Atlanta Injury Lawyer Blog

I am proud to announce my candidacy for the office of Secretary of the State Bar of Georgia. This is an important election because it will determine the direction the State Bar takes in the next few years. I believe my experience working with the Georgia General Assembly as President of the Georgia Trial Lawyers Association, and in the years since then, will greatly help the State Bar's effectiveness with the Legislature, which I believe will be crucial in the coming years.

Below is my letter announcing that I am running for Secretary that I sent to the Executive Committee of the State Bar and to the Board of Governors:

Dear Friends:

After considerable thought and prayer, I have decided to run for Secretary of this great State Bar in 2010. I am running because I believe at this critical time when the State's budget is being drastically cut and threats are constantly being made against the Judicial Branch and our profession, the State Bar needs known and respected leadership representing it at the General Assembly. The gravity of the situation confronting us has caused me to cast comfort and comity aside and answer the call to service that many of our fellow Board of Governors members have asked me to answer.

Among the most essential attributes of a leader of the State Bar is the ability to put forward a “face of the Bar” that is both respected and trusted by the leadership of the Judiciary and the Legislature. This is especially true when some among the Legislature are anything but interested in meeting the needs of the Judiciary, of the legal profession or of those Georgians who are so dependent upon the ability of the judicial system to meet their needs. Simply put, as officers of the court, we owe it to our fellow members of the Bar, and to our respective clients, to elect in each of our leadership positions only those persons who have spent years building bridges with the Legislature and developing productive relationships with those among that branch of government who hold in their hands the fate of our profession and that of our fellow Georgians whom we are privileged to represent. I believe the State Bar needs and deserves a leader who is respected by members of the Legislature, who has a proven track record of working successfully with members from both sides of the aisle to find win-win solutions to very difficult problems. I believe the State Bar of Georgia deserves a leader who knows and understands when it is time to negotiate and when it is time to stand your ground. I believe the State Bar deserves a leader who knows the problems Everyday Georgians are facing daily. I am that person.

I humbly submit that I have the attributes and skills necessary to lead this Bar during this difficult time. I have developed over the years strong relationships with numerous State Senators and State Representatives that help me work from a position of trust and respect with them. This trust and respect will be crucial for the State Bar in the coming years as it must necessarily work with the Georgia General Assembly to protect funding for the Judicial Branch and for all of the programs promoted by the State Bar.

I ask for your support. I ask for your thoughts and suggestions. Also, I ask for your prayers as we go forward together through this election process. I expect this to be a contested race and I welcome a robust and frank discussion of the issues that our State Bar faces and of who should lead our State Bar. Finally, in May I will proudly ask for your vote and the vote of your colleagues for Secretary of the State Bar of Georgia.

Blessings,
Robin Frazer Clark

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As a member of the Executive Committee of the State Bar of Georgia, I am proud that our Executive Committee makes a concerted effort to get outside of Atlanta and meet our fellow Georgia Bar members in the four corners of the state. Last week's meeting in Thomasville, Thomas County, Georgia is a prime example of this. We enjoyed lunch first with many members of the local Thomas County Bar , which is part of the Southern Judicial Circuit. We met at Pebble Hill Plantation in Thomasville, which is a lovely location. The President of the Thomas County Bar Association, Christopher Rodd, was our host for the evening and for the tour of the new Thomas County Courthouse, which is not yet open for business but will be a spectacular venue. It is always a treat for me to meet members of the State Bar from across the state, who, but for my involvement in the State Bar of Georgia, I would likely never have the opportunity to meet. The theme that keeps coming through in these meetings in varied locales is this: the lawyers who comprise the State Bar of Georgia are honorable, dedicated leaders of their communities, who care about justice being served, who care about the less fortunate and who care about the criminal and civil judicial systems in Georgia and the stewardship of those two sacred systems. It is my honor to meet and come to know these lawyers and to discuss the issues they face in their communities that are worlds apart from Atlanta.

Below is a letter from Bryan Cavan, President of the State Bar of Georgia, another honorable lawyer, regarding our wonderful meeting in Thomasville.

Letter to the Editor – November 19, 2009
Thomasville Times-Enterprise

State Bar commends Thomasville hospitality

To the Editor:

On behalf of the State Bar of Georgia, I wish to express sincere thanks to President Christopher Rodd and the members of the Thomas County Bar Association for serving as outstanding hosts for the State Bar’s Executive Committee meeting Nov. 12 at Pebble Hill Plantation in Thomasville.

