Mid-Winter Conference 2026

Edgar is a lifelong resident of the Shoals and is the son of one of the firm’s founders, Marcel Black. Edgar received a degree in English from the University of Alabama, and attended law school at Cumberland School of Law. Edgar is also a graduate of Leadership Shoals and the Alabama State Bar’s Leadership Forum.

In the office, Edgar maintains a general practice with a particular focus on real estate, corporate formation and governance, probate matters, and landlord / tenant law. He currently serves as a member of the Alabama Board of Bar Commissioners, which is the governing body of the Alabama State Bar. In that role he represents the interests of Colbert County attorneys. In the community, Edgar served for two years as Board President for Shoals Habitat for Humanity. He currently serves as secretary of the Jennie Frank Berry Foundation for FAME Girls’ Ranch. Edgar and his wife Abby have two daughters.

A staple of the Probate Court system with service beginning more than thirteen years ago, Frank Barger serves as Madison County’s Judge of Probate, having presided over more than 9,500 hearings since taking office in 2019. He is credited with overhauling internal processes, maximizing technology, and revolutionizing elections management. He has managed a case load and business operation that have more than doubled since 2019, while maintaining one of the most efficient case processing and hearing schedules in the Probate Court system.

He is a recognized leader serving on the Alabama Bar Association’s Bench and Bar Relations Task Force, Alabama Department of Archives and History’s Records Advisory Board, Alabama Chapter of the National Alliance for Mental Illness (NAMI), Child Protection Board of Madison County, and Community Advisory Committee for WellStone Behavioral Health. Barger also serves on the legislative affairs and mental health committees for the Alabama Probate Judge’s Association. Judge Barger is the recipient of the Dr. Gary W. Porier Leadership Award from WellStone Behavioral Health for his commitment to mental healthcare in North Alabama and the Standing in the Gap Award from the Kids to Love Foundation for his commitment to building forever families through the adoption process.

A proud son of North Alabama, his family history can be traced back in Madison County for eight generations. Outside of his professional work, Judge Barger is engaged in the non-profit community working on issues that impact the Court. He is also dedicated to the faith community through work with Alabama Emmaus and serving as Board Chair of Latham Church since 2020.

Donald E. Campbell is the Owen Cooper Professor of Law at Mississippi College School of Law, where he teaches courses including Ethics and Professional Responsibility, Property, Wills and Estates, Land Use & Planning, and Construction Law. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of Southern Mississippi, and his J.D. summa cum laude from Mississippi College School of Law. He also received his Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Florida. Prior to joining the MC Law faculty, Professor Campbell practiced law in Jackson, Mississippi and served as a law clerk for the Honorable Leslie Southwick on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. He is a frequent speaker on legal ethics and professionalism.

Alan Ottarson began his career as a Special Agent with the United States Secret Service (USSS) in 2016, where he was initially assigned to the Cyber Fraud Task Force in the New York Field Office. He was then reassigned to the Global Investigative Operations Center (GIOC) in the Criminal Investigative Division, where he mainly focused on various fund transfer fraud schemes and helped build the GIOC Rapid Response and Incident Tracking Team. He has worked with many different domestic and foreign law enforcement agencies and private partners in support of the protective and investigative missions of the USSS. In his current role as Technical Special Agent (TSA) for the Nashville Field Office, TSA Ottarson manages the Digital Evidence Forensics Lab and the Cyber Fraud Task Force for the region.