When Community
Service Hits
Home
At the Atlanta Bar, not only are we family, but we place
value on taking care of others.
T
RYAN K. WALSH
Jones Day
[email protected]
he
Atlanta
Bar Family is
exceedingly
fortunate to
boast a great
number
of
lawyers who
regularly step
away from their already hectic
schedules to devote time
and energy serving others
in the Atlanta community.
On November 6, the Atlanta
Bar Association, the Atlanta
Legal Aid Society (https://
atlantalegalaid.org/), and the
Atlanta Volunteer Lawyers
Foundation (AVLF) (https://
avlf.org/) took a moment
to recognize a few of these
wonderful individuals at
the Atlanta Bar’s Annual
Celebrating
Service
Luncheon. It is always a
tremendous event that gives
us an opportunity to reflect
not only on what we can do
for others in our community,
but also the outsized
impact that individuals in the legal
community can have helping others who
are not in a position to help themselves.
Atlanta Bar Association has a long history
of service to both the profession and to the
greater Atlanta community. That includes
the hard work done every day by lawyers
affiliated with the Atlanta Legal Aid Society
and AVLF, as well as other public interest
programs that grew out of Atlanta Bar
projects, like the Truancy Intervention Project
pro bono legal or other services in the
Atlanta community that did not begin with
the Atlanta Bar. These programs include:
•
•
Georgia Appleseed (https://gaappleseed.
org/)
Georgia Innocence Project (https://
www.georgiainnocenceproject.org/)
This year, we have turned our focus on the
humanitarian issues that afflict those in the
undocumented immigrant community
[...] there are obviously other legal issues
surrounding the immigration process itself
where having a lawyer can mean all the
As I have noted in this space previously, the
4
October/November 2019
difference in the world.
(TIP)
(https://www.truancyproject.org/)
and the Georgia Asylum and Immigration
Network (GAIN) (https://georgiaasylum.
org/). And of course, there are many other
non-profit programs that provide or facilitate
•
•
•
Georgia Justice Project (https://www.
gjp.org/)
Gideon’s Promise (https://www.
gideonspromise.org/)
Latin American Association (https://