Lawyers Club of Atlanta Tag Archives - Atlanta Injury Lawyer Blog

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Last night at the Lawyers Club of Atlanta dinner, I had the distinct honor to raise a “wee deoch and doris” in memory of dear friend and Lawyers Club Past President, J.D. Humphries. He died on January 3, 2026 at the age of 81. We were in shock at the news of his passing. At his funeral, we were told that J.D. had written his own obituary. It starts like this: “J.D. (James Donald) struck his tent, died and passed over the river to rest under the shade of the trees on January 3, 2026. He was born September 27, 1944.” Although J.D. and I had been close friends for many years, his funeral was the first time I learned we shared a birthday. He never missed a Lawyers Club meeting, or a Lawyers Club Golf Tournament, or a Lawyers Club Past Presidents Dinner. He often traveled to England and Scotland to play golf with his buddies. He was an incredible person.

In his obituary, J.D. said this: “In lieu of flowers or contributions to charities, he wishes his friends to have “A Wee Deoch An’ Doris” until he meets them again.” And I said to myself, “OK, J.D., what the heck is a “Wee Deoch An’ Doris?” So I did some searching, and found a Scottish song by Harry Lauder from 1912. Here are the lyrics:

There’s a good old Scottish custom

Last week we were thrilled to have Georgia Trial Lawyer McCracken King Poston, Jr. be our guest speaker at Lawyers Club of Atlanta. McCracken regaled the crowd of over 200 attorneys with stories about his trial in Ringgold, Georgia in which he represented Alvin Ridley, who was accused of holding his wife captive in their basement for almost three decades before killing her.

McCracken Poston is a former four-term legislator in the Georgia House of Representatives. He is a graduate of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and is a 1985 graduate of The University of Georgia School of Law. He has practiced law for 39 years in Georgia. He gained national attention for his handling of several notable cases that were featured on CNN Presents, Dateline NBC, A & E’s American Justice and Forensic Files.

McCracken’s new book “Zenith Man: Death, Love and Redemption in a Georgia Courtroom” tells the tale of Alvin Ridley, accused of murdering his wife, and McCracken’s courtroom battle for Justice for Alvin. Alvin was a difficult client, storing evidence in a cockroach-infested suitcase, unwilling to reveal key facts to his defender. Gradually, Poston pieced together the full story behind Virginia and Alvin’s curious marriage and her cause of death—which was completely overlooked by law enforcement. Calling on medical experts, testimony from Alvin himself, and a wealth of surprising evidence gleaned from Alvin’s junk-strewn house, Poston presented a groundbreaking defense that allowed Alvin to return to his peculiar lifestyle, a free man.