emory’s epic awards
Emory Law’s Public Interest Committee
Honors Dokson, Bramlett and Caldas
By Sue F. McAvoy
Emory University School of Law
Y
ou might not find these three lawyers grabbing a
sandwich together. Yet their common passion and
commitment to public interest law means that they
each will be honored by the Emory Public Interest Committee
(EPIC) at its 17th Annual Inspiration Awards, February 5,
2013.
Robert N. “Robbie” Dokson, shareholder in Ellis Funk,
PC (Lifetime Commitment to Public Service); Jeffrey O.
Bramlett, partner at Bondurant Mixson & Elmore LLP
(Outstanding Leadership in the Public Interest); and Tamara
Serwer Caldas, deputy director at Atlanta Volunteer Lawyers
Foundation (Unsung Devotion to Those Most in Need), will
be recognized by EPIC for exceptional service in the law to
those individuals in our community who cannot afford legal
representation or to those organizations who provide services
for the betterment of our society and require legal advisors
to achieve their goals.
A student-run organization, EPIC presents the annual
awards as a major fundraising effort that provide grants
for students who accept volunteer summer jobs with public
sector organizations.
Robbie Dokson has an abiding commitment to the Atlanta
Legal Aid Society. Dokson began his legal career at ALAS,
serving as executive director for six years and as board
president, officer and member for over 30 years. Dokson
was also a founding board member of the Justice Center
of Atlanta, one of the nation's first mediation programs
established in the late 1970s under a grant from the U.S.
Department of Justice. A practicing attorney for over 40 years,
he has mediated, arbitrated and served as a court appointed
Special Master in hundreds of cases. Dokson was also a
founder of the Atlanta Volunteer Lawyers Foundation and
served on its board for many years. In addition, he currently
serves on, or previously has been, a member of the boards
of the Governor's Office of Consumer Affairs, the Downtown
YMCA and the Anti-Defamation League Southeast Region.
34 THE ATLANTA LAWYER
December 2012
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Jeff Bramlett is a renowned trial lawyer who has served as
lead counsel for prison inmates and foster children as well
as Fortune 100 companies. In the course of 30 years as a
practicing attorney he also found time to provide leadership
as president of the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia,
former national board member of the American Civil Liberties
Union and current chair of Georgia’s American Constitution
Society board of advisors. He also has served for 20
consecutive years as a “Saturday Morning Lawyer” with
the Atlanta Volunteer Lawyers Foundation and he is past
president of both the Atlanta Bar Association and State Bar of
Georgia. Nationally he has been a delegate of the American
Bar Association’s House of Delegates. The range of cases
he has tried--from securities fraud, professional liability,
business torts, trademark infringement and RICO to civil
rights enforcement, personal injury and murder--speaks to
his incomparable legal credentials.
Tamara Caldas has devoted her legal career to public interest
law. She worked with the Southern Center for Human
Rights for six years where she represented indigent clients
challenging unconstitutional conditions of confinement and
unsanitary conditions in Alabama's and Georgia's prisons
and jails. Since joining the Atlanta Volunteer Lawyers
Foundation seven years ago, she has worked with legal
partners and local courts to protect tenants in foreclosed
properties, and has advocated for local and state policies on
behalf of low-income tenants and consumers. Caldas also
was the driving force behind the creation of Fulton County
State Court’s Self-Help Center. Currently, she is an executive
committee member of the Atlanta Bar Association’s Public
Interest Law Section and an advisory board member of the
Health Law Partnership.
Daniel A. Bloom, member of Pachman Richardson, will be
master of ceremonies for the EPIC Inspiration Awards on
February 5, at 7:00+ p.m. in Emory Law’s Gambrell Hall,
Tull Auditorium.
The Official News Publication of the Atlanta Bar Association