The Atlanta Lawyer January/February 2014 | Page 18

Celebrating 125 Years Randolph W. Thrower: Most Tenured Atlanta Bar Member Randolph W. Thrower was Atlanta Bar President in 1958. He graduated from Georgia Military Academy in 1930. He received an undergraduate degree from Emory University in 1934 and received his law degree from the Emory University School of Law in 1936. Starting in 1969, Thrower was an IRS Commissioner for three years under President Nixon. He resisted repeated White House pressure to use the agency’s enormous power as a partisan weapon. Thrower has always made time for Bar work. During an eventful year as Atlanta Bar President, he helped put in motion a far-reaching investigation of state government corruption. In 1962, the American Bar Association named him chairman of the tax section, and he served as a member of the ABA House of Delegates for seventeen years. Thrower’s phone always rung when ethics questions arose in city government. The first of many of those calls was in 1977 when he and attorney Felker Ward co-chaired a probe of cheating allegations in police promotion exams. In 1981, Thrower was named chairman of the City’s Board of Ethics, a post he held until 1992. For all his service to the civic and legal community, in 1992 he received Bar’s Leadership Award and in 1994 received the American Bar Association’s highest honor, the American Bar Association Medal. He is also a recipient of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law’s Segal-Tweed Founder’s Award and the Lifetime AntiDefamation League’s Achievement Award, among others. He is a retired senior partner with Sutherland Asbill & Brennan LLP and on September 5, 2013, he celebrated his 100th birthday. Material is borrowed from Lea Agnew and Jo Anna HadenMiller, Atlanta And Its Lawyers: A Century of Vision: 1888-1988 (1988). Alina Lee: Youngest Atlanta Bar Attorney Member Alina Lee entered high school at age 12 and graduated in May 2005 at the age of 14. She then entered the University of Georgia in August 2005, shortly after her 15th birthday with a full golf scholarship, and graduated in May 2008 at the age of 17 with an A.B. in History, magna cum laude. After college, she obtained a real estate sales associate license in both Georgia and Florida in addition to a Florida Mortgage Broker license. She worked in real estate for about six months prior to attending law school at Vanderbilt University Law School in August 2009, and graduated in May 2012, at the age of 21. Alina began wor king at Rogers & Hardin September 10, 2012, passed the summer 2012 Georgia Bar Exam, and has practiced law as a corporate transactional attorney at Rogers & Hardin since passing the Bar. She now practices corporate transactional law and has assisted clients in a number of financings, mergers and acquisitions, matters relating to securities regulation, various corporate governance issues, and general corporate law. Alina mentioned that “Rogers & Hardin is proud that all of its attorneys are members of the Atlanta Bar Association and I am tremendously thankful for their support of my membership. The Atlanta Bar Association has played a large role in my legal career in that it has given me the opportunity to meet many talented attorneys who are now dear friends and mentors. The Atlanta Bar Association also provides informative CLEs. My favorite CLE was the “Life of the Deal” CLE series at 18 THE ATLANTA LAWYER January/February 2014 Manuel's Tavern last year. The Negotiations and Allocating Risk session I attended featured three speakers: inhouse counsel for a large public company, a partner from a large Atlanta firm, and a senior associate from a large Atlanta firm. Together, they provided practical advice regarding negotiations and mergers.” Moreover, Alina has received tangible benefits from the various networking events at popular venues throughout the year. She met two friends for the first time at a networking event at Tap Gastropub in Midtown last March. The two attorneys have since become mentors and provide perspective and support for her legal career. Alina feels that their advice has proven to be priceless as she transitions into her legal career. She remarks that “the Atlanta Bar Association is unparalleled in providing convenient access to a diverse group of Atlanta attorneys at fun and engaging events.” Alina is 23 years old and, to date, the youngest attorney member of the Atlanta Bar Association. The Official News Publication of the Atlanta Bar Association