lifted by Hee’s work, and the expert testimony of Karen
Fortune. Hee places the value of services provided by IAG
through Karen at well over $20,000.00. We are grateful to
IAG for both the work they did for Hee and her client and
demonstrating how non-lawyers can provide invaluable pro
bono help for Legal Aid.
2012 Outstanding Pro Bono Service
The Honorable Nora Polk
Melissa Reading
Prior to opening her own
practice, DeKalb County
associate magistrate judge
Nora Polk cut her teeth in public
interest law by serving as a staff
attorney at Atlanta Legal Aid for
eight years. Yet leaving Legal
Aid is never that simple. Judge
Polk has, for the past several
years, coordinated the Georgia
Association of Black Women
Attorneys’ Estate Planning
Project with Legal Aid’s AIDS
Legal Project/Cancer Initiative,
helping to provide wills and
Judge Nora Polk
advanced directives for many
clients every year. She is committed to making this project
a success, and if she cannot find a volunteer attorney
to take a pro bono wills case, her firm will often draft the
documents. She has demonstrated the same passion for
The Official News Publication of the Atlanta Bar Association
celebrating service
and commitment to this project over the last three years that
she brought to her work as a Legal Aid lawyer.
Melissa Reading, attorney at
Owen Gleaton Egan Jones &
Sweeney LLP, used her time as
the pro bono chair of the Women
in the Profession (WIP) section
to foster a robust relationship
between the Cancer Initiative
and WIP. Because of Melissa,
dozens of WIP members have
been trained to do onsite client
screening at medical facilities for
the project. Members also take
on various civil legal pro bono
cases, again, thanks to Melissa.
Her leadership in this project has
Melissa Reading
allowed Atlanta Legal Aid to serve
countless more clients than before and expand the reach of
services to a particularly vulnerable population—the critically
and terminally ill. She has also raised money and solicited
gifts for clients in need, including personal care items, baby
necessities and money for medication. Melissa’s dedication
to Legal Aid’s clients sets the highest standard for both
compassion and professionalism any lawyer—or person—
might hope to achieve. ■
October 2012
THE ATLANTA LAWYER
17