770-382-0780
Craig Jones is a North Carolina native who is a graduate of Brown University and Wake Forest University School of Law. He has been handling cases of governmental liability since the 1980’s—including two civil rights cases that Craig personally argued in the United States Supreme Court: Hope v. Pelzer (2002) and Scott v. Harris (2007). In addition to representing plaintiffs in police misconduct and other governmental liability cases, Craig has practiced extensively in the areas of personal injury, medical malpractice, product liability, and premises liability.
After practicing for 29 years in Atlanta and 8 years in Washington, Georgia, Craig and his wife Sharon are in the process of moving their empty nest to Savannah, where he will continue to maintain a statewide tort practice with civil rights cases in all three federal districts of Georgia.
Craig T. Jones, P.C. – Trial Lawyer (craigtjones.com)
Scott v Harris (USSC 05-1631) Pursuit Video
https://www.gatriallawyers.net/
See You In Court (seeyouincourtpodcast.org)
To learn more about the Georgia Civil Justice Foundation, visit fairplay.org
Judge Mike Jacobs has served on the State Court of DeKalb County since June 2015. Mike is the first openly LGBTQ+ countywide elected official in DeKalb County history and the county’s first openly LGBTQ+ trial judge.
Mike serves on the board of directors of Leadership DeKalb, chairs Government Day for the program, and is a member of the Class of 2016, the best class ever. He also serves on the board of directors of the Stonewall Bar Association of Georgia and as secretary and a board member of the International Association of LGBTQ+ Judges.
Prior to his judicial service, Mike served ten and a half years in the Georgia House of Representatives, representing the DeKalb communities of Brookhaven, Chamblee, and Toco Hills. He was chairman of the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Oversight Committee (MARTOC), the joint House and Senate committee that oversees MARTA’s management, budget, and fiscal affairs. He also served as chairman of one of the two subcommittees of the House Judiciary Committee.
In 2010, Mike received the Allen Thornell Political Advancement Award from Georgia Equality for authoring and passing a stronger anti-bullying law for public schools. In 2012, Mike served on the Special Joint Committee on Criminal Justice Reform, which vetted major reforms that place greater emphasis on rehabilitating non-violent offenders to lead productive lives.
In 2014, Interim CEO Lee May appointed Mike to the DeKalb Operations Task Force (OTF). The OTF recommended county government reforms that the General Assembly enacted to help our county function better, including DeKalb’s SPLOST, which Mike authored and passed in 2015.
In 2019, Mike was recognized by the Stonewall Bar Association of Georgia at its annual awards gala with the award for Outstanding Service to the Stonewall Community.
Before joining the bench, Mike was a solo practitioner for four years, focusing his practice on consumer bankruptcy and debtor-creditor litigation. Mike received his law degree, magna cum laude, from the University of Georgia School of Law in 2003. While at UGA Law, he served as Executive Articles Editor of the Georgia Law Review. In 1997, Mike received his bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. Mike is the proud parent of three children, Jonah, Eli, and Samantha.
https://www.gatriallawyers.net/
To learn more about the Georgia Civil Justice Foundation, visit fairplay.org
Presiding Justice Nels S.D. Peterson was appointed by Governor Nathan Deal to the Supreme Court of Georgia, effective January 1, 2017. He was re-elected statewide for a six-year term in 2018. He previously served as a judge of the Georgia Court of Appeals, to which he was appointed by Governor Deal effective January 1, 2016.
Presiding Justice Peterson graduated from Kennesaw State University with a B.S. in political science and a minor in economics. While at KSU, he served as President of Student Government and Chair of the Student Advisory Counsel to the Board of Regents and was named KSU Student of the Year and Outstanding Senior in Political Science. Presiding Justice Peterson received his J. D. from Harvard Law School. At Harvard, he was Executive Editor of the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy, Executive Vice-President of the Federalist Society, and a finalist in the Ames Moot Court Competition.