Our Executive Committee meetings throughout the year are held in various locations around Georgia so that State Bar leaders have the opportunity to meet with and hear from local attorneys, judges, legislators and other community leaders. Thanks to the warm hospitality of the local bar association and the people of Thomas County, we enjoyed an exceptional meeting in your community.

All Georgia lawyers can be proud of our colleagues in the Thomas County Bar Association for their tireless dedication toward upholding the constitutional promise of justice for all.

Sincerely,

Bryan M. Cavan
President

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Sarah I. Coole
June 20, 2009 Director of Communications
404-527-8700; 800-334-6865

Robin Frazer Clark Elected to Executive Committee of State Bar of Georgia

Atlanta – Robin Frazer Clark of Atlanta was elected to serve on the Executive Committee of the 40,000-member State Bar of Georgia on June 20 during the organization’s annual meeting at Amelia Island, Fla.
Clark is a graduate of Vanderbilt University and the Emory University School of Law. She is represents the Atlanta Judicial Circuit on the State Bar’s Board of Governors and is also past president of the Georgia Trial Lawyers Association.
The Board of Governors of the State Bar elects six of its members to serve on the Executive Committee with the organization’s officers. The Executive Committee meets monthly and exercises the power of the Board of Governors when the board is not in session.
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The State Bar of Georgia, with offices in Atlanta, Savannah and Tifton, was established in 1964 by Georgia’s Supreme Court as the successor to the voluntary Georgia Bar Association, founded in 1884. All lawyers licensed to practice in Georgia belong to the State Bar. Its more than 40,000 members work together to strengthen the constitutional promise of justice for all, promote principles of duty and public service among Georgia’s lawyers, and administer a strict code of legal ethics.

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I am extremely happy to announce I was elected to the Georgia State Bar Executive Committee on Saturday, June 19 during the Annual Meeting of the State Bar at Amelia Island Plantation, Florida. The State Bar of Georgia is comprised of approximately 40,000 lawyers. The Board of Governors, on which I have served since 2002, consists of 150 of those lawyers who have been elected by their respective constituents to represent them on bar matters. The Executive Committee of the Georgia State Bar is comprised of 14 State Bar members also elected by the lawyers of the State of Georgia. So it is an absolute honor to have been chosen by my peers and colleagues to represent them on the Georgia State Bar Executive Committee. I look forward to serving and to continung to protect the rights of Georgia citizens by keeping our precious Georgia Civil Justice System's promise of Justice For All.

Below is a short press release issued by the President of Georgia Trial Lawyers Association about my election to the Executive Committee:

Friends:

Former GTLA president Robin Clark was elected to the State Bar Executive Committee on Saturday. Congratulations to Robin. Already on the Executive Committee are GTLA members Lester Tate, serving as President Elect and Ken Shigley, serving as Treasurer. All three individuals are great voices at the State Bar for issues of concern to GTLA members.

We all owe them a great thanks for their willingness to serve on the State Bar Executive Committee and for their great support of issues important to GTLA.

GTLA remains ever vigilant that broad coalitions are needed to protect access to a proper Civil Justice System for the citizens of this State.

Chris Clark, President
Georgia Trial Lawyers Association

O'Neal, Brown & Clark, P.C.
1001 American Federal Building
544 Mulberry Street
Macon, Georgia 31201-2774
Phone: 478-742-8981
Fax: 478-743-5035
E-mail: clark@obclawfirm.com
website: www.obclawfirm.com

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As you may know, I am a member of the State Bar of Georgia's Board of Governors, the governing body over Georgia's 38,000 lawyers. We, the Board of Governors, recently held our Mid-Year meeting here in Atlanta, and one item on our agenda was the GREAT Plan, HR 900, the new tax plan being proposed by the Speaker of the House, Glenn Richardson, a Republican State Representative from Paulding County. The Georgia Board of Governors voted to express our concern with and opposition to the GREAT plan, as it applies to the taxation of legal services. Because the Speaker has now exempted business-to-business transactions from the
plan's tax scheme, that means only individual Georgia citizens, not corporations, would have to pay the tax on legal services. Corporations get a free pass, while Georgia would be trying to raise revenue on the backs of individual Georgia citizens, those who can least afford it. How could this possibly comport with the constitutional guarantee of equal protection of the laws? It can't, but that has often before never been much of an impediment to the Georgia General Assembly's passage of laws, as evidenced by 2005's SB3, the so-called "tort reform" bill. Much of SB3 has now been held to be unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of Georgia, and it is only a matter of time before the remaining provisions are also ruled unconstitutional. In the meantime, though, many deserving Georgia citizens have been robbed of justice because of SB3.
I am proud of the action taken by the Georgia Board of Governors expressing opposition to the proposed tax scheme. If there is anyone who will stand up for the individual Georgia citizen, it is the honorable lawyers of the State Bar of Georgia.

