EPRA is pleased to announce partner Sally Akins has been elected to the Board of Governors of the State Bar of Georgia for 2012-2013 and has been elected Treasurer of the newly created Southeastern Georgia Chapter of the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA).

Sally continues to maintain active participation at the national, State and local levels.  She currently serves as Chairman and Member on numerous committees with the State Bar of Georgia and is a Georgia Delegate for the American Bar Association; a member of the Executive Committee, a Vice-President and Vice Chair and Faculty (Trial Academy) of the Georgia Defense Lawyers Association; and a Fellow of the Lawyers Foundation of Georgia.

Since 1957 the American Board of Trial Advocates has worked to foster improvement in the ethical and technical standards of practice in the field of advocacy to the end that individual litigants may receive more effective representation and the general public be benefited by more efficient administration of justice consistent with time-tested and traditional principles of litigation.

EPRA associate J. Patrick Connell has been selected as a member of the Board of Directors of the State Bar of Georgia, Young Lawyers Division for 2012-2013.  

Patrick maintains an active participation in the State Bar where he has served as District Representative to the Executive Council, as well as with the Savannah Bar Association where he has served on the Executive Committee and as President, President Elect, and Treasurer of the Young Lawyers Division.

EPRA is pleased to announce associate Quentin L. Marlin has been elected President of the Savannah Bar Association’s Young Lawyers Division for 2012-2013.  In addition to his involvement with the Bar, Quentin is active in numerous non-profit and quasi-governmental boards throughout the community.

EPRA Partner Robert S. (“Bobby”) Glenn, Jr., was recently recognized by The American College of Civil Trial Mediators and included in its 2012 Edition of The International Who’s Who of Business Lawyers in the area of Commercial Mediation.  

The American College of Civil Trial Mediators is a non-profit organization of professionals distinguished by their experience, skill, ethical standards, and professional commitment to mediation, conflict management and alternate dispute resolution.  Members are dedicated to improving ethical and professional standards of mediation practice, advanced ADR education, fostering growth of ADR systems, research, and recognizing individuals, organizations and institutions making significant contributions to ADR.

EPRA is pleased to announce Philip Thompson has become associated with the firm.  A native of Savannah, Philip received undergraduate degrees, magna cum laude, in History (with high honors) and Philosophy from the University of Georgia in 2008.  In 2011, he graduated, magna cum laude, from the University of Georgia School of Law, where he was selected to the Order of the Coif and served as Senior Articles Editor of the Georgia Law Review.  Philip practices in the firm’s Litigation Section.

Before joing EPRA, Philip clerked for the Honorable B. Avant Edenfield, Senior District Judge for the United States District Court, Southern District of Georgia.

EPRA partner R. Clay Ratterree has been named the Best Lawyers’ Mediation “Lawyer of the Year” for 2013 in Savannah, GA.  

Best Lawyers compiles its lists of outstanding attorneys by conducting exhaustive peer-review surveys in which thousands of leading lawyers confidentially evaluate their professional peers.  Only a single lawyer in each legal area in each community is being honored as the “Lawyer of the Year.”  The lawyers being honored have received particularly high ratings in surveys by earning a high level of respect among their peers for their abilities, professionalism and integrity.

Mr. Ratterree has earned multiple recognitions from national and local outlets, rating services and organizations honoring excellence in the legal profession and ranks in the top ten percent of all of America’s most highly recognized professionals.

EPRA is pleased to announce Michelle Goodrich Smith has become associated with the firm.  Michelle received her undergraduate degrees in Business Administration and Psychology, magna cum laude, from Barton College and her J.D. from Atlanta’s John Marshall Law School.  Her practice is focused on residential and commercial real estate.

EPRA is pleased to announce several of its attorneys have again been selected by their peers for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America 2013:

• David W. Adams—Bankruptcy and Creditor Debtor Rights and Insolvency; Reorganization Law;
• Sarah B. Akins—Personal Injury Litigation - Defendants; Personal Injury Litigation - Plaintiffs;
• James K. Austin —Corporate Law; Mergers & Acquisitions;
• J. Wiley Ellis—Corporate Law;
• Robert S. Glenn, Jr. —Admiralty & Maritime Law; Arbitration; Mediation;
• Paul W. Painter, Jr. —Bet-the-Company Litigation; Commercial Litigation; Personal Injury Litigation - Defendants; Product Liability Litigation - Defendants; and
• R. Clay Ratterree —Mediation; Municipal Law; Personal Injury Litigation - Defendants.

Since its inception in 1983, Best Lawyers has become universally regarded as the definitive guide to legal excellence.  Because Best Lawyers is based on an exhaustive peer-review survey in which more than 36,000 leading attorneys cast almost 4.4 million votes on the legal abilities of other lawyers in their practice areas, and because lawyers are not required or allowed to pay a fee to be listed, inclusion in Best Lawyers is considered a singular honor.

