LAWYER REFERRAL and INFORMATION SERVICE
AN HONOR TO SERVE
By Celia Sunne
Chair, Lawyer Referral and Information Service
M
y year as the chair of the Lawyer Referral Service
is coming to an end. It has been an amazing year.
Each year of the eight that I have served, I have
seen the LRIS expand and grow and become
more and more of what it intended to be from its inception.
This year we overhauled and migrated to a better referral
software database. Staying in step with new technology is
essential and it will help us serve more people who need
good legal representation.
The Atlanta Bar celebrated 60 years of service this year. Our
LRIS program was pleased and honored to celebrate our service as a lawyer referral program by awarding over $200,000
in grants to legal organizations who provide the community
with needed legal services. It was more money than we had
ever given in previous years. We have been successful and
we shared our success in the best way possible. We gave it
away to other non-profit legal services, other organizations
that provide invaluable legal services to our community.
I want to thank Carla Brown for
her ongoing and tireless dedication
over the years. She makes our job
on the Board so much easier. Carla
is always thinking, exploring and
developing the program.
I appreciate the time that our Board
members have dedicated to this
very important program. They
carve out time in their busy legal
practices to attend Board meetings. I extend a special thank you
to each of you. You are part of the
process and the LRIS continues
to succeed because of your input
and involvement.
As in years past we participated in the Legal Runaround 5k
for the Atlanta Bar Association. I was having a particularly
energetic day and managed to snag first in my age division,
a great shout-out for the LRIS.
We started a blog page for the public on our LRIS website,
which has been well received.
18
May 2016
I will be handing the gavel to
Laurie Robbins who will be the
chairperson next year. Laurie has
been a thoughtful and insightful Board member. Her leadership
will assure the continuing upward trajectory of the Lawyer Referral Service. It has been a pleasure and an honor to serve. ■