Gov. Barnes, Justice Colvin to Speak at LSC’s Atlanta Access to Justice Forum and Pro Bono Service Awards Reception

Contact
Carl Rauscher        
Director of Communications and Media Relations        
[email protected]
202-295-1615        

Contact Us

ATLANTA, GA - The Legal Services Corporation (LSC) will welcome Georgia Supreme Court Justice Vera Colvin, former Governor Roy Barnes and members of the Georgia legal community to a forum and reception on Monday, October 28.

In addition to remarks by Justice Colvin, the forum will feature two panel discussions. It will take place at the State Bar of Georgia Conference Center from 3:00 - 5:00 p.m. ET and will be livestreamed on LSC's YouTube channel. The first panel on medical-legal partnerships will be moderated by Holly Stevens, Chief Data Officer at LSC, and will include three local guests:

• Malik Hines, Staff Attorney, Georgia Legal Services Program
• Kathryn Marous, Staff Attorney, Health and Law Partnership (HeLP), Atlanta Legal Aid
• Dr. Stan Sonu, Medical Director of Child Advocacy, Children's Healthcare Atlanta

The event's second panel will highlight the corporate community's role in access to justice. LSC President Ron Flagg will moderate the discussion featuring:

• Seth Bruckner, Vice President of Legal & Compliance, UPS Healthcare
• Kacy Goebel, Assistant General Counsel, The Home Depot

Following the forum, Gov. Barnes and LSC Board Chairman John Levi will give remarks at the Pro Bono Service Awards Reception. The awards recognize individuals and organizations that have contributed exemplary volunteer service to expand access to justice. The awardees, who were nominated by Atlanta Legal Aid Society and Georgia Legal Services Program (GLSP), are:

• Atlanta Legal Aid Society's Service Counsel (accepted by Jarvarus Gresham, Taryn Harper and Lauren Frisch): Since 2014, the Service Council has brought together a board of younger associates and attorneys practicing throughout metro Atlanta to promote pro bono projects, participate in pro bono work and promote Atlanta Legal Aid initiatives. The Service Council expanded their direct pro bono involvement by creating the Threshold Clinic in 2022. Through a partnership with Decatur Presbyterian Church, the clinic helps clients with family law, housing, benefits and other civil issues. Twenty-three of these clinics have generated 70 pro bono cases.
• Professor Ishaq Kundawala: A law professor at the Walter F. George School of Law at Mercer University, Kundawala led the development and launch of a bankruptcy legal clinic at Mercer Law in partnership with GLSP. In the first two semesters of the project, 38 Chapter 7 cases were closed. This higher level of GLSP client services would not be possible without this collaboration.
• Georgia Wills, Trusts & Probate, LLC (accepted by Dawn Levine, Amanda Mathis Riedling and Chelsey Boatman Haun): The leadership of Georgia Wills, Trusts & Probate have instilled the value of pro bono work at the firm and made it a part of their everyday legal practice. Attorneys at the firm partner with Cobb Legal Aid to provide pro bono estate planning services, as well as assistance on probate cases and participate in the Cobb Probate Clinic.
• Sandra Saseen-Smith: A retired lawyer and former Deputy Public Defender at the Virginia Indigent Defense Commission, Saseen-Smith joined GLSP as an in-house volunteer attorney in 2020. She has displayed a steadfast commitment to pro bono, maintaining a caseload of between 15 to 20 pro bono cases at any given time. She has enabled many clients to restrict access to their criminal records, allowing them a fresh start.

More than 30 staff members of Atlanta Legal Aid and GLSP will also be recognized at the reception for long-standing years of service. Those being honored have given from 25 to 52 years of service to their respective organizations. The awards reception will be held at Ventana Atlanta from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. ET. Press who would like to attend either event should email [email protected].