Upon graduation from law school, Presiding Justice Peterson served as a law clerk to Judge William H. Pryor Jr. of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. Presiding Justice Peterson then practiced at King & Spalding LLP in Atlanta, where he focused on securities litigation, corporate governance litigation, merger-related litigation, and appellate litigation. Presiding Justice Peterson then moved to the Governor’s Office, where he served as Executive Counsel and Deputy Executive Counsel to Governor Sonny Perdue.
In addition to his role as the Governor’s chief legal advisor, Presiding Justice Peterson also served as a senior advisor on a broad array of policy issues, including water, natural resources, education, the judiciary, and criminal justice. At the expiration of Governor Perdue’s term, Presiding Justice Peterson moved to the Attorney General’s Office as Counsel for Legal Policy, where he oversaw major policy issues and litigation, as well as the rewrite of the state’s Open Records and Open Meetings Acts.
In 2012, the Attorney General appointed Presiding Justice Peterson as Georgia’s first Solicitor General. In that position, he oversaw all of the state’s civil appellate litigation, played a lead role in all policy-related litigation, and served as a senior advisor to the Attorney General. Presiding Justice Peterson was then appointed Vice Chancellor for Legal Affairs and Secretary to the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia, a position he held until his appointment to the Court of Appeals.
Presiding Justice Peterson has served on numerous government and non-profit boards and committees, has received a variety of honors and awards, lives with his wife Jennifer and two children in Cobb County, and is an active member of Johnson Ferry Baptist Church.
Presiding Justice Nels S.D. Peterson – Supreme Court of Georgia (gasupreme.us)
To learn more about the Georgia Civil Justice Foundation, visit fairplay.org
Dennis T. Cathey is a graduate of the University of Georgia undergraduate and law school. Mr. Cathey was born in Rabun County, Georgia, and has served on the Board of Governors of the State Bar of Georgia, as president of the Mountain Circuit Bar Association, is a member of the American Board of Trial Advocates, has served on the Investigative Panel of the State Bar of Georgia Disciplinary Committee, has been a member of the Federal Bar Council for the Northern District of Georgia and is a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers. He is a past recipient of the State Bar of Georgia Traditions of Excellence Award and the past president of the Georgia Trial Lawyers Association.
Mr. Cathey was an officer in the United States Army Medical Service Corps, has served as a youth sports coach for the Habersham County Parks and Rec Department, is active in the Cornelia United Methodist Church, and serves on the Board of Trustees of Piedmont College.
Cornelia Personal Injury Lawyers | Cathey & Strain, LLC
https://www.gatriallawyers.net/
To learn more about the Georgia Civil Justice Foundation, visit fairplay.org
Today on the podcast, Robin and Lester interview Bill Nettles
Before being appointed a US Attorney, Mr. Nettles graduated from The Citadel and earned his law degree at The Widener University School of Law, where he was on law review and was a member of the moot court honor society. After graduating, he began a career that has taken him into every corner of the legal system. Mr. Nettles began his career as a public defender in Columbia, S.C., providing criminal defense services to indigent defendants who could not afford attorneys. During that time, he ensured that the legal system would not leave the economically disadvantaged behind.
From 1997 to 2005, Mr. Nettles worked in private practice as a sole practitioner. He continued his criminal defense work and became one of the region’s most well-respected “white-collar crime” lawyers. He also represented clients accused of drug crimes, handled several court-appointed capital cases, twice tried cases that were argued before the United States Supreme Court, and worked in medical malpractice and other torts.
From 2005-2010, he worked at Sanders & Nettles, LLC. In 2010 Nettles was appointed United States Attorney for the District of South Carolina by President Obama and was sworn into that office on May 3, 2010. As the US Attorney, he dramatically overhauled the office to focus on public corruption, fraud, and white-collar crime, while also greatly increasing resources to the extraordinarily important false claims whistleblower division. Under Mr. Nettles’ leadership, the US Attorney’s office made white-collar crime and public corruption the highest priority of the criminal division’s efforts. He also earned national praise for the innovative and intelligent approach his office took to drug crimes.
