PRESIDENT ' S MESSAGE
We are Lawyers Who Serve
Nicole G. Iannarone Georgia State University School of Law
Remarks delivered during Atlanta Bar Annual Meeting first Atlanta Bar event.
Thank you for trusting me to take the helm of this incredible organization. I understand this upcoming year is a year of a few firsts. One of those firsts is perhaps the first Hispanic president of the Atlanta Bar. It is the definitely the first Atlanta Bar annual meeting for my husband of 16 years, Matthew Page, and for my mother Lynn McCormick, who has traveled from South Texas to be here today. I’ d like to thank them both for being here and for their support.
Another first is that we seem to have two law professors, both from Georgia State, serving in succession. Maggie Vath – I am so glad to have you as a colleague and a friend. We all thank you for your strong leadership and dedicated service.
I have thought deeply about my first Atlanta Bar meeting in 2003. My first involvement in the Atlanta Bar came from the support from the lawyers at the law firm where I had the privilege of practicing for a decade – Bondurant Mixson & Elmore. The first visit, and maybe the second and third, to an Atlanta Bar event required an invitation and some support from my colleagues at the firm.
Fifteen years later, I, and you, are still here.
Lawyers ask all the time – why are you still involved in the bar? I have been reflecting on that question, and for me it comes back to the Atlanta Bar’ s motto.
Despite all of these firsts, they are not the firsts I want you to focus on today. Instead, I want you to think about the first Atlanta Bar event or meeting you attended. My former law students in attendance are now on edge as they know a statement like that usually follows with cold calling. I promise I will not call on anyone today, if you promise to call upon a memory of your
WE ARE LAWYERS WHO SERVE.
That seems like a very simple statement. In its simplicity, it describes all that we do at the Atlanta Bar. It describes what has kept me, and many of you here. Our motto will be the guiding focus of our next Atlanta Bar year.
4 June / July 2018