By Andrew R. Lynch
President, DeKalb Bar Association 2018-2019
atlnotguilty.com

Most lawyers have never had a client tell them “you look stressed, are you working to hard? Take a break from working on my case and go on home.” I thought I would write briefly on the stress we all deal with just doing our jobs.

In our profession, we work on hard problems and under stressful situations. Take the time to have a life. Take your kids, dog, or just yourself to the park. Take time to take care of your health, you can always work but you can never get your health back. There really will always be one more problem to solve or one more case to work on. At some point you need to just take a break. Stress from the practice of law has killed or damaged more than one of us.

By Darren Summerville
President, DeKalb Bar Association
summervillefirm.com

Last month I attended a late afternoon gathering at Emory Law School – the inaugural Bar Association Networking Fair. As might be deduced by the keen reader, the fair was designed to expose students to the wide spectrum of bar associations out there, and to emphasize early participation in networking opportunities.

Some two dozen organizations sent representatives; those lawyers spent a good couple of hours introducing themselves and their organizations to a crowd of Emory law students. The majority of the attendees were 1Ls – first year students who had started classes that very week.

By Darren Summerville
President, DeKalb Bar Association
summervillefirm.com

I had planned to pen my inaugural column – an electronic soapbox of sorts, as the incoming president of the association – about a subject quite dear to me: the need for a renewed emphasis on professionalism within the legal community. Then Charlottesville happened. I suspect that everyone reading this has at least a decent idea what actually occurred, though the warring partisan circles and media filters have not particularly emphasized a fair distillation of events. I’ll see if I can improve upon that showing.

by Arman Deganian
President, DeKalb Bar Association
litnerlaw.com

As we approach one of our nation’s most solemn holidays, I like to take the time to reflect on the history of Memorial Day, and how we came to recognize it as a national holiday. The name itself seems fairly obvious, but how it came to be is a bit more complicated than I knew.

Memorial Day was initially called Decoration Day. Decoration Day began unofficially soon after the end of the Civil War. It is unclear when the holiday actually came to be, but a traditional day of visiting fallen soldiers’ graves began after the Civil War. Many cities claimed to have originated the holiday, including Macon and Columbus, Georgia, but in 1966 President Lyndon B. Johnson officially designated Waterloo, New York as the birthplace of Memorial Day considering that the first official Decoration Day took place in Waterloo on May 5, 1868.

by Arman Deganian
President, DeKalb Bar Association
litnerlaw.com

As a fifteen year resident of DeKalb County, I often pass by historical markers on my way to and from work on DeKalb Avenue and Memorial Drive. I’ve rarely taken the time to stop and read them but, on a recent walk with my dog, I slowed down and took stock of a number of these markers. I’ve always been interested in the Civil War in Georgia, but I never realized how devastating the war was to the communities of DeKalb County, or that the Battle of Atlanta began in DeKalb County, just down the street from my home.

by Arman Deganian
President, DeKalb Bar Association
litnerlaw.com

As we all reflect on Black History Month this February, it is hard not to consider the contributions of African Americans from Georgia, and more specifically, the metro Atlanta region. We all know about the more prominent leaders of the civil rights movement, but many, including myself, know very little about African American attorneys who paved the way for others to thrive in the practice of law in Georgia. One such person that I recently discovered is a gentleman by the name of Austin Thomas (A.T.) Thomas. 

by Arman Deganian
President, DeKalb Bar Association
litnerlaw.com

It was a tough, contentious year, in 2016, for all us in Georgia and the rest of this great country. How about we start the year with some levity for a change? Let’s talk about the Atlanta Falcons! We are in the playoffs! For a true Falcons fan, this is a time of year which brings renewed hope, and, all too often, is immediately followed by fits of disappointment, resentment, debilitating sadness, confusion, and utter rage. Oh boy, my emotions are off the charts, and I don’t know how to prepare for the rollercoaster that we have all already hopped onto. Whether you like it or not, we are going to the playoffs.