IN THE PROFESSION
Staff Attorney Conference :
A Hybrid Affair
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Following the DeKalb Courthouse Water Damage , Things We Learned at the Georgia Judicial Staff Attorney Conference .
PHOTO CREDIT : PEXELS
JACOB O . DAVIS Staff Attorney to The Honorable Mike Jacobs State Court of DeKalb County , Division 5 jodavis @ dekalbcountyga . gov
M arch 15 , 2020 , the day after Chief Justice Harold Melton entered Georgia ’ s COVID- 19-related Statewide Judicial Emergency Order , I was on vacation , apprehensively walking the brunch buffet line at a Las Vegas hotel . Hourly food service staff seemed cast adrift . They told us the Strip was closing , and this was probably the restaurant ’ s last meal for a while . Two days earlier , I sat in the Hoover Dam parking deck on an emergency virtual call with colleagues back in Atlanta . We were going remote , limiting in-person operations to essential functions . There was plenty to do , we just had to do it differently — often virtually .
Then , almost three years later , Christmastide “ pipe-mageddon ” struck Georgia ; in particular , DeKalb County Courthouse . Water damage closed large portions of the courthouse , just as I was starting work as a staff attorney for Law Dawg and Hon . Mike
Jacobs ( State Court of DeKalb County ). Our division ’ s chambers and courtroom were among the most affected , and jury trials were obviously delayed . Filings kept coming and long-suffering deputies never left their posts . Digitized file tracking systems developed during the pandemic would require further refinement . My colleagues handled that masterfully . We kept holding court — again , often virtually .
But this dilemma was not new . 170 years
26 August / September 2023