He is now back in private practice with his own firm, Bill Nettles, Attorney at Law, in Columbia, S.C.
Columbia Whistleblower Lawyer | Blowing the Whistle Attorney (billnettleslaw.com)
https://www.gatriallawyers.net/
To learn more about the Georgia Civil Justice Foundation, visit fairplay.org
Today on the podcast, Robin and Lester interview Lance McMillian acclaimed legal author and scholar.
Lance obtained his B.A., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Phi Beta Kappa and his J.D., University of Georgia, summa cum laude, Order of the Coif. He is a full-time professor of law at John Marshall School of Law where he teaches Torts, Constitutional Law, Federal Courts, Constitutional Law Seminar, First Amendment Seminar, White Collar Crime, Domestic Relations, Depositions, Law Office Management, Remedies in Context, Scholarly Writing.
Professor McMillian joined the Atlanta’s John Marshall faculty in 2007. Before embarking on a teaching and writing career, Professor McMillian wore many different hats in the legal profession, including those of civil litigator, commercial arbitrator, and certified mediator. The focus of his practice centered primarily on complex litigation—class action prosecution and defense, business torts, constitutional torts, and discrimination. In 2002, he became a founding partner of the law firm of McMillian & Camp, LLP. Following its inception, the firm was approved as lead counsel by numerous federal and state courts in class and collective actions arising under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act and the Fair Labor Standards Act. In this role, Professor McMillian successfully negotiated several six and seven-figure settlements. As a neutral, Professor McMillian mediated and arbitrated over 100 active lawsuits.
Professor McMillian’s writing career is just as diverse. He is a novelist and creator of the Atlanta Murder Squad series. The first book in the series, The Murder of Sara Barton, won a prestigious B.R.A.G. Medallion and became a #1 Best Seller Legal Thriller on Amazon. His nonfiction work has appeared in such legal journals as the North Carolina Law Review, the Washington and Lee Law Review, the Wisconsin Law Review, the Alabama Law Review, the Tennessee Law Review, the Southern Cal Interdisciplinary Law Journal, and the American Journal of Trial Advocacy. He also contributed a chapter for Lawyers In Your Living Room! Law On Television, a book project from the American Bar Association that also featured essays from actors Sam Waterston and James Woods. A number of federal and states courts, including an opinion by Judge Richard Posner of the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, have cited Professor McMillian in their opinions.
Professor McMillian is married to Justice Carla Wong McMillian of the Georgia Supreme Court. Atlanta’s John Marshall Law School (AJMLS) is a private for-profit law school in Atlanta, Georgia. It was founded in 1933 and named for John Marshall, the fourth chief justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. AJMLS is accredited by the American Bar Association. It was among the first southern law schools to integrate. It is in Midtown Atlanta and is accredited by the American Bar Association. AJMLS offers five J.D. programs: full-time day, part-time day, part-time evening, accelerated/spring start, and a Criminal Justice Certificate Program (led by MacArthur Genius Fellow, Jonathan Rapping).
To Kill A Lawyer (2021)
Death to the Chief (2021)
The Murder of Sara Barton (2020)
Lance’s latest novel is “Hard Way to Die,” the 4th in the Atlanta Murder Squad series, and takes place at a Georgia State Bar Annual Meeting on Jekyll Island.
Lance McMillian – Atlanta’s John Marshall Law School
https://www.gatriallawyers.net/
To learn more about the Georgia Civil Justice Foundation, visit fairplay.org
Today on the podcast, Robin and Lester interview Douglas Ammar & Rami El Gharib of the Georgia Justice Project who focus on restorative justice.
