2007 Workshop of the National Institute for Teaching Ethics and Professionalism

SPEAKERS AND DISCUSSANTS

Doug Ashworth became Director of the State Bar of Georgia Transition Into Law Practice Program after several years of experience in both the public and private sectors. The Transition Into Law Practice Program (also known as the "Mentoring Program") provides professional guidance and counsel to assist beginning Georgia lawyers in acquiring the practical skills, judgment and professional values necessary to practice law. Prior to assuming his current position with the State Bar, he served on the legal staff of the Council of Superior Court Judges, assisting Judges and their staffs throughout Georgia with death penalty habeas corpus cases, indigent defense issues, continuing judicial education programs, and criminal and civil bench book preparation and revision. He previously maintained a general practice of law for several years, which included service as a City Attorney, County Attorney, School Board Attorney and his participation in 6 death penalty cases.

John T. Berry is Legal Division Director for the Florida Bar where he supervises lawyer regulation and the Professionalism Center of the Professionalism Commission of the Florida Supreme Court and Florida Bar. He is the immediate past chair of the American Bar Association Standing Committee on Professionalism. In the 2001 he was awarded the American Bar Association's Michael Franck Award for achievement in lawyer ethics, professionalism and conduct. He is the former Executive Director, State Bar of Michigan and the former Director, Center of Professionalism, University of Florida College of Law.

Lisa Brabbit is Assistant Dean for External Relations at the University of St. Thomas School of Law in Minneapolis, where she is responsible for development and supervision of all externships, as well as alumni engagement and student organizations. From 2002-2005 she was Director of the Mentor Externship at St. Thomas. She is a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation, a member of the Executive Committee of the Council of the Minnesota State Bar Association, and the 2007 recipient of the Hennepin County Bar Association Professionalism Award. In 2005 she was one of fifteen lawyers named as “Attorneys of the Year” by the Minnesota Lawyer. In 2001-2002 she was President of Minnesota Women Lawyers. She has recently co-authored with Neil Hamilton an article on “Fostering Professionalism Through Mentoring,” 57 Journal of Legal Education 102 (March 2007). She and Neil Hamilton shared Honorable Mention awards in the 2005 competition for National Award for Excellence and Innovation in Teaching Professionalism.

Clark D. Cunningham is the W. Lee Burge Professor of Law & Ethics at the Georgia State University College of Law, where he teaches Professional Responsibility: Heroes & Villains, Criminal Justice Fieldwork & Law Reform, Judicial Power, and the Criminal Justice Clinic. Professor Cunningham is a widely cited expert on the lawyer-client relationship and currently directs the Effective Lawyer-Client Communication Project, an international collaboration of law teachers, lawyers and social scientists. He has also consulted around the world on reform in legal education. He is a member of the Chief Justice of Georgia's Commission on Professionalism and the Fulton County Justice Commission. He chairs the Selection Committee for the National Award for Innovation and Excellence in Teaching Professionalism, which is co-sponsored by the ABA Standing Committee on Professionalism and the Conference of Chief Justices. In 2004 he served as Co-Reporter to Georgia's Commission on Indigent Defense. He previously was a law professor at Washington University in St. Louis (1989-2002) and the University of Michigan (1987-89).

Donald R. (Dick) Donovan chairs the Georgia State Bar Committee on Professionalism and serves as a Mentor for the State Bar Transition into Law Practice Program. He is a partner in the law firm of Donovan, Chambers P.C. Douglasville, Georgia and is a certified mediator and arbitrator.

Timothy Floyd is Professor of Law and Director of the campus-wide Law & Public Service Program at Mercer University. In his previous position as the J. Hadley Edgar Professor of Law at Texas Tech, he taught professional responsibility, advanced legal ethics, legal practice, interviewing and counseling, and a variety of clinical and criminal law courses. He won three different university-wide awards for excellence in teaching and chaired the Supreme Court of Texas Grievance Oversight Committee for three years. Currently he is working on an article about legal ethics and moral imagination.

