Memorial services are planned for this week for Barry Phillips, who first joined the firm that became Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton in 1954 and was later its chairman. Phillips died Monday at the age of 82.

According to the firm, the family will receive friends at H.M. Patterson Spring Hill Chapel, on Wednesday, January 25th, from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.  Funeral services will be held at Peachtree Road United Methodist Church on Thursday, January 26th, at 3 p.m.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP Scholarship Fund, in honor of Barry Phillips at the University of Georgia Law School, 120 Herty Dr, Athens, Ga. 30602, in care of the Development Office. Donations may also be made to the American Heart Association P.O. Box 840692 Dallas, Texas 75284-0692 or www.heart.org.

Online condolences may be made at H.M. Patterson & Son-Spring Hill Chapel.

A full obituary released by the firm is below: Read more »

For the 13th year in a row, Fortune magazine has listed Atlanta-based Alston & Bird among the 100 best companies to work for.

The firm came in 24th place, tops among law firms.  Among special categories, the firm was 3rd in salary for the “most common job title”–$201,233 for associates. It was 21st in the pay  common hourly employees–$71,211 for legal secretaries. It also got a nod for an unusual perk–”learn espanol.”

“When the success of a business is predicated on the service its employees provide, it is paramount to create a workplace that rewards employee dedication – personally, professionally and financially,” said firm managing partner, Richard R. Hays, in a statement.

Update: here is a story on all four law firms that made the list, from our affiliate, the Blog of Legal Times.

Carolyn Hax, the advice columnist for the Washington Post,  got a question from a woman who said her fiance is a 28-year-old up-and-coming lawyer at a big firm with suspended driver’s license. Read Hax’s advice, and that of her peanut gallery, here.

Emory University is celebrating its 175th anniversary with numerous events and commemorations, one being a list of 175 distinguished “history makers” (not all of them necessarily degree-earners) who have passed through the Emory campus over the years. The list displays an array of recognizable names, such as the Indigo Girls, Bobby Jones and Jimmy Carter.

And of course lawyers populate the ranks of Emory notables.

For example, the 35th Vice President of the United States, Alben W. Barkley, studied law at Emory in the year 1900, yet never graduated. However, Barkley subsequently passed the bar and went on to be a Kentucky prosecutor before serving in Congress, where he was tapped to be President Truman’s second-in-command.

The full list of 175 (or thereabouts) of Emory’s history makers, each with an interesting bio, is here.

A former staff attorney for personal injury firm Joel & Associates has been sentenced to 18 months in jail after pleading guilty to stealing $145,000 from the firm. Wayne Williams, 50, who was the managing attorney for the firm between 2004 and 2007, pleaded guilty to intercepting about 24 checks and depositing them into his personal account, according to a release from the office of Fulton County District Attorney Paul L. Howard.

A review of the firm’s books led to the discovery of the thefts, according to the DA’s office.

On Monday, Williams pleaded guilty to 21 counts of theft by taking and 19 counts of first-degree forgery; Fulton County Magistrate Judge Walter Lovett sentenced him to 20 years, with 18 months to serve and the balance on probation. He must also make restitution, surrender his law license and perform 500 hours of community service.

Williams’ attorney, Fulton County Public Defender Bert G. Roughton III, refused to discuss the case. Joel & Associates principal David C. Joel was unavailable.

Williams was prosecuted by Chief Senior District Attorney Bradley R. Malkin of the DA’s White Collar Crime Unit. He was assisted by DA investigator Natalie Brunner and Atlanta Police Det. Joseph Siwemuke.

A unanimous panel of the 11^th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has affirmed a ruling that ordered a transgender woman be allowed to return to her job at the Georgia General Assembly.

Vandiver Elizabeth Glenn, who was born a biological male, lost her job as an editor in the state’s Office of Legislative Counsel after she told a supervisor that she would be coming to work as a woman and changing her legal name to a female one. Tuesday’s ruling, issued less than a week after the appeals panel heard oral argument, agreed with U.S. District Judge Richard W. Story that the firing amounted to sex discrimination.

