Celebrating 125 Years
Celebrating 125 Years of the Atlanta Bar Association
By Lisa Liang
Atlanta Legal Aid Society, Inc.
[email protected]
This year we commemorate and celebrate the 125th
anniversary of the founding of the Atlanta Bar Association
on April 28, 1888. This is the last of three articles tracing the
strong and storied legacy of the Atlanta Bar, and it focuses
on the last twenty-five years, from 1988 to 2013. Credit and
appreciation for compiling and contributing the information
for this article is extended to Diane O’Steen, former Atlanta
Bar Association Executive Director, and W. Terrence Walsh,
former Atlanta Bar Association President (1991).
A
s the centennial celebration of the Atlanta Bar
Association’s founding faded into year one hundred
one, the Bar did not rest. Instead, it continued to
meet, exceed and extend the mission and vision of the
previous century. Under Fulton County Superior Court
Senior Judge Melvin K. Westmoreland’s presidency, the
Bar adapted to the changing lawyer landscape and formed
the Sole Practitioner/Small Firm Section and the Workers’
Compensation Section in 1988. In 1989, with Alston & Bird
attorney, Christopher Glenn Sawyer, at the Bar’s helm as
President, the Leadership Awards were established to
recognize not only the stalwarts and icons of the Bar, but
also those up an