Articles Posted in Bar Organizations

In the “be careful what you wish for” category, I got word today of appointment to the Georgia Courts Automation Commission. The enacting legislation in 1990 authorized the Commission to: Since a high percentage of my work is in federal courts where online civil filing is universal and relatively user-friendly, I’ve grown accustomed to being…

Last Saturday, I took office as secretary of the State Bar of Georgia, having been elected by a comfortable margin in a statewide Bar election. Other than taking roll and asking approval of minutes at meetings of the Board of Governors, the duties of the secretary are loosely defined.  For the next year I will…

Today Governor Perdue vetoed raises for Superior Court judges and District Attorneys. In a statement released with the veto, the Governor said, “I have consistently expressed concern with raising judicial officers’ salaries without tackling the well above-market retirement benefits.” He also said that a study he commissioned showed that Georgia’s judges’ pay was competitive compared…

Ron Ellington, a professor at the University of Georgia Law School, recently spoke to the inductees of Phi Beta Kappa at UGA. His remarks deserve wider distribution.  He points out how the smartest and wisest leaders of a previous generation were dead wrong on one big issue, and suggests how to recognize when we are…

The State Bar of Georgia election ballots have been counted. I will be Secretary of the State Bar beginning in June. When you see a turtle on a fence post, you know somebody put him there.  A lot of hard working Georgia lawyers put me on this fence post.  For them, I will keep my…

Lawyers who are accessible to their firms and clients 24/7/365 lead more stressful lives, burn out faster, and too often fail in their important roles in families and communities.  That is the essence of a report from the New York State Bar Association’s Special Committee on Balanced Lives in the Law. When young lawyers are…

Today thousands of members of the State Bar of Georgia received their ballots for the State Bar election. I am a candidate in the only contested statewide race, for the office of Secretary. For some insight into why I am doing this, see: Active members of the Georgia Bar may vote by mail or online…

Some of my friends have asked why in the world I would take time from my busy law practice for volunteer service on the State Bar Executive Committee and now to run for Secretary of the State Bar of Georgia. That’s a fair question that deserves an answer more serious than, “it’s on my bucket…

Before election to the State Bar Board of Governors, during the 1990’s I went through a sequence of offices in the Tort & Insurance Practice Section — Secretary-Treasurer, Section Chair, and then a few years as Legislative Chair. When I became Section Chair in June 1994, I sat down at breakfast with a mix of…

The Georgia  Bar Center in downtown Atlanta was previously the Federal Reserve Bank building.  A great stone edifice with bulletproof glass windows, it is built like a fortress.  It even has a currently unused shooting range in the basement which in the old days armored car guards and Secret Service used for practice. When a…