We will have a full story on this decision on our website later this afternoon.

Six months ago we wrote that Lin Wood–who became famous fighting for Richard Jewell, the Olympic Park security guard falsely suspected of planting the bomb he discovered–was leaving Bryan Cave to work on a whistleblower case with a small firm he was starting.

But Wood, who also has represented the parents of JonBenet Ramsey and the woman who accused Kobe Bryant of rape, hasn’t lost his touch for landing in the middle of a media circus. Today he appeared at a press conference on behalf of embattled presidential candidate Herman Cain, according to this post from USA Today.

“Herman Cain finds himself over the course of the last several days now on trial in the court of public opinion. Falsely accused,” the article quotes Wood as saying.

Planned maintenance on the state government’s electrical systems, which will take down the Supreme Court’s web operations over the weekend, has forced the Office of Bar Admissions to issue the list of who passed the July bar exam four hours earlier than usual.

The list is now available on the bar admissions site until 5pm. Traditionally the list goes up at 4 p.m., said Sally Lockwood, the office’s director. That rule goes back years, she said, because officials want applicants who don’t pass to have a weekend to process the disappointment “before they come here” to seek some kind of reprieve of having to take the test over again.

Lockwood said she learned last week that the state’s maintenance plan for “all things electrical” would shut down the Supreme Court’s site by 5 p.m., meaning the pass list would be up for only one hour until the following Monday. She said she asked the Supreme Court for permission to release the pass list early this year, and her request was granted.

Bar pass watchers, however, “should not get used to it,” she added, as the next bar pass list will likely go up again at 4 p.m.

The bar admissions office announcement about the time change is below: Read more »

Emory University has just issued this statement (below) about the release of Ilan Grapel, a law student in the class of 2012 who was being held in Egypt. A New York Times story is here.

Statement On the Release of Ilan Grapel, Emory Law Class of 2012

 Emory University has received confirmation that third-year law student Ilan Grapel has been released from detention in Egypt and is returning home to his family in New York.

 Since Ilan’s arrest on June 12, the University has remained in close contact with his family, and worked with them, with members of Congress, and with the U.S. Department of State, to ensure his safe treatment and facilitate his release.

“The Emory University community is grateful for the release of our student, colleague and friend, Ilan Grapel,” said Emory University President Jim Wagner. “We are thankful to the U.S. Department of State, as well as to the many attorneys and advisors, government officials and University staff who worked tirelessly to help secure his release.”

Ilan traveled to Egypt to complete an internship with St. Andrew’s Refugee Services, an organization dedicated to creating “a safe, holistic place for the isolated and vulnerable refugee communities in Egypt to come together for empowerment, education, community development, and socialservices.”

“Ilan is an active member of the Emory Law community,” said Emory Law Interim Dean Robert Schapiro. “We are of course overjoyed by his release.  We wish him and his family the very best as they reunite and have time together after these trying months apart. Emory Law’s students, faculty and staff look forward to welcoming Ilan back to campus.”

DeKalb Superior Court Judge Michael E. Hancock will retire Jan. 31, 2012.

Gov. Nathan Deal’s office said he has accepted Hancock’s retirement letter, which the judge sent on Oct. 16. The Judicial Nominating Commission has not advertised for applications for the upcoming vacant seat, and the governor’s office said it is too early to estimate when the governor will make an appointment.

Hancock, who has been on the bench for at least two decades and is DeKalb County’s first African-American judge, cited his desire to move back to his hometown of Gainesville to take care of his mother and mother-in-law as his reason for stepping down in three months.

“Never in my wildest imagination, as I grew up in the shadows of downtown Gainesville, Georgia, did I ever think my future would take me on the arc that it has,” Hancock wrote in his letter to the governor. “I have always felt that a divine hand has guided me to the points of achievement that I have realized for some purpose. I humbly hope that I have fulfilled that purpose. My trailblazing days are now at an end.”

He earned his law degree from Emory University and was admitted to the State Bar of Georgia in 1979.

Hancock could not be reached immediately on Thursday.