Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough will host an event on its rooftop patio from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. Oct. 10 celebrating 40 years of work to end domestic violence.

The occasion is a 40th birthday party for an umbrella nonprofit organization called the Georgia Coalition Against Domestic Violence. Labor and employment and white-collar defense litigator Amy Cheng of Nelson Mullins serves on the nonprofit's board and is helping to organize the event. Other Atlanta law firms are also sponsors, including King & Spalding, Alston & Bird and IP boutique Meunier Carlin & Curfman, according to Executive Director Jan Christiansen.

The event will include awards, notably for two women who've worked for years as advocates for survivors of domestic violence.

First, Jennifer Thomas, the former executive director of the Georgia Commission on Family Violence, a state agency that partners with the coalition. Thomas left in June to join the Criminal Justice Coordinating Council, where she is now director of strategic partnership for the victim assistance division.

Then, the commission's new executive director, Former Fulton County assistant DA April Ross. Ross was shot and paralyzed by her husband in 2014, the day she filed for divorce. It would have been a murder-suicide, but she survived. After extensive rehabilitation, she returned to work in 2015 at the DA's office, where she joined the Domestic Violence Policy and Trial Unit. She also began to mentor individuals with recent spinal cord injuries at the Shepherd Center, particularly those whose injuries were the result of gun violence. And she became a champion for survivors of intimate partner violence, serving on the commission's board.

In addition to working with the commission, the Georgia Coalition Against Domestic Violence works with organizations and advocates around the state. Those cooperative relationships have flourished during the 40 years that will be celebrated at the event, according to Christiansen, who has worked for the coalition for 10 years and served as executive director for the past six years. In that time, she said, she has seen an "opening of hearts and minds to work together."

"Nonprofits are starting to realize that we are all in this together, that we all want that same North Star," Christiansen said. "We want people to be able to thrive and reach their full potential and live a life free of violence and oppression."

One of the coalition's recent initiatives is the Justice for Incarcerated Survivors Project, Christiansen said. Alston & Bird lawyers and others are donating pro bono hours to help women who are in prison because they defended themselves or committed crimes under duress from their abusers.

The project is submitting details to the Board of Pardons and Paroles and asking that these women be released. This is often news to the board, Christiansen said.

"Many of the women have taken pleas because they don't want to put their families through any more anguish," Christiansen said. "Oftentimes the violence she has endured is never brought up."

So the goal is to insert the history of violence into the record "so the board sees it and understands the full scope of it," she said.

The event will also include a silent auction⁠—featuring live art of the Nelson Mullins rooftop skyline view.

"We don't want it to be filled with a lot of talk," Christiansen said. "We want people to have fun."

Tickets start at $40 and can be purchased through Eventbrite linked from the Georgia Coalition Against Domestic Violence website.