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Thanks go out to Jay Cook, Immediate Past President of the State Bar of Georgia, for calling a spade a spade when it comes to the complete abdication of responsibility by Corporate America. President Cook's op-ed piece in the Atlanta Journal and Constitution today tells the truth:American Corporations routinely put profits over people, including Georgia citizens, every day. For example, the Wall Street Journal reported that Mattel, which has recalled more than 20 million dangerous toys this summer alone, has delayed reporting product defects because it finds the reporting rules "unreasonable." According to The New York Times, the Consumer Product Safety Commission has fined Mattel twice for such delays since 2001. I would venture a guess that many American parents find it "unreasonable" for a company to sell toys containing lead in them, too.

And that's just one example out of thousands. Corporate America wants to make millions of dollars on the backs of hard-working Everyday Americans and Everyday Georgians, but also wants a "get out of jail free" card when caught red-handed endangering the public. It has been shown time after the time the only institution that can possibly hold Corporate America responsible is the American Civil Justice System. The Seventh Amendment guarantee to a trial by jury in the United States Constitution is the mechanism by which Everyday Americans can still obtain just a little bit of justice for the abuse heaped on them by Corporate America. Justice for All: It's a Beautiful Thing.

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I attended the 2007 State Bar of Georgia Annual Meeting in Ponte Vedra, Florida last week as a Member of the Board of Governors, Post 36 Atlanta, Georgia. I am happy to report good news for the elections to the Executive Committee of the Georgia State Bar, as the Board of Governors duly elected fellow blogger Ken Shigley from Atlanta, Georgia and fellow Georgia Trial Lawyers Association (GTLA) member Thomas Stubbs from Decatur, Georgia as Members at Large to the Executive Committee. Both of these outstanding lawyers will serve the Georgia Bar well. They, like I, represent plaintiffs in a vast array of personal injury cases and are always fighting for justice for the underdog in the system. Ken, Thomas and I all share the same beliefs in the inherent value of the Georgia Civil Justice System and we will continue to support it and fight to maintain an independent judiciary, something all Americans agree sets our Nation apart from others. There has been an assault on the independence of the judiciary in last year's Georgia Supreme Court election and I am proud to say that the Georgia lawyers who believe in the integrity of our Civil Justice System fought it off and helped preserve an independent judiciary in Georgia that is not controlled by special political interests. We should all be proud of that. Justice Carol Hunstein, whose seat on the Supreme Court of Georgia was the target of this politicized assault, was awarded the Tradition of Excellence Award in the Judicial Category by the General Practice and Trial Section. Fellow GTLA member Paul Kilpatrick from Columbus, Georgia, was awarded the Tradition of Excellence Award in the Plaintiffs' Counsel Category and they both gave inspirational acceptance speeches that emphasized the importance of an independent, non-politicized judiciary.

Much of the credit goes to Immediate Past President Jay Cook, as he led the charge to preserve Georgia's tradition of an independent judiciary. We can expect our new Georgia Bar President, Gerald Edenfield, from Statesboro, Georgia, to follow in Jay Cook's footsteps on this very important issue.

Additionally, GTLA members Jeff Bramlett and Lester Tate were elected President Elect and Treasurer respectfully, so I can honestly and happily say the State Bar of Georgia is in good hands for years to come. These gentlemen champion the rights of the everyday Georgia citizens, not mammouth corporations or insurance companies.

The Annual Georgia State Bar Meeting is important to attend for many reasons, including legal education, fellowship and doing the Bar's work, but attending also reinvigorates us for the heavy fight to preserve the Civil Justice System of Georgia at all costs, because there are those out there, who I would refer to as "The Dismantlers" who would "dismantle" or undo the Civil Justice System and eliminate corporate responsibility for wrongdoing altogether. I pledge to every Georgia citizen I will do my utmost never to allow that to happen.

Continue reading "Successful 2007 State Bar of Georgia Annual Meeting" »

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