Tracy Cullen O’Connell has been elected Managing Partner of the Firm.  In addition to her new duties, O’Connell will continue to serve clients and maintain her respected practice in the area of civil litigation.  O’Connell is a graduate of Boston College and a cum laude graduate of the University of Georgia School of Law, where she served as Chief Justice of the Honor Court.  O’Connell is a Past President of the Savannah Chapter of the Georgia Association of Women Lawyers, as well as a recipient of the Association’s Georgia Woman of Achievement Award; is a former President of the Junior League of Savannah; and is currently an active member and participant in numerous legal and community organizations.

Several of EPRA’s attorneys have again been selected as Georgia Super Lawyers and Rising Stars.  

Sarah B. (Sally) Akins—Top 50 Female Georgia Super Lawyers; and Super Lawyer in Personal Injury Defense: General, Civil Litigation Defense and Insurance Coverage.

Paul W. Painter, Jr. — Top 100 Georgia Super Lawyers; and Super Lawyer in Business Litigation and General Litigation.

R. Clay Ratterree—Super Lawyer in Civil Litigation Defense, ADR and Personal Injury Plaintiff: General.

Robert (Bobby) S. Glenn, Jr.—Super Lawyer in Transportation/Maritime, ADR and Construction/Surety.

Jason C. Pedigo—Rising Star in Business Litigation, Civil Litigation Defense and Transportation/Maritime.

J. Patrick Connell—Rising Star in Civil Litigation Defense, General Litigation and Land Use/Zoning.

Super Lawyers is an annual listing of the top five percent of attorneys in the state from more than 70 practice areas who have attained a high degree of peer recognition and professional achievement.  Rising Stars names Georgia’s top up-and-coming attorneys.  The Super Lawyers and Rising Stars lists appear in Georgia Super Lawyers magazine as well as Atlanta magazine.

EPRA Partner R. Clay Ratterree has been repeatedly recognized as one of the foremost litigators in our nation, including recently being selected for the 12th consecutive year by The Best Lawyers in America.  Mr. Ratterree was also recently awarded selection to American Registry’s inaugural America’s Most Honored Professionals.  Qualification criteria for this award includes repeated, authenticated and publicized honors from the press, peers and clients.  American Registry’s researchers specialize in authenticating the legitimacy and value of professional and business recognitions and built its database of professionals recognized for excellence for more than ten years before honoring the best of the best with this new award.  Each professional chosen has earned multiple recognitions in his or her field and ranks in the top ten percent of all of America’s most highly recognized professionals.

EPRA is pleased to announce the following attorneys have been named to The Best Lawyers in America.  Sarah (Sally) B. Akins for Personal Injury Litigation; James K. Austin for Corporate Law and Mergers and Acquisitions; J. Wiley Ellis for Corporate Law and distinguished as a Best Lawyer for more than 10 years; Robert (Bobby) S. Glenn, Jr. for Admiralty and Maritime Law and Arbitration and Mediation, and distinguished as a Best Lawyer for more than 20 years; Paul W. Painter, Jr. for Bet-the-Company Litigation, Commercial Litigation, Personal Injury Defense Litigation, and Product Liability Defense Litigation, and is also distinguished as a Best Lawyer for more than 10 years; and R. Clay Ratterree for Personal Injury Defense Litigation, Municipal Law and Mediation and is distinguished as a Best Lawyer for more than 10 years. Best Lawyers is the oldest and most respected peer-review publication in the legal profession and has earned the respect of the profession, the media and the public as the most reliable unbiased source of legal referrals anywhere.  Because attorneys are neither required nor allowed to pay a fee to be included, a listing in Best Lawyers is widely regarded within the legal profession as a singular honor, conferred on an attorney by his or her peers.

EPRA Partner Robert S. Glenn, Jr. was recently selected by colleagues and clients as one of the world’s leading practitioners in the field of Mediation and included in the The International Who’s Who of Mediation Lawyers 2011.  The publication is written by London-based Law Business Research.  Nominees are chosen based upon “comprehensive, independent survey work with both general counsel and private practice lawyers worldwide” and is circulated to leading international corporations, government agencies, law firms and individual private practitioners.

EPRA is pleased to announce associate attorney Quentin Marlin has been appointed to the Chatham County Zoning Board of Appeals.  The Zoning Board of Appeals hears and decides upon appeals from actions of the Zoning Administrator, requests for permission to establish uses, requests for variance, and extensions of nonconfirming use.

EPRA’s litigation team obtained a defense verdict victory the matter of Pleasant v. Neesmith Timber Company, Inc. in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Georgia (4:08-CV-192).

EPRA is pleased to announce that Jason C. Pedigo has been elected as a partner of the firm. As a civil litigator with the firm, Mr. Pedigo has represented businesses, financial institutions and individuals in contractual disputes, breach of fiduciary duty claims, lender liability, member and shareholder claims and personal injury suits.

EPRA welcomes Megan Usher Manly as an associate with the firm.  A magna cum laude graduate of the University of Georgia School of Law and a member of the Order of the Coif, Ms. Manly served as a law clerk in the Southern District of Georgia before joining the firm.