Meet the Recipients of the Georgia Legal Awards
Getting to know these leaders has inspired us, and we hope you feel the same as you read their words that follow.
June 19, 2019 at 02:05 PM
5 minute read
Welcome to the Georgia Legal Awards, our annual recognition of professional excellence in the legal community.
With a record number of nominees this year, the Daily Report had particularly difficult choices in every category.
The firms, lawyers and judges we recognize come from a wide range of practice areas. They include: appellate; banking; civil rights; corporate; energy; criminal defense; cybersecurity; election; employment; entertainment; environmental; immigration; intellectual property; legal aid; magistrate judging; media; medical product liability; municipal; personal injury (defense); personal injury (plaintiffs); prosecution; real estate; regulatory; tax; transactional; and trusts and estates.
Despite this breadth, these recipients represent a fraction of the effective and zealous practitioners serving their clients across Georgia we see at work every day.
I want to thank the honorees for the time they spent with their thoughtful responses to our questions.
Getting to know these leaders has inspired us, and we hope you feel the same as you read their words that follow.
Jonathan Ringel, managing editor
Attorney of the Year
This award recognizes a Georgia lawyer who in 2018 had the biggest impact on the law or the Georgia legal community or who did the most to advance the cause of justice.
The finalists for Attorney of the Year are:
- Ed Buckley of Buckley Beal
- Laurie Webb Daniel of Holland & Knight
- Sean J. Young of the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia
A panel of six esteemed lawyers will choose a winner, who will be announced at the end of the Georgia Legal Awards dinner. The panel consists of:
- Josh Belinfante of the Robbins Firm (a 2010 On the Rise class member);
- Maxine Hicks of DLA Piper (a finalist for last year's Attorney of the Year);
- Linda Klein of Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz (last year's Attorney of the Year);
- Senior Judge Herbert Phipps of the state Court of Appeals (a Lifetime Achievement honoree last year);
- Tori Silas of Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough (a 2013 On the Rise class member); and
- Brian Steel of The Steel Law Firm (a 2017 Attorney of the Year finalist and a 2002 On the Rise class member).
Lifetime Achievement
Lifetime Achievement awards recognize lawyers who have left a lasting imprint on the legal community of Georgia.
- David Aughtry of Chamberlain, Hrdlicka, White, Williams & Aughtry
- Senior Judge Julie Carnes of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
- Gilbert Deitch of Deitch & Rogers
- Senior Judge Alford Dempsey of Fulton County Superior Court
- John Fleming of Eversheds Sutherland
- Gordon Giffin of Dentons
- Lash Harrison of FordHarrison
- Richard Hines of Nelson Mullins
- Joel Katz of Greenberg Traurig
- Russ Richards of King & Spalding
- Retired Chief Justice Hugh Thompson of the Supreme Court of Georgia
- Louise Wells of Morris Manning & Martin
Distinguished Leaders
Distinguished Leader awards go to lawyers who achieved impressive results in 2018 and demonstrated clear leadership skills that helped them achieve those results.
- Sally Akins of Ellis, Painter, Ratterree & Adams
- Rob Fortson of McGuireWoods
- Chris Glover of Beasley Allen
- Judge Horace Johnson of Alcovy Superior Court
- Mike McGlamry of Pope, McGlamry
- Azadeh Shahshahani of Project South: Institute for the Elimination of Poverty and Genocide
Litigation Departments of the Year
- Personal Injury Defense, Midsize Firm: Swift, Currie, McGhee & Hiers
- General Litigation: Taylor English Duma
- Product Liability: Weinberg, Wheeler, Hudgins, Gunn & Dial
- Special Litigation, Small Firm: Caplan Cobb
- Small Firm, Personal Injury: Harris Lowry Manton
In-House Departments of the Year
In-House Impact awards
- Evan Glover of NCR
- Matthew Havice of Georgia's Own Credit Union
- James Kerr of Southern Co.
- Michael Wu of Carter's
Dealmakers of the Year
- Joseph Alexander Jr. of DLA Piper
- Douglass Selby of Hunton Andrews Kurth
Best Mentors
- Bhavya Chaudhary of Bhavya Chaudhary & Associates
- Lori Cohen of Greenberg Traurig
- Joel Pugh of Joel C. Pugh & Associates
- Shermela Williams of Thomas Kennedy Sampson & Tompkins
Best Social Mediators
- Chief Judge Stephen Dillard of the Court of Appeals of Georgia
- Laurie Rashidi-Yazd of the Atlanta Legal Aid Society
- Sarah Siedentopf of Siedentopf Law
On the Rise
Fourteen lawyers under the age of 40 comprise the 2019 On the Rise class.
- David Carpenter of Alston & Bird
- Jenn Coalson of Parks, Chesin & Walbert
- Raquel Crump of The Employment Law Solution: McFadden Davis
- Jennifer Deal of Kilpatrick, Townsend & Stockton
- Kacy Goebel of Home Depot
- Corey Goerdt of Fisher & Phillips
- Matt Joe of Holland & Knight
- Aamir Kazi of Fish & Richardson
- Nathan Kitchens of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Georgia
- Lauren Linder of the Weather Channel
- Keshia Lipscomb of Squire Patton Boggs
- Chief Magistrate Judge Rizza O'Connor of Toombs County
- Vincent Russo of the Robbins Firm
- Raj Shah of MagMutual
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