Judge Harwood attended the University of the South-Sewanee and then completed a B.S. degree in Commerce and Business Administration at The University of Alabama. He next attended The University of Alabama School of Law, receiving an L.L.B degree in 1963.

Judge Harwood is a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation, a Fellow of the Alabama Bar Foundation, a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers and is a "Diplomat" of the American Board of Trial Advocates.  He continues as a member of the American, Alabama and Tuscaloosa County Bar Associations.  In addition to his active trial practice, he serves as a mediator and an arbitrator, being AAA approved.  He is included in the 2010, 2011 and 2012 editions of Alabama Super Lawyers and Best Lawyers in America.

Active in many civic, community, religions and local organizations, Judge Harwood is a member of the Executive Board of the Black Warrior Council of the Boy Scouts of America and has served as Council President and President of the Council's Heritage Society. In 1993 he was awarded the Council's Silver Beaver Award.  He served as President of the Exchange Club of Greater Tuscaloosa and currently is a member of the Exchange Club of Tuscaloosa.  He is a member of the Leadership Association of The United Way of Tuscaloosa County; Gideons International, and the Tuscaloosa and Alabama Cattlemen's Associations.  In 2001 he was selected as Alabama Elected Public Official of the Year by the Alabama Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers.

Judge Harwood practiced law for 28 years in Tuscaloosa, with a focus on litigation.  In 1967 he joined with Gordon Rosen to form the law firm of Rosen and Harwood.  During his years in private practice he also served as Deputy City Judge of Tuscaloosa, as a member of the Tuscaloosa County Civil Service Board, as a Special Assistant Attorney General for the State of Alabama and as a Lecturer in Law at The University of Alabama School of Law, teaching courses in trial advocacy.  He was elected President of the Tuscaloosa County Bar Association, President of the Farrah Law Society/Order of the Coif of The University of Alabama School of Law, President of the Tuscaloosa Inn of Court and Chairman of the Litigation Section of the Alabama State Bar.

In 1991 he was appointed by the governor to fill a vacancy on the Circuit Court of Tuscaloosa County.  He was elected to a full six-year term in 1992, and re-elected in 1998.  In November 2000 he was elected an associate justice of the Alabama Supreme Court and served in that position from January 2001 to January 2007, when he voluntarily retired to return to Tuscaloosa.  He rejoined his former law firm, then known as Rosen, Cook, Sledge, Davis, Shattuck & Oldshue, P.A. and the firm resumed its original name of Rosen Harwood.  He is again teaching at the School of Law teaching advanced evidence.  He is also serving as Chair of the State-wide Committee on the Alabama Rules of Evidence, by appointment of the Supreme Court of Alabama; and as a member of the Court's Standing Committee on Civil Pattern Jury Instructions.  The Court has several times "recommissioned" him to serve as either a special justice on it or as a judge on the Court of Criminal Appeals.

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