The Atlanta Lawyer October/November 2015 | Page 10

Celebrating Service

T

he Celebrating Service Awards Luncheon and Pro
Bono Fair was held on Friday, October 18, at the
Piedmont Driving Club. This annual event celebrates
individuals who have made significant contributions
through their pro bono and service work in the community. A
Pro Bono Fair preceded the event and showcased thirteen
community pro bono organizations who recruited volunteers
and support for their various endeavors.
Joe Bankoff, Chair of Georgia Tech’s Sam Nunn School of
International Affairs and former CEO of the Woodruff Arts
Center, gave a keynote speech which highlighted the value
of volunteerism and the impact it makes on the community.
“There is a tradition of volunteerism that runs like a thread
across this town... and it starts with the professional
community,” Joe Bankoff said in the keynote speech. Bankoff
was a partner at King & Spalding for 32 years.
The Rita A. Sheffey Public Interest Award is given annually to
an attorney who has demonstrated leadership in the public
interest, excellence in the profession, and an outstanding
commitment to the Bar. The Public Interest Law Section
selected Rachel Spears to receive the award for her
leadership of the Pro Bono Partnership of Atlanta which
connects volunteer attorneys with Georgia nonprofits in need
of free business legal services. The group has connected
about 2,000 corporate lawyers
with 750 nonprofits needing legal
counsel since she founded it a
decade ago.

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Kimberly Adams
received the Community Service Award for her contributions
and involvement with the Bar and the community. Among
other activities, Judge Adams serves as chair of the national
advisory board for Forever Family, a non-profit organization
committed to mitigating the collateral effects on children
of incarcerated parents. Among her various Atlanta Bar
Association activities, Judge Adams has opened her
chambers to mentor young student interns in the Atlanta
Bar Association’s Summer Law Internship Program (SLIP),
serves on the Atlanta Bar Association’s Judicial Section
Board of Directors and is a current member of the Lawyer
Referral Information Service Board of Trustees.
The Public Service Award honored assistant district attorney
Eddward Chase and assistant public defender Marilyn
Primovic for their dedication to a probation reintegration
program, “My Life Matters”.
The monthly check-in program offers assistance to
participants in obtaining jobs and fighting addiction. Both
have also helped the court system identify suitable treatment
programs for addicts and GED and other educational
programs for those offenders who have dropped out of
school. The program reduces recidivism and promotes
reintegration.

Chris Lightner of Alston & Bird
LLP received the Pro Bono Award
for his help in starting Georgia
PATENTS which offers inventors
pro bono legal help to low-income
Georgia based inventors. After
several years of representing the
community pro bono patent cases,
Chris started working in conjunction
with the Atlanta Bar Intellectual
Property Section, Georgia Lawyers
for the Arts and the US Patent
Office to bring the program to life.
The program has been recognized
by officials at the US Patent Office
as a program which other states
should model.
The Pro Bono
Award recognizes demonstrated
service in providing pro bono legal
services, or otherwise furthering Pictured from left to right are Edward Chase (Fulton County Distric Attorney’s Office),
the provision of pro bono legal The Hon. Shawn LaGrua (Superior Court of Fulton County), and Marilyn Primovic
services, to indigent individuals or (Fulton County Public Defender’s Office).
non-profit organizations.

10 THE ATLANTA LAWYER

October/November 2015

The Official News Publication of the Atlanta Bar Association