insights, news and announcements for our members, colleagues and community
The Young Lawyers Division (YLD) of the DeKalb Bar is expanding this year, offering student mentoring and intern referral programs. We have a new president, Dar’shun Kendrick, and a new president-elect, Diana Kovach. Jessica Rock is our immediate past president. YLD has added structure to its board by including student board members: Lisa Bobb from GSU, Casey Jackson from Emory, and Kristen Zisa from John Marshall.
The DeKalb County Bar Association Family Law Section is officially a year old — and 73 members strong! In the spring of 2009, a core group of family law attorneys met to address the need for a family law section in DeKalb County, based in part on increased domestic court filings: In 2009, of the approximate 14,000 superior court civil cases filed, almost 10,000 were domestic. Under the leadership of Denise VanLanduyt, of Denise VanLanduyt, Attorney at Law, LLC, and with the assistance of the immediate past president of the DeKalb Bar, Denise M. Warner, the family law section became a reality.
Greetings from the DeKalb Regional High School Mock Trial office! The Regional Competition is right around the corner (Feb. 11-12), and this year we are making a big push to encourage the 16 or more DeKalb high schools that do not have Mock Trial teams to get involved and establish teams. I have participated in this program for seven years and I see what it can do for a student’s self esteem, confidence, and speaking ability. Programs like this one have the potential of saving lives and even discouraging criminal activity, since it requires young people to be involved in something long-term and meaningful. We would like to see more of our DeKalb teens reap these benefits.
Photo courtesy of the State Bar of Georgia
Thank goodness the sprinkler system didn’t go off when State Bar President Lester Tate set aflame the Bar Center note that Executive Director Cliff Brashier held above a stainless steel bowl full of water. The note-burning ceremony during the Board of Governors’ August meeting marked the retirement of the approximately $4.2 million debt on the State Bar’s headquarters building at 104 Marietta St., which had been approved by the board in June.
Leading up to this moment, the board viewed a video featuring highlights of the dedication of the building in 1997 by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy as well as interviews with past presidents and Georgia Supreme Court justices who were instrumental in the decision to purchase the former Federal Reserve Bank building and transform it into the headquarters of our State Bar. Among them was past President Jimmy Franklin, who expressed concern that his tenure would be known as the “era of chainsaw Franklin” because his presidency in 2002 was marked by controversy over the removal of trees to expand the building’s parking garage.
by Jeri Kagel, M.Ed., J.D.
Hello all, and welcome back to our DeKalb County Bar Association online newsletter!
Over the course of my 15 years of trial consulting, litigators and other lawyers have sought my assistance in helping them resolve a variety of issues and difficulties relating to their law practices. The Litigator’s Playbook is designed to bring you some of the solutions, suggestions and ideas that evolved from my work with these attorneys.
by Rick Alembik
Judge Arnold Shulman’s passing on Aug. 4 at the age of 96 may have marked the end of an era for DeKalb County’s legal community . . . and for this writer.
I was first introduced to Judge Shulman in 1991 as a UGA law pup who had started a litigation practice down the street from the DeKalb Courthouse. At the time Judge Shulman was a senior judge who could usually be found mentally warming up in the ninth-floor senior judges’ bullpen in anticipation of being called on to relieve the other judges from some of their workload: bond hearings, bench trials, emergency TROs, protective orders, and the like.