president’s message
Making Connections for the Future
By Rita A. sheffey
Hunton & Williams LLP
T
hank you for the privilege of serving as President of
the Atlanta Bar Association. And thank you for the
many kind words of congratulation, email, cards and
calls. Special thanks to everyone who has volunteered for
a committee or project. If you have not heard back from us,
you will shortly. I also appreciate the feedback you gave us
on the new electronic version of The Atlanta Lawyer. Keep
your suggestions and feedback coming. They enable us to
better serve you, our members.
Since the annual meeting just over three months ago, I have
been very busy. Just ask any member of the Atlanta Bar staff
or Board of Directors, or any of the Section Chairs! I thank
them all for their hard work and I am confident our investment
in Making Connections for the Future will be worthwhile for
the Atlanta Bar Association.
while I have been working hard to make the Atlanta Bar
Association the best it can be, it dawned on me that I should
stop for a moment and be sure that I am also enjoying the
experience. Maybe others of you get so involved in work or
a volunteer activity that you don’t take the time to experience
the enjoyment and to remind yourself why you are doing
what you are doing. I mentioned this to several people who
told me how fortunate for me that I realized this now, rather
than after my term as president ends. I can still make more
time to enjoy the whole experience. To be sure, I intend to
keep up the intensity. I will work to increase and diversify
our membership, add new sponsors, ensure our members
and sponsors are getting excellent value for their dollars and
time, offer fun, educational, and interesting programming,
hire a new Executive Director to lead us going forward, help
About the Cover –
This month’s cover features the logos for each of the
14 member organizations of the Multi-Bar Leadership
Council. For more information on the Multi-Bar
Leadership Council, please see page 6 and visit
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Multi-Bar-LeadershipCouncil/63051136369.
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THE ATLANTA LAWYER
August/September 2011
[email protected]
inspire a new generation of leaders, and (hopefully) leave
the Atlanta Bar Association better than I found it (which was
pretty darn good). what I also will do, however, is to take the
time to pause and enjoy this once in a lifetime experience.
Maybe my recent lesson-learned will serve as good advice
for some of you.
This realization is particularly timely given the approaching
10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on our country on
9/11. Many of us will pause that day and remember those
whose lives were lost and reflect on all our blessings. I
hope we also reach out to the people who are most dear to
us. Those include family, of course, and friends, neighbors,
and colleagues. Being active in the Atlanta Bar Association
has brought with it some of the most special relationships I
have, and will have, for life. I resolve to make more time for
them. when I do, I am always enriched. we all know that;
we just get consumed with our lives and the challenges so
many of us face, that we may neglect what is most important
and lasting.
Recently, the State Bar of Georgia added a new crop of
lawyers to our ranks. The rest of us owe it to our profession,
to them, and to ourselves, to make time to show them what
it means to be a lawyer. All of us are role models, whether
we know it or not. I was particularly touched recently when
a very good friend asked me if I would be willing to spend
time with and mentor young associate in his firm. Of course,
I said yes.
In this issue of The Atlanta Lawyer are articles about a few of
the programs the Atlanta Bar Association has to help young
lawyers, law students, and even high school students who
may one day become lawyers. For example, read about
one law student’s experience as in intern in the Minority
and Diversity Clerkship Program (page 8), working with the
Honorable Sara Doyle in the Court of Appeals of Georgia.
Read Atlanta Legal Aid attorney Haley Schwartz’s summary
(page 10) of some of the interesting activities in which our
public interest lawyers are engaged. And there are the
winning essays (page 22) by three of the Summer Law
The Official News Publication of the Atlanta Bar Association