Atlanta Bar Foundation

The Atlanta Bar Foundation, a Section 501(c) (3) organization and charitable arm of the Atlanta Bar Association, supports Atlanta Bar Association public service projects that assist youth, provide pro bono legal services, promote public understanding of the law, and promote higher education through scholarships. Atlanta Bar projects currently supported by the Atlanta Bar Foundation include:

Atlanta Santa – Judges and lawyers of the Atlanta Bar Association serve as Santa and elves for non-profit organizations and children’s hospitals during the holiday season. Several thousand children have been served by this program since its inception in the early 1990’s.

International Connection – Bench and Bar members representing a number of sponsoring organizations collaborate to assist Georgia State University School of Law achieve a unique venture in international legal education. Under the guidance of Professor Charles Marvin, students in the International Connections Program are sponsored for a fall semester fellowship at GSU. Members of the Atlanta Bar provide the students with housing and funds are raised for the students’ living expenses during the semester. Participants have included law students from Bulgaria, Croatia and Tbilisi, Georgia.

Memorial Fund – In response to the tragedies surrounding the Fulton County Courthouse shootings of March 11, 2005, the Atlanta Bar Association and the Atlanta Bar Foundation established a memorial fund to support the families and honor the memories of the victims. In addition to family support, $100,000 was raised to establish a scholarship for law students at Emory University School of Law, the alma mater of Judge Rowland W. Barnes, in his memory. These tragic events remind us of the importance of the rule of law, an independent judiciary and the daily contributions of those who work in our justice system.

Minority Clerkship Program – Since 1985, the Atlanta Bar Association has sponsored the Minority Clerkship Program with the assistance and cooperation of Atlanta law firms and the law schools at Emory University, University of Georgia, Georgia State University, John Marshall, and Mercer University. The objectives of the program are:

To increase the number of minorities practicing in Atlanta law firms by facilitating the placement of minorities in law firm clerkships;
To supplement the students’ clerkship experience with support functions including skills development and formal and informal networking sessions;
To assist Atlanta law firms in their efforts to place minorities in clerkships and to increase the number of minority attorneys in practice in those and other law firms throughout the city and state.

Clerkships are for six to ten weeks during the summer (depending on the employer’s preferences), and students receive the salary paid to other first-year students at the offices where they work. The program is not intended to result in permanent jobs, but is designed to be educational.

This program was the first of its kind in the country and has become an inspiration for the development of minority clerkship programs by other bar associations.

Police Scholarship Fund – This college scholarship fund was established in 1980 for the children of Atlanta Police Department officers who have been killed or disabled in the line of duty. Since the Fund’s inception, more than $180,000 in scholarships have been awarded to the children of Atlanta police officers.

Summer Law Internship Program – Since 1993, outstanding students have been selected from local high schools such as D.M. Therrell High School, an Atlanta public law and government magnet school adopted by the Atlanta Bar Association in 1988. Participants in the internship program receive a six-week internship in local law firms, government agencies and corporations to encourage their interest in higher education and the practice of law. Currently, several members of the Atlanta Bar Association are graduates of this program and others soon will graduate from law school, making this internship a proven success.

Truancy Intervention Project – Atlanta Bar members and other volunteers provide pro bono representation to first-time truants in Fulton County Juvenile Court to identify and resolve the problems that prevent the children from being in school. Since the inception of this program in 1991, a high percentage of children represented by TIP never have returned to court for any reason. In 2002, the Atlanta Bar Foundation initiated a major fundraising campaign on behalf of TIP and raised $1 million to support expansion and staffing for this important program. More information is available at http://www.truancyproject.org/