secret santa
Secret Santa Project Celebrating 40 Years of
Lawyers’ Caring
By Dale M. Schwartz
Dale M. Schwartz & Associates
O
n a cold November day in 1972, one of the thenTroutman Sanders partners, Richard Newton, asked
me to go to Fulton Juvenile Court to represent the
son of one of our partners who had gotten caught up in a
childhood prank (something about Coke bottles and mail
boxes). We persuaded the Judge, Hon. John (“Jack”)
Langford to dismiss the charges after his stern talk with
the young man.
In chambers the Judge lamented the fact that there were
hundreds of children in state custody and/or in foster homes
that were not reached by the Christmas Toys-for-Tots
campaign, and the Judge asked me if I could approach the
Atlanta Bar Association to see if there was something we
could do about that. Then the Judge looked at me and said:
“Oh, I’m sorry Dale. You are Jewish, aren’t you?” I replied
to him: “Yes, but I have always wanted to be a Jewish Santa
Claus!”
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of glee and the smiles of kids on Christmas morning when
they open their presents. These expressions of joy are from
children who would otherwise have not received anything at
Christmas. We plan to get bar associations all over America
to follow our lead in creating Secret Santa programs.
So, on behalf of Richard Newton (my co-founder) and me, we
want to thank all of you fellow lawyers who have contributed
to our little effort. I am so very proud of you! ■
Richard and I called Jule Felton, who was serving as
President of the Atlanta Bar Association, and Jule told us to
start a campaign among Atlanta lawyers to raise money for
DFACS to buy toys for those forgotten kids. As I recall, we
raised about $1,800 that first year, and I arranged for several
of the major toy stores in Atlanta to give us big discounts on
the toys we purchased in the future so that we could buy
more items for the same amount of money.
For several years the John Deere Company gave us a
number of bicycles they manufacture to give to our kids. Who
can ever forget the group of very non-mechanical lawyers
trying to assemble those bikes on Christmas Eve? For
many years, we were given scores of Cabbage Patch Kids
so that we could distribute those very expensive “babies” to
needy children.
David Rubenstein
s
Over the years we have collected over $500,000 from our
lawyer members—a tribute to their generosity and willingness
to share with the less fortunate among us. I am proud of that
record! The thanks that we get comes in the form of sounds
The Official News Publication of the Atlanta Bar Association
December 2012
THE ATLANTA LAWYER
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