The Georgia Appleseed Center for Law and Justice has tapped R. Michael Waller as its new executive director after serving for the last two years as its director of projects.

The legal nonprofit enlists the private bar's pro bono help for policy interventions to keep children in school and out of the criminal justice system. Waller succeeds Talley Wells, who became the executive director of the North Carolina Council on Developmental Disabilities.

"There are still serious disparities around how black and brown children are treated," Waller said.

"From our position, the same conditions that led to the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery are what funnel kids into the school-to-prison pipeline," added Waller, referring to three African Americans who died at the hands of police or a white shooter.

"Public schools are more likely to single out black students and give them harsher punishment," he explained, adding that a black child in Georgia is twice as likely to be punished and get kicked out of school. "When that happens, the risk of getting into the criminal justice system skyrockets."  

Waller said volunteer lawyers contributed 1,700 pro bono hours last year for representing children in foster care who are facing school discipline and taking on research and stakeholder interviews for its statewide policy projects. 

Those projects address school discipline reform and safe, healthy housing for children and their families. 

Georgia Appleseed started the Georgia Education Climate Coalition more than a decade ago to shift public school discipline away from punishment in favor of what's called positive behavioral interventions and supports (PBIS) for children. 

Waller said that half of Georgia's public schools have adopted the PBIS approach to discipline, thanks to the coalition, which includes educators, grassroots advocacy groups and government agencies, plus research help from the private bar.

Georgia Appleseed started the Georgia Healthy Housing Coalition about three years ago to address substandard housing. Children living in mold-infested apartments, for instance, can get sick and miss school. Last year, the coalition backed historic state legislation that makes it unlawful for landlords to evict tenants who complain about housing conditions.

"We could not do what we do without the help of the Atlanta legal community and other lawyers statewide," Waller said. 

Big Atlanta firms like Alston & Bird, King & Spalding, Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton, Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough and Taylor English Duma are longtime supporters of the 15-year-old group. Taylor English provides office space for Waller and the nonprofits' other five staff members.

Georgia Appleseed also trains plenty of attorneys at smaller firms to represent students in foster care who are facing school suspension or expulsion. 

Waller, who became Georgia Appleseed's new leader in May, has deep experience in public interest law. After an initial stint at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale & Dorr in Washington, D.C., he joined the Atlanta Legal Aid Society in 2007 as a staff attorney in its Clayton County office. He then worked as a consumer protection lawyer for the Federal Trade Commission's enforcement division before joining Georgia Appleseed as project director in 2018. 

The group also made Caroline Durham its full-time legal and policy director in May. Durham started out as a volunteer for Georgia Appleseed while running her own criminal defense firm and is a former public defender.

Briefly

Hall Booth Smith has recruited two intellectual property lawyers, Rodney Miller in Atlanta and Dan Miller in New York, from Kasowitz Benson Torres for its growing IP law team. Both Millers, who are unrelated, handle IP litigation, licensing and due diligence, and they represent clients ranging from the Fortune 500 to solo inventors. 

"We have been searching for a patent team to take our practice group to the next level of full-service IP offerings. Dan and Rodney will be rounding out our IP practice group with much-needed patent expertise and experience," said Nashville partner Karl Braun, who leads the IP team with Atlanta partner Justin Kerenyi.

Holland & Knight has added three associates, Megan Eckel, Jamie Hill and Sakinah Jones. Eckel and Hill came from Greenberg Traurig to join Todd Wozniak, a labor and employment partner who left Greenberg for Holland & Knight in April to head Holland & Knight's new national ERISA litigation team. Eckel is a 2018 graduate of Georgia State University College of Law, while Hill earned her J.D. from GSU Law in 2019. 

Jones joined Holland & Knight's health care and life sciences team from Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner. She earned her J.D. in 2017 from GSU Law.

The Georgia Legal Services Program has added five lawyers to its board of directors: Matthew Howell of Alston & Bird and Meghan Magruder of King & Spalding in Atlanta; Sam Nicholson of Nicholson Revell in Augusta; Nyonnohweah Seekie of The Seekie Law Firm in Macon; and Julia Sullivan of The Sullivan Law Firm in Savannah.

Elizabeth Story has been elected president of the Georgia Association for Women Lawyers Foundation. Story is a real estate litigator at Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein, where she serves as counsel. She has been a GAWL Foundation board member since 2016 and, as president, will lead the group's encouragement of philanthropy by women lawyers throughout the state.