Despite scary law-school lecture, they fell in love
Ali Brady was eager to make a friendly connection with Ross Noland on their first day of law school. Ross didn’t immediately share her enthusiasm for socializing.
Before Ali left in 2003 for the University of Arkansas School of Law in Fayetteville, her grandfather, Don Brady, told her about his friend and civil engineering colleague Stewart Noland. Noland’s son, Ross, would be at the school as well, Ali’s grandfather told her, and she should introduce herself and explain their connection.
She identified Ross on the first day of school, at an orientation lecture during which students were given dire statistics on how many of them would fail or drop out before the end of the first year.
“We were coming into this new place with all these new people and we had an introduction speech by Judge Wendell Griffen. It was absolutely terrifying. I mean, I think he scared us all,” she says. “Afterward I went over to say hello to Ross and he looked at me like I was crazy. I tried to make small talk and he just had a very glazed over expression.”
His father hadn’t alerted him to her presence, but he’s not sure that would have mattered in the moment.
“I was not particularly present,” he explains. “I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, what have I done with my life?’ I was not in the right head space at the moment.”
Ali just assumed he wasn’t very friendly and went about her business.
Over the next two years, she heard mutual friends describe him as “fun” and “funny” and she wondered how they could be talking about the guy she met. She and Ross both dated other people during that time, and though they were fairly close in proximity they really didn’t interact.
There was a get-together, though, at the end of summer 2005, for students going into their third year of law school, and that’s when Ali realized Ross really was that fun, funny guy she kept hearing about.
“Everybody seemed to relax a little more the third year of law school,” Ross says.
That September, he invited her to a party at his house before a Razorbacks game.
“His mom was there and a lot of friends and he had somebody playing music in his backyard and it was a lot of fun and he was just very warm and outgoing and friendly,” she says.
That October, they went on their first date, to a Razorbacks game.
Over the next seven years, they did multiple stints of long-distance dating as they started their law careers.
After law school, Ali started a job in Little Rock and then went to American University for a Master of Laws degree in constitutional and civil rights law. Ross went to George Washington University in Washington for a Master of Laws in environmental law.
“We did a lot of back and forth between Little Rock and Washington, D.C.,” Ali says. “There were times when one of us was in Little Rock and one was in D.C., or sometimes we would both be in D.C. or both in Little Rock.”
He became legislative counsel for the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry. Ali was selected for a U.S. Supreme Court fellowship through the National Association of Attorneys General.
“It was so much fun,” she says. “He was working for the Senate and I would get to spend my days at the Supreme Court and then we would go meet somewhere for lunch on the Hill in D.C. And then eventually we did both decide that Little Rock is where we wanted to be and so we moved home.”
Ross proposed in Knoop Park, offering Ali his grandmother’s ring.
They were married on Christmas Eve in 2012 in a small ceremony at the Pulaski County Courthouse officiated by Circuit Court Judge Mary McGowan.
“Ross and I had both worked at the Pulaski County Courthouse,” Ali says. “It has a beautiful stained glass dome and it’s a beautiful building and us both being lawyers and having met in law school, there was just this special connection.”
There wasn’t time for a honeymoon then, but they hope to take a big trip — likely to Ireland — in celebration of their 10th anniversary next year.
“One thing I’ll say is that, looking back on it … we were in D.C. before having kids. I’m sure at the time I felt incredibly busy, but now looking back we just had so much free time,” says Ali, who serves on the Little Rock School Board.
Their anniversary evenings these days start off with looking at Christmas lights with their children — Willa, 8, and Brady, 6.
“Then once the kids go to bed we usually put on a movie or some music and open a bottle of wine and have some cheese and crackers or something. We would wrap all the presents and stay up late on our anniversary,” Ali says. “Even though it’s the same thing a lot of parents do, on Christmas Eve we just kind of make it special because it’s also our anniversary.”