fostering a positive environment of collaboration throughout the legal community in metro Atlanta
By Harold E. Franklin, Jr. King & Spalding LLP
Our bar association maintains a very special profile nationally, regionally, and locally, in large part as a result of our commitment to service. I am proud that we maintain course and continue to engage our members in so many ways that benefit the profession and the communities we serve. In keeping with our tradition of leadership through service, I believe that one of our association’s greatest strengths is the way in which we foster a positive environment of collaboration throughout the legal community in metropolitan Atlanta, which comprises over seventy percent of the lawyers in our state. As lawyers who serve, in addition to the many professional and business development opportunities we receive and the strong relationships we form, our association, through you—our members, sections, committees and our Foundation—do so much for the community and organizations focused on providing access to justice for the disadvantaged. There are so many wide ranging relevant topics that could be covered in this edition, but not enough space to cover them. They presently range from ongoing legislative developments in Georgia (Georgia House Bill 941—involving grand jury proceedings, as discussed and highlighted last month at our EJLE Symposium), the quickly evolving presidential election, the vacancy created by the recent By Harold E. Franklin, Jr. King & Spalding LLP passing of United States Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, criminal justice reform, data privacy verses national security considerations, and a myriad of other issues. As February is Black History Month, I would like to recognize the indelible roles that so many African-American lawyers have played, along with so many who were not African-American, to advocate for the rule of law and equal justice for all Americans. This stellar group of both well-known and unsung (male and of female) legal scholars and advocates from generations past includes: Macon Allen (in 1844 became the first African-American male licensed to practice law in the United States), Charlotte Ray (in 1872 became the first African-American female licensed to practice law in the United States), Thurgood Marshall (the first African-American appointed to the United States Supreme Court, who led, along with others, the legal team that prevailed in the landmark Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka case in 1954 (347 U.S. 483)); Damon J. Keith (longest serving African-American on the federal bench); Constance Baker Motley (the first African-American female to be appointed to the federal bench), A.T. Walden (the first African-American judge to be appointed in Georgia), Rachel Pruden Herndon (in 1942 became the first African-American female licensed to practice law in Georgia), Judge Horace Ward (the first African-American to serve on the federal bench in Georgia), Donald L. Hollowell (played an instrumental role in desegregating the University of Georgia in 1961 and became the first African-American regional director of a major federal agency), and countless others. These courageous lawyers, and so many others (throughout our nation and state) who followed them, have led by example and helped our nation follow her sacred ideals. Serving others by advancing the cause of justice has been a hallmark of our profession, and our nation and society are all the better as the result of the principled courageous leadership and advocacy of lawyers. Unfortunately our profession continues to lag behind many others in terms of diversity and inclusion. Whereas many other professions, such as physicians, architects, engineers, and accountants, more fully reflect the diversity of the general population, African-Americans and other minorities remain underrepresented in our profession, as do women at higher levels in law firms, corporations, etc. While the bases are complex and multifactorial, we, as a profession, must do more to increase diversity within our ranks. Our bar association has long done an exceptional job in this regard, and has numerous programs that provide opportunities for deserving, diverse