Douglas B. Ammar has been an active presence at Georgia Justice Project (GJP) since its beginning in 1986. Starting as a volunteer, then joining as a staff attorney in 1990, Doug has led GJP as Executive Director since 1995. During his time as Executive Director, GJP has helped change 21 laws in Georgia that have worked to reduce barriers to reentry for people impacted by the criminal justice system.
Originally from Charleston, West Virginia, Doug earned a bachelor’s degree in History from Davidson College in 1984, and then a law degree from Washington and Lee University in 1989.
Rami recently joined Georgia Justice Project (GJP) as the organization’s first Restorative Justice Program Manager. Rami comes to GJP as an accomplished Restorative Justice practitioner with several years of experience. In his current role, Rami supports GJP in efforts to build Georgia’s first restorative justice program taking referrals of felony cases involving adults, or youth who are tried as adults. The program, Restorative Justice Georgia, is partnering with local District Attorney offices in the Metro Atlanta area.
Before his role at GJP, Rami facilitated juvenile violent crime Restorative Conferences and Victim Offender Dialogues in Colorado and Connecticut. He has also facilitated Restorative Justice processes for adults within the Colorado justice system. Additionally, Rami is the founder of the Restorative Rainbow Alliance, which aims to introduce a LGBTQ+ lens into the field of Restorative Justice by providing extra care for LGBTQ+ victims of hate crimes and assisting facilitators in understanding the extra levels of harm that LGBTQ+ individuals may face. Rami is also the founder of The Space, an LGBTQ+ youth safe space in Colorado that utilizes Restorative Circles to assess the needs of LGBTQ+ youth in the Region.
Originally from Lebanon, Rami received his undergraduate degree in Psychology from the American University of Beirut in 2017, and his Master’s in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from the University of New Haven in 2020.
Georgia Justice Project – Transforming Our Community (gjp.org)
https://www.gatriallawyers.net/
To learn more about the Georgia Civil Justice Foundation, visit fairplay.org
Today on the podcast, Robin and Lester interview Cheryl Legare and Steven Wolfe of Legare, Attwood and Wolfe who focus on employment law.
Guest Bios
Cheryl Legare
Cheryl Legare’s practice focuses on representing employees in all aspects of employment law, including claims of disability discrimination and retaliation, sexual harassment, FMLA interference and retaliation, gender, pregnancy, race, religion, national origin, age discrimination, and wage and hour disputes. She also represents individuals in contract negotiations and employment separation negotiations.
Cheryl is active in the Georgia Association for Women Lawyers, the Atlanta Bar Association, the State Bar of Georgia. She founded GAWL’s Solo/Small Firm Affinity Group and is a past president for GAWL. Cheryl is also a member of the
National Employment Lawyers’ Association and is a past president of the organization’s Georgia chapter. Cheryl is admitted to practice law in Georgia and South Carolina. She is also admitted to the United States District Courts for the Northern and Middle Districts of Georgia, the United States Courts of Appeals for the Fourth and Eleventh
Circuits, and the United States Supreme Court. Cheryl lives with her cat Dixie and dogs Luna and Molly in Decatur, Georgia. In her spare time, Cheryl enjoys spending time with friends, listening to live music, and traveling.
Steven Wolfe
Steven has devoted his entire legal career to helping individuals stand up to their employers. He helps people fight for overtime pay that their employers have illegally denied them. He helps people overcome unlawful workplace discrimination, harassment, and retaliation and helps people negotiate severances and new employment contracts. Steve has successfully represented people from all walks of life, from all industries, and on all rungs of the corporate ladder, from entry level to C-level. Steve attended Boston University for undergraduate and then Emory Law School. Steve is married to his wife, Cristiane, who is a corporate attorney, has two sons, Jake and Caleb, and two dogs. Steve loves hiking, photography, and reading history or anything to do with the space program. He is also more than halfway to my goal of hiking in every national park in North America.
Today on the podcast, Robin and Lester interview Mariellen Jacobs, the founder of Rails Against Danger, and the co-founder of the College Safety Coalition, Nanette Hausman. Also joining is Steve Welsh, plaintiff’s counsel in Valdosta State University v. Davis
Mariellen Jacobs is the founder of RAD and co-founder of the College Safety Coalition (CSC). She is also on staff at Shepherd Center where her son was rehabilitated after his accident. A devoted mom of two and a resident of Georgia for 31 years, her passion is to drive for lasting change in institutional bed design and college campus safety data collection.
Nanette Hausman, whose son, Corey, died on the campus of the University of Colorado-Boulder while skateboarding on a dangerous campus street. As a result of Corey’s death, Nanette created College911.net whose purpose is to minimize college students’ deaths and accidents. She is a co-founder of the College Safety Coalition. Nanette is driven to help colleges and injury prevention professionals acquire the data and resources needed to minimize the risk of injury and loss of life. She is equally committed to providing tools to prevent other families from living with the devastating loss she does, every single day.
Mr. Welsh has been practicing law since 1994 and specializes in worker’s compensation, bodily injury, and civil litigation law. He recently secured a 1.4 million dollar verdict for a veteran truck driver in the Superior Court of Laurens County. He has previously served as the Mercer Law Review Writing Editor, the Co-chair of the Georgia Workers Compensation Law Institute (2002), and at the State Board of Workers Compensation Annual Education Seminar as a panelist and speaker in 2008 and as an author and speaker in 1999. Mr. Welsh was also a host speaker at the 2015 State Board of Workers Compensation Annual Regional Seminar.
Mr. Welsh is currently an adjunct professor at the Mercer University School of Law, where he teaches the Workers’ Compensation class. He is an AV Rated attorney, holds several memberships, including the Trial Lawyers Association and American Association for Justice, and has been listed again by Best Lawyers© for 2020.
When not practicing law, Mr. Welsh enjoys playing golf and traveling.
https://www.gatriallawyers.net/
To learn more about the Georgia Civil Justice Foundation, visit fairplay.org
Today on the podcast, Robin and Lester interview Georgia trial attorney Jenny Jensen who specializes in legal malpractice cases and representing lawyers when they have been accused of behaving badly.
Jenny E. Jensen
Ms. Jensen is a principal in The Jensen Firm, whose current practice focuses on attorney ethics, encompassing a Plaintiff’s professional negligence practice, including legal malpractice, representation of both lawyers and clients before the Georgia Bar in disciplinary matters and fee disputes, serving as an expert witness in in the areas of legal malpractice, attorney ethics and attorneys’ fees, as well as a general litigation practice.
Ms. Jensen also serves as a jury consultant and assists other attorneys with witness preparation and jury selection. She was named a “Rising Star” in 2005 and has been named a “Super Lawyer” for 2012-2022. Ms. Jensen was a member of the Georgia Bar Commission on Continuing Lawyer Competency from 2013 through 2018 and served as Chair of the Commission in 2017.
Ms. Jensen was admitted to the Georgia Bar in 1990 and is admitted to practice in all Georgia trial and appellate courts, as well as the United States District Courts for both the Northern and Southern Districts of Georgia and the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals. She received her undergraduate degree, a B.S. Political Science with an
International Studies minor, from Georgia Southern. She is a graduate of the Walter F. George School of Law (J.D.) at Mercer University, where she was a Member of the Moot Court Board and Intrastate Moot Court Team, as well as the Dan J. Bradley Fellow, and recipient of the Class of 1974 Scholarship. Ms. Jensen’s Her practice has focused extensively on civil litigation and appeals in state and federal court. She has been a mock trial coach for over ten years and presently coaches the Duluth High School Mock Trial Team.
Links:
Jenny Jensen LinkedIn
The Jensen Firm Facebook
Home
https://www.gatriallawyers.net/
See You In Court Website
To learn more about the Georgia Civil Justice Foundation, visit fairplay.org