The Supreme Court of Georgia reprimanded Michael Berlon, chairman of the Georgia Democratic Party, over a complaint from a client.

On the recommendation of special master Steven Hathorn, the high court accepted Berlon’s petition for voluntary discipline, choosing a reprimand over the harshest possible penalty of disbarment. Berlon has been temporarily suspended while the matter was pending.

The court’s decision, issued Monday, was “based on admissions contained in Berlon’s petition.” The decision said that Berlon represented a client for several years in child support issues. The client  asked Berlon to file an action for change of custody, “but Berlon failed to do so.” The decision said the client, who filed the complaint, only learned the change had not been filed upon appearing at a hearing for child support contempt. “The client confronted Berlon, who then filed the change of custody action.”

The court’s decision said the penalty was mitigated by the fact that Berlon returned $2,500 to the client, and that Berlon had no prior disciplinary sanctions. “Berlon and the client ultimately decided to terminate the attorney-client relationship, and the client later voluntarily dismissed the custody action,” the decision said.

The Daily Report could not reach Berlon. He told the Associated Press that he takes responsibility for the miscommunication with the client on legal strategy.

Following reports that the state Department of Natural Resources instructed state parks to remove Bibles from cabins and lodges after a citizen complaint, Governor. Nathan Deal has ordered the books returned. (View the first report on the issue here: http://www.myfoxatlanta.com/story/22250958/bibles-removed-from-state-lodges-and-cabins)

“Out of an abundance of caution to avoid potential litigation, the commissioner removed the Bibles from rooms – though they were still available on site – after a complaint from a visitor,” the governor’s office said in a written statement. “The attorney general and I agree that the state is on firm legal footing as we move to return the Bibles to the rooms. These Bibles are donated by outside groups, not paid for by the state, and I do not believe that a Bible in a bedside table drawer constitutes a state establishment of religion. In fact, any religious group is free to donate literature.”

A spokeswoman for Attorney General Sam Olens confirmed the Law Department is reviewing the matter.

“Nothing in the Constitution prohibits private organizations from purchasing Bibles and placing them in a public lodge, so long as other groups wishing to place their own literature are offered similar accommodation,” the AG’s office said in a written statement.

Georgia State Constitutional Law professor L. Lynn Hogue said having donated religious books in state park cabins and lodges does not present a violation of the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause, unless the state parks were soliciting them.

“If the Gideons volunteered them, and the state-owned inns allowed them to be put in the rooms, that presents no Establishment Clause problem,” Hogue said via email.

“The more pertinent issue is whether placing the Bibles in inn drawers transforms them into something like a public forum, which would open them to others with religious books to provide,” added Hogue. “ If I am right, and other religions wanted to place their books in the drawer (say books from other non-traditional or non-Christian religions) they would have to be allowed to do so.  If the drawer fills up, access could be rationed on some neutral basis or they could all be removed at that point.  They could not be removed based on preference for particular religious faiths.”

A late push by many firms jockeying for position pushed the Legal Food Frenzy way past its goal of $55,000 in online donations on Friday.

As of 5:15 p.m., the Georgia legal community had raised $59,656.20 for the state’s food banks, which can stretch those funds into nearly $420,000 worth of food for hungry people.

Final results in the competition among legal groups are not available yet, as actual food and cash donations will be collected next week.  And the online results could change as the final hours of the contest tick by, given how close the top competitors are.

For now, however, Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton has regained its lead, with $6,555 in online donations.  It eclipsed Georgia Tech’s legal department, which has $6,021.  King & Spalding holds a narrow lead on Alston & Bird for third place, with $5,575 over A&B’s $5,530.

The rest of the four-digit field looks like this:

DeKalb County Solicitor-General: $4,373.45

Georgia Department of Law: $3,815

Southern Company/Georgia Power legal department: $2,900

Hunton & Williams: $2,540

Atlanta Legal Aid Society: $1,470

Coca-Cola Co. legal department: $1,375

Kutak Rock: $1,285

Siemon Law Firm: $1,220

Rogers & Hardin: $1,170

Daily Report: $1,152.