Neil W. Hamilton is Professor of Law and Director of the Holloran Center for Ethical Leadership in the Professions at the University of St. Thomas School of Law in Minneapolis. He has taught both the required course in Professional Responsibility and an ethics seminar for 20 years. He is the author of three books and over fifty articles and writes a bi-monthly columnist on professionalism and ethics for the Minnesota Lawyer. In 2002 the Minnesota Lawyer selected him as one of the recipients of its Lawyer of the Year awards and in 2003 he received the Hennepin County Professionalism Award. In 2004, the Minnesota State Bar Association presented him with the Professional Excellence Award, given to recognize and encourage professionalism among lawyers. He has recently co-authored with Lisa Brabbit an article on “Fostering Professionalism Through Mentoring,” 57 Journal of Legal Education 102 (March 2007). He and Lisa Brabbit shared Honorable Mention awards in the 2005 competition for National Award for Excellence and Innovation in Teaching Professionalism. He was one of NIFTEP's inaugural Fellows in 2005.

Avarita L. Hanson was chosen in April of 2006 by the Supreme Court of Georgia as the Executive Director of the Chief Justice's Commission on Professionalism. At the time of her appointment she was an Associate Professor at Atlanta's John Marshall School of Law and served as its Associate Dean for Academic Affairs. Before joining John Marshall, she headed special legal projects and was the executive director of the Health and Consumer Services Section in the Examining Boards Division of the Georgia Secretary of State's Office. She has served as an Associate Judge Pro Hac Vice for the Fulton County Juvenile Court and as Clerk to the Fulton County Board of Commissioners. She has also served as the Pro Bono Project Director for the State Bar of Georgia and Georgia Legal Services Program. Prior to and between government positions, Ms. Hanson engaged in the private practice of law, starting as a civil litigator with the Houston office of the Fulbright & Jaworski law firm. She has received the Judge Barbara Harris Award for Community Service from the Georgia Association of Black Women Attorneys and John Marshall Law School-Atlanta named its chapter of the Black Law Students Association in her honor.

Patrick Longan holds the William Augustus Bootle Chair in Ethics and Professionalism at Mercer University's Walter F. George School of Law and is the Director of the Mercer Center for Legal Ethics and Professionalism. He is a graduate of the University of Chicago Law School and came to Mercer in 2000, after practicing law for seven years in Dallas, Texas and teaching at Stetson University College of Law for nine years. Professor Longan teaches legal ethics, professionalism, and related courses at the Law School. He also serves as a member of the Chief Justice's Commission on Professionalism, as a member of the State Bar of Georgia's Standards of the Profession Committee, as an advisor to the State Bar of Georgia's Committee on Professionalism, and as Master and Administrator for the William A. Bootle Inn of Court in Macon. Professor Longan was the recipient of the 2005 National Award for Excellence and Innovation in Teaching Professionalism.

Ian E. Smith is a lawyer in King & Spalding's Atlanta Business Litigation Practice Group and serves on the firm's Lawyer Development Committee. He is a member of the Chief Justice's Committee on Professionalism, an Editorial Board Member of The Atlanta Lawyer, and a Volunteer with The Atlanta Volunteer Lawyers Foundation. He also serves as a pro hac judge of the State Court of Fulton County.

Jim O. Stuckey II chairs the American Bar Association Standing Committee on Professionalism. He is a shareholder at the law firm of Littler Mendelson, P.C. He is a former member of the University of South Carolina Board of Visitors and served as Chief Counsel to the Governor of South Carolina.

Robert M. Wilcox is Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at the University of South Carolina School of Law, where he has taught professional responsibility, property law, and trusts and estates since 1986. He is a member of the South Carolina Chief Justice's Commission on the Profession and director of the Nelson Mullins Riley and Scarborough Center on Professionalism at USC. He is also a former chair of the South Carolina Bar Ethics Advisory Committee and is the author or editor of several books on legal ethics including the Annotated South Carolina Rules of Professional Conduct, which is co-authored with Professor Nathan Crystal. He practiced law with the firm of Dow, Lohnes & Albertson in Washington, D.C., and Atlanta prior to returning to joining the faculty at the University of South Carolina.

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