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May 2014
                                                                                                                         Volume 5, Issue 5 
In This Issue
- One Step Toward Justice
- Meet Maggie Hanrahan, New AVLF Board Member
- Hot Town, Summer in the Safe Families Office
- 2nd Annual Beer Tasting & BBQ Battle
- Thank You, AVLF Volunteers!
 
Our Events
  
Fundraisers

June 5 at 5:30 p.m.   
Beer Tasting & BBQ Battle
Greystone at Piedmont Park

August 21 at 5:30 p.m.
Cocktail Reception in honor of the AVLF Guardian ad Litem Program
Warner, Bates, McGough, McGinnis, & Portnoy

November 6 at 6:00 p.m. 
AVLF Winetasting
World of Coca-Cola

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Domestic Violence Training
May 29 at 9:00 a.m.  
Nelson Mullins

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Lawyer in the Library Series

June 19 at 1:00pm
Expungement of Criminal Records   
Kirkwood Branch Library     
Presented by Brenda Smeeton, Georgia Justice Project 

August 14 at 1:00pm
Consumer and Credit Card Debt
Kirkwood Branch Library 
Presented by Chris Armor, Armor Law, LLC 

What's New

Earlier this month, Elizabeth Finn Johnson, current AVLF Board of Directors President and senior counsel at the Coca-Cola Company, received this year's Community Champion award in the large staff size category of the Corporate Counsel Awards, which honor the top in-house counsel in metro Atlanta and Georgia. Way to go, Elizabeth!

Congratulations to AVLF Board Member Hon. Wes Tailor of the State Court of Fulton County for winning the 2014 Atlanta Bar Association's Professionalism Award. We're proud of your accomplishments and grateful for your friendship!
 
Former AVLF Safe Families Office staffer Jessica Caldas - now a full time artist whose works deal primarily with social justice and issues like domestic violence - is featured in this month's Atlanta Magazine. Check out the article here.   

"I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy."

 

-Rabindranath Tagore 

 
  
Atlanta Volunteer Lawyers Foundation
235 Peachtree Street NE
Suite 1750, North Tower
Atlanta, Georgia 30303
mellin@avlf.org
404-521-0790
  

One Step Toward Justice 

Cole Thaler, AVLF Director of Housing and Consumer Programs  


Mrs. Thomas twisted her fingers nervously in her lap. We sat at the kitchen table in her Vine City home, collection notices and court papers spread out before us.

"I wanted to pay the credit card bill," she told me. "I knew I owed it, and I knew I was supposed to pay. I just didn't have the money." Mrs. Thomas called for legal help after she went to the bank to withdraw money and learned that her account had been frozen because of a garnishment.

Meet Maggie Hanrahan, New AVLF Board Member 

 

Maggie Hanrahan is a partner with Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart, P.C., a national labor and employment law defense firm. At Ogletree, Maggie regularly counsels and represents clients across the country on a variety of labor and employment law matters. 

Maggie feels extremely honored to be joining the AVLF Board. Maggie fell in love with the mission immediately after attending the PurShoeing Justice event and learning and hearing more about the different services offered by AVLF. In particular, Maggie looks forward to getting more involved with AVLF fundraising efforts and the domestic violence program.

Hot Town, Summer in the Safe Families Office (Interns Getting Dirty & Gritty)

 

The hard work of our interns and volunteers is what makes the Safe Families Office possible. Their diverse backgrounds and shared commitment to victims and children are what make the Safe Families Office so dynamic and effective. This year's summer class is no exception.  

Megan Gordon (right) chose to spend the summer before her 2L year at Emory with AVLF because of her dedication to issues of violence against women here and abroad.

Allison Murphy (left), an Emory 2L, wins the prize for most interesting resume entry in this year's intern class.
 
Juli Crider (not pictured) is one of those exceptional people who manages to work full-time and attend law school part-time at John Marshall Law School.

Danielle Walker (middle), a 3L at Emory, can't wait to represent SFO clients in court under the supervision of Liz Whipple, thanks to the Third-Year Practice Act.


2nd Annual Beer Tasting & BBQ Battle

 

The Second Annual Beer Tasting and Celebrity BBQ Battle will be held on Thursday, June 5, at Greystone at Piedmont Park. AVLF and the Atlanta Legal Aid Society are thrilled with the overwhelming response we have received for this sold out event - and we are grateful to all of our sponsors.
 
Presented by:
Alston & Bird

Brewmaster:
State Bank

Imperial Stout:
Cigna Healthcare; FTI Consulting

Double IPA:
Burr & Foreman; King & Spalding; Lazega & Johanson; Northwestern Mutual; The Buckley Law Firm, LLC; RGL Forensics
Pale Ale:
A. Montag & Associates; Amy French of Harry Norman Realtors; Clements & Sweet; Jones Day; Olga Gozuieta & Tom Rawls; Primrose School; Rebecca Crumrine Rieder; Smith & Lake, LLC; The Whole Dog Market; Thomson Reuters

Special Thanks to our In-Kind Sponsors:
Ale Yeah!; The Law Office of Benjamin Y. Gerber; Benchmark Trophy Center; Carole Parks Catering; The Cola-Cola Company; Daily Report; Edwin Hunzeker; Farmburger; Garner Girls; JackBilt Development; Kevin Gillespie of Gunshow; Kevin Rathbun; Offset Atlanta; Paragon; PwC; Smokebelly BBQ; Sweet Auburn BBQ; United Distributors

Thank You, AVLF Volunteers!

AVLF thanks the following volunteers for their service during the month of April:

The Saturday Lawyer Program
Meka Ward, Thomas Kennedy Sampson & Tompkins LLP; Christopher Bruce, Speed, Seta, Martin & Trivett, LLC; Noel Hurley, The Hurley Law Firm; Sherida Mabon, Thomas Kennedy Sampson & Tompkins LLP; Monique Keane, Attorney at Law; Dwayne Brown, Attorney at Law; Jessica Sabbath, King & Spalding; Jordan Posey, King & Spalding; LaNesha Lamar, Attorney at Law; Kristen Guidry, Attorney at Law; David Forbes, Forbes Law Office; A. Jenkins, Attorney at Law; Elizabeth Main, The Keegan Law Firm; Michelle Marchiony, Berman Fink Van Horn PC; Adam Masarek, Magill Atkinson Dermer LLP; Andreea Neculae, Magill Atkinson Dermer LLP; Chris Seely, Attorney at Law; Kristen Guidry, Attorney at Law; David Barnes, King & Spalding LLP; Jason Grier, Ballard Spahr

The Eviction Defense Program
Alan Bakowski, Troutman Sanders; Lennon Haas, Troutman Sanders; Tom Reilly, Troutman Sanders

The Saturday Paralegal Program
Patrick Roberson; Eveth McPherson; Kate Dondero; Kamau Sankofa; Alison Rhodes; Tiffany Austin

Domestic Violence Program
Lauren Tapson, Alston & Bird LLP; Steven Cayton, Cayton Legal; Richard Farnsworth, Law Offices of Richard Farnsworth; Kristy Seidenberg, The Law Offices of Kristyne L. Seidenberg, Esq.; Sarah Cash, Georgia Power Company; David Cheng, Law Office of Attorney David Cheng, Ltd.; Jim Gober, Arnall Golden Gregory LLP; Matt Covell, Arnall Golden Gregory LLP; Ken Franklin, Duane Morris LLP; Will Fagan, Duane Morris LLP; Heather Daly; Sarah Geraghty, Southern Center for Human Rights; Rob Curylo, Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP; Sajid Saleem, King & Spalding LLP; Adam Reinke, DLA Piper LLP; Ivy Andrews, Emory University School of Law; Anjali Khosla, Georgia State University School of Law; Nilu Abdi-Tabari