For more information or to donate, go to this site: http://engage.acfb.org/site/TR/LegalFoodFrenzy/GeorgiaLegalFoodFrenzy?fr_id=1560&pg=entry

The Council of Superior Court Judges of Georgia has new leadership, and they are women.

Chatham County Superior Court Judge Louisa Abbot started her term as president on Wednesday. Cobb County Superior Court Judge Mary Staley is president-elect, and Appalachian Judicial Circuit Superior Court Chief Judge Brenda Weaver is secretary-treasurer. Their terms last until April 30, 2014.

Abbot earned her law degree from the University of Georgia in 1982 and was appointed to Superior Court in the Eastern Judicial Circuit in October 2000. During the last four years, she was chairwoman of the council’s uniform rules committee and she  is a past-president of the Savannah Bar Association and the Georgia Bar Foundation.  Governor Nathan Deal reappointed her chairwoman of the Georgia Child Support Commission earlier this year.

Staley, who graduated from the University of Georgia School of Law in 1979, began her legal career as an assistant Cobb County district attorney. She was elected to the Cobb County State Court in 1983 and was elected to superior court in 1992.

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Georgia’s legal community scooped up $12,000 for hungry people on Thursday, putting the $55,000 goal for online donations in the Legal Food Frenzy within reach.

As of 6 p.m. Thursday, the second annual effort to raise the state’s food banks had collected $48,239.

One day remains in the competition among legal organizations to see which one can raise the most amount of food per employee, with awards given among varying types and sizes of legal groups.  Each $1 raised counts as four pounds of food in the competition.  More importantly, the food banks can stretch each $1 donated into more than $7 worth of food.

The winners will be determined after organizers add online donations to cash donations and actual canned food donated by each competing group.  Much could change in the final results, as last year more than half of the $107,000 donated did not come through the online route.

Nonetheless, the online donation action is the most fun to watch for competitors, so here is the penultimate leaderboard.

Georgia Tech’s Office of Legal Affairs remained in first place, with $5,881. But Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton, which had led until Tech’s group vaulted from nowhere to the top yesterday, was closing in. It had collected $5,210, for second place.

King & Spalding, a slow starter, pushed into third place, with $4,880, edging Alston & Bird, which had $4,855.

Other teams above the four-digit mark were:

The Office of the DeKalb Solicitor-General, $2,910; Southern Company/Georgia Power Company Legal, $2,695; Georgia Department of Law, $2,650; Hunton & Williams, $1,840; Atlanta Legal Aid Society, $1,435; The Coca-Cola Company Legal Department, $1,275; and the Daily Report, $1,152.

McCurdy & Candler was agonizingly close to $1,000, with $997.

Donations can be made here: http://engage.acfb.org/site/TR/LegalFoodFrenzy/GeorgiaLegalFoodFrenzy?fr_id=1560&pg=entry

The University of Georgia School of Law has named its graduation keynote speaker: Judge Beverly B. Martin of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.

A law school news release said Martin is a 1981 Georgia alumna. Prior to joining the Eleventh Circuit in 2010, she served for nearly a decade as a U.S. District Court judge for the Northern District of Georgia. Martin served as a U.S. attorney and assistant U.S. attorney in the Middle District of Georgia from 1994 to 2000 and represented the state of Georgia as an assistant attorney general in various litigation matters from 1984 to 1994. She also practiced at the firm Martin & Snow in Macon after graduating from law school. Martin earned her bachelor’s degree from Stetson University in 1976 before coming to Athens to pursue her law degree at UGA.

The graduation is scheduled for May 18. The law school announced 230 students will receive their juris doctor, while six master of laws candidates will be recognized for completing one year of graduate legal study. The processional will begin at 10 a.m. on the quadrangle in front of the law school on UGA’s North Campus. In the event of rain, the ceremony will be moved to Stegeman Coliseum.

The state’s new juvenile code will take effect in January 2014.

Governor Nathan Deal signed House Bill 242, which overhauls statutