Meet Your Section Chairs
The Atlanta Bar Association has 21 ac-
tive Sections. Our varied listing of Sec-
tions gives members the opportunity
to collaborate with lawyers both in and
out of their practice area. Sections spon-
sor a variety of independent and joint
activities, including CLE and practice
programs, community service projects
and social networking activities. Each
Section has its own Board which pro-
vides relevant leadership training to
emerging leaders. Join one or many!
The 2017-2018 section chairs are:
• C. Joseph Hoffman (ACYL President)
• Jeffery W. Cavender (Bankruptcy)
• Lori Gelchion (Business & Finance)
• Christy Sanders (Construction Law)
• Brittanie Browning
(Corporate Counsel)
• Brock Brockington (Criminal Law)
• Gregory T. Presmanes
(Dispute Resolution)
• Linda S. Pacer (Elder Law)
• Randall J. Butterfield
(Environmental & Toxic Tort)
• Albert Caproni III
(Estate Planning & Probate)
• Rachel Miller (Family Law)
• L. Clint Crosby (Intellectual Property)
• Hon. Melynee Leftridge ( Judicial)
• Adriana Midence Scott
(Labor & Employment Law)
• Edward Konieczny (Litigation)
• Wingo Smith (Public Interest)
• Katherine Dyott (Real Estate)
• Rachel Platt
(Sole Practitioner/Small Firm)
• W. Scott Wright (Tax Law)
• Kimberly D. Charles
(Women in the Profession)
• Brian Sumrall
(Workers' Compensation)
8 August/September 2017
What are your plans for
the year?
Randy Butterfield (Environmental
& Toxic Tort): We have several social
events and happy hours lined up (in-
cluding a brewery tour later this month)
as well as a couple of environmentally-
themed service projects. We are also
planning to host an informal conver-
sation with several Administrative Law
Judges at the Office of State Admin-
istrative Hearings to discuss practice
pointers and suggested improvements
in the current administrative rules and
procedures. Finally we will wrap things
up with a CLE to help people with that
elusive ethics credit hour as the dead-
line draws near.
Al Caproni (Estate Planning & Probate):
We plan to continue our traditions of
interesting speakers at our breakfast
meetings, the annual Estate Planning
Forum and annual Georgia Law and
Federal Tax Law updates, as well as
joint education events with the finan-
cial planners and Elder Law Section.
We will continue to support pro bono
efforts by Section members, especially
supporting our local Probate Courts. In
addition, we hope to partner with other
Sections for social events throughout
the year.
Jeff Cavender (Bankruptcy): The Bank-
ruptcy Section is hard at work develop-
ing what we hope will be an exciting
year for our members. We have our
fall social planned for October 24th at
JCT Kitchen where we will celebrate the
upcoming retirement of Chief Judge
Ray Mullins. The Board is also work-
ing on our Annual Commercial and
Bankruptcy Law Year End Review CLE
which will be held in January instead of
December. We will use the occasion to
honor retiring Judge Mary Grace Diehl.
We have other plans in the works with
details still to come.
Kimberly Charles (Women in the Pro-
fession): In years past, WIP has done
pro bono work with Atlanta Legal Aid
Society, Inc.’s Breast Cancer Legal Proj-
ect. We’d like to continue this partner-
ship and expand it. We also host socials,
CLEs and the Women of Achievement
lunch each year. We will continue these
events and also hope to collaborate with
other women and minority bar associa-
tions to bring interesting programs to
the Atlanta Bar. We have a great group
of attorneys on the board. I know that
we will work together to accomplish
our goals.
Hon. Melynee Leftridge ( Judicial): The
Judicial Section will be hosting 2 CJE
opportunities for our membership this
Bar Year. The topic for our October 2017
“Lunch and Learn” will be “The Essence
of Due Process is the Opportunity to
Be Heard: Legal Obligations, Practical
Considerations and Best Practices for
Providing Language Access to Georgia
Courts.” Jana Edmondson-Cooper Esq.
will be speaking on the subject. She is a
former legal interpreter who currently
serves as a federal prosecutor. She has
over a decade of “language access ex-
perience” and regularly contributes
to the development of local, state and
federal language access policies and the
development of state and national cur-
ricula for training lawyers and judges
on language access, as an “access to
justice” issue. We are looking forward
to receiving the information she will
be sharing with us.
Rachel Platt (Sole Practitioner/Small