president’s message
Atlanta Bar Philanthropy: Doing Our Part Working
Together
By Rita A. Sheffey
Hunton & Williams LLP
A
lthough in reality, the passage of time is constant,
sometimes it appears to move by all too fast. Indeed,
for me, the past year has flown by far too quickly.
This time last May, I was getting ready to become the 104th
President of the Atlanta Bar Association and I was busy with
rehearsals for “A Courthouse Line IX: Law School Musical,”
albeit only for my presidential cameo appearance as the
“School Announcer” in the tower above the stage. Today, I
am preparing to wrap up a very busy year and to hand over
the gavel to the 105th President, Lynn Roberson. At the
Annual Meeting and Awards Luncheon, it will be a privilege
and an honor to recognize some of the many people who
have made remarkable contributions to the Atlanta Bar
Association. I also will briefly recap highlights of the past
year, with more detail to follow in the June/July 2012 issue of
this publication. In this, my next to last President’s Message
in The Atlanta Lawyer, I focus on our Atlanta Bar “family”
and one thing that makes it special -- our philanthropy.
The Atlanta Bar “family” comprises many parts, but there
are two main ones -- the Atlanta Bar Association and the
Atlanta Bar Foundation. The Atlanta Bar Association is
the membership, administrative, educational and charitable
programming branch of the Atlanta Bar family. We provide
numerous professional, social, financial, educational and
charitable/civic programs and services, directly and through
numerous Sections and Committees, our Continuing Legal
Education Board, and the Lawyer Referral and Information
Service. All of this is for the benefit of our members and
our community.
The Atlanta Bar Foundation is our charitable arm, with
a mission of supporting the charitable, educational, civic
and humane purposes of our Association for the benefit of
our members and the community at large. The Foundation
Board and its Executive Director, Sally Hogsette, herself a
former Board member, work hard year round to raise money
to support some very worthy programs.
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THE ATLANTA LAWYER
May 2012
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The Bard Show performances last May not only were
great fun for the performers and the audience, but, more
importantly, they helped us support a number of wonderful
charitable programs and organizations, through the Atlanta
Bar Foundation. Other activities during the year did likewise.
They included our second Battle of the Lawyer Bands,
LawJam, in June 2011, the Legal Runaround in September
2011, and a number of other smaller scale activities by the
Atlanta Bar Association, its Sections, and our Members.
As featured elsewhere in this issue, our third LawJam is
scheduled for June 9, 2012, again at the Variety Playhouse
in Little Five Points.
Through these fundraising activities, we have been able
to provide substantial financial support for: the Atlanta Bar
Summer Law Intern Program for high school students
to gain valuable work experience in law firms, corporate
legal departments, public interest organizations, and with
judges, soon to begin its 20th year; the Minority & Diversity
Clerkship program for first year law students; the Police
Scholarship Fund, providing college scholarships to the
children of Atlanta police officers who are killed or disabled in
the line of duty; as well as supporting many of our pro bono
and public interest organizations. In addition, many of the
Atlanta Bar’s Sections made significant monetary donations
to charitable causes during the past year as well.
As Lawyers Who Serve, the Atlanta Bar Association
encourages our members both to give of their time, by
providing free legal representation to people in poverty, by
volunteering in our communities by serving on non-profit
boards, by coaching a child’s sports team, or in one of the
many other ways lawyers are involved in our community. We
also urge our members to open their wallets, to the extent
each is able to do so. We are very proud of our members’
philanthropy, both individually and collectively, and I have
seen it more closely than ever during the past year.
As President of the Atlanta Bar Association, I have had the
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