he taught law school as an adjunct law professor at Mercer Law School in Macon, GA and at the University of Georgia School of Law in Athens, GA. Further, he was a private practitioner in the former Canal Zone and in Alabama. He also worked as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Middle District of Georgia, and he presently works as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Northern District of Alabama. He is an instructor and lecturer for civil courses taught at the U.S. Department of Justice's National Advocacy Center in Columbia, SC. He is the author and co-author of a number of books and supplements, primarily legal texts, with 4 books currently published by Thomson Reuters: "Alabama Criminal Trial Practice Forms," "Alabama Pleading, Practice and Legal Forms," "Alabama Workers' Compensation With Forms," and "Georgia Workers' Compensation Claims With Forms." "Workers' Compensation and Employee Protection Laws in a Nutshell" is published by West Academic Publishing. Counting new editions, he is author and co-author of 63 law books. He published his first novel in 2004, "Banjo Lessons," which introduced the main character, Sam Stone, a banjo player and an Assistant U.S. Attorney in north Alabama. This was followed by "Banjo Playing" in 2008,"Banjo Method" in 2010,"Banjo Songs" in 2012, "Banjo Jihad-A Contest of Wills" in 2013, "Banjo Gung-Ho: Harmony Workings" in 2014, "Banjo Mambo-God Conversations on Two (in Kikongo)" in 2018, "Banjo Psycho-A Sadistic Racist" in 2019, and Banjo Berserker-A Mass Killer" in 2020. In May, 2023, Kindle free promotions ranked all 9 of the banjo books in the top 50 in the U.S. Legal Thrillers category. Also look on You Tube for Jack B. Hood's selected banjo performances, including "Digging the Panama Canal," (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mz2_dBxcGfE), "Banjo in the Canyon," "Banjo Bay Blues," and "Banjo Flamenco," along with some of the songs in his Sam Stone novels. For the book, "Banjo Songs," a special set of videos for listening while reading can be found at: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxD0tinE5ac7Rna1jbYIiafkDUHeW9Qip. One can also find the author on banjohangout.org. In 2021, he and his grandson, Walkin E. Cleage, published a non-fiction Kindle book, "PATRIOT! Liberties of My Country Were My Only Pay: An Interactive Genealogy About Ancestors in the American Revolution." In 1972, their book was published in paperback.