WORDS FROM THE WISE
ANSWERS AND ADVICE FROM SOME TOP DOGS
By Richard Caplan
Leclair Ryan
[email protected]
T
he Atlanta Lawyer asked the same five
questions of four leaders in the local legal community—
Leah Ward Sears, who currently works at Schiff Hardin and
formerly served as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Georgia;
The Honorable Leigh Martin May, who serves on the United
States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia;
Emmet J. Bondurant, from Bondurant Mixson & Elmore;
and Marty Ellin, Executive Director of the
Atlanta Volunteer Lawyers Foundation.Their answers, directed
at younger lawyers, follow.
1
What is the most important advice you can give
young attorneys?
Justice Sears: If young lawyers want to excel in this profession they need to work really hard to master their crafts.
Mastery requires time, effort and persistence. What does that
mean? It sometimes means being willing to get to work before
everyone else and staying late when necessary, proofreading
a document three times when others only review a document
once, showing initiative, not being afraid to take on challenging
tasks, accepting constructive criticism and growing from it.
Judge May: Learn to be a great legal writer. This doesn’t only
mean writin