Julian L. McPhillips, Jr. (November 13, 1946 – April 12, 2025) was an American lawyer and was a candidate for

Attorney General of Alabama The attorney general of Alabama is an elected, constitutional officer of the State of Alabama. The office of the attorney general is located at the state capitol in Montgomery, Alabama. Henry Hitchcock was elected Alabama's first attorney general ...

in 1978. In

2002 The effects of the September 11 attacks of the previous year had a significant impact on the affairs of 2002. The war on terror was a major political focus. Without settled international law, several nations engaged in anti-terror operation ...

, McPhillips lost out in the Democratic nomination to challenge first-term Republican incumbent

Jeff Sessions Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III (born December 24, 1946) is an American politician and attorney who served as the 84th United States attorney general from 2017 to 2018. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as United Stat ...

for a U.S. Senate seat in Alabama.

Early life

Julian McPhillips was the son of (died February 13, 2001) an Episcopalian priest, and Eleanor Elizabeth (née Dixon; died December 1, 2002). He was born in

Birmingham, Alabama Birmingham ( ) is a city in the north central region of Alabama, United States. It is the county seat of Jefferson County, Alabama, Jefferson County. The population was 200,733 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List ...

but raised in Cullman. His father served in the

U.S. Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest displacement, at 4.5 million tons in 2021. It has the world's largest aircraft ...

during World War II. Julian was an All-American collegiate wrestler at

Princeton Princeton University is a private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the Unit ...

, twice Eastern AAU heavyweight wrestling champion, and a finalist in the 1972 Olympic Tryouts.

Political and law career

Julian worked as a Wall Street attorney, from 1971 to 1975. He moved back to Alabama in 1975 and began working as Assistant Attorney General under

Alabama Attorney General The attorney general of Alabama is an elected, constitutional officer of the State of Alabama. The office of the attorney general is located at the state capitol in Montgomery, Alabama. Henry Hitchcock was elected Alabama's first attorney genera ...

Bill Baxley William Joseph Baxley II (born June 27, 1941), is an American Democratic Party (United States), Democratic politician and attorney from Dothan, Alabama. In 1964, Baxley graduated from the University of Alabama School of Law in Tuscaloosa, Alaba ...

, specializing in white collar crime prosecution. He left in 1977 and began a campaign for Attorney General that year where he would finish second out of nine candidates for Attorney General in the unofficial results in 1978. He lost his run-off spot in the late changing official vote three days later. After the loss, McPhillips went into private practice. In

, McPhillips lost out in the Democratic nomination to challenge the first-term Republican incumbent, Senator

for a senate seat in Alabama. He won many counties in the southern part of the state, but Susan Parker won the most counties and Wayne Sowell endorsed Parker for the run off. Parker then lost to Jeff Sessions in the general election. McPhillips was an opponent of elective abortion care. His brother, Frank D. McPhillips is an attorney in

, a Democrat and a delegate to the

2008 Democratic National Convention The 2008 Democratic National Convention was a quadrennial United States presidential nominating convention, presidential nominating convention of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party where it adopted its national platform an ...

Death

McPhillips died April 12, 2025, at the age of 78.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:McPhillips, Julian L. 1946 births 2025 deaths Alabama Democrats Alabama lawyers American Episcopalians People from Cullman, Alabama Princeton University alumni Columbia Law School alumni