The following biographical sketch was compiled at the time of induction into the Academy in 2024.

Champ Lyons, Jr., was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on Dec. 6, 1940. After completing his primary and secondary education in Birmingham, Lyons attended Havard College, where he was manager of the football team, and the University of Alabama School of Law, where he was Editor-in-Chief of the Alabama Law Review.

Lyons served as a law clerk to United States District Judge Daniel H. Thomas from 1965 to 1967. For the next nine years, he practiced law in Montgomery with the firm of Capell, Howard, Knabe & Cobbs. In 1976, Lyons co-founded Helmsing, Lyons, Sims & Leach in Mobile and practiced with remained with the firm until 1998. 

During his years of practice, Lyons served as Reporter and later Chairman of the Alabama Supreme Court Advisory Committee on Rules of Civil Procedure. He served as a member of the advisory committee on rules for the then-newly created Alabama district courts. Lyons was the principal author of the district court rules and small claims court rules, as well as the Alabama Rules of Civil Procedure Annotated. 

In January 1998, Lyons became Legal Advisor to Gov. Fob James Jr., and, shortly afterwards, Gov. James appointed Lyons to fill a vacancy on the Alabama Supreme Court. Lyons subsequently ran two successful statewide campaigns for reelection and retired from the Court in 2011. After his retirement, Gov. Kay Ivey appointed Lyons to serve as chairman of the Governor’s Study Group on Criminal Justice Policy, a committee of legislators and state officials charged with considering issues of criminal justice reform. He continues to serve as a supernumerary associate justice on the Alabama Supreme Court. 

Lyons served as the president of the Harvard Alumni Association in 1995 and later received the Harvard Alumni Association Award. His other honors include the University of Alabama School of Law Sam W. Pipes Distinguished Alumnus Award, membership in the law school’s Order of Samaritan, the Alabama State Bar Judicial Award of Merit, and the Mobile/Baldwin Bar Associations’ Howell Heflin Award. He has also served as president of the Mobile Bar Association.

Lyons attends Church of the Apostles Anglican Church in Daphne and St. Peter’s Anglican Church in Birmingham. He is married to the former Emilee Oswalt of Mobile. They have two children, Emily Olive Lyons and Champ Lyons III, and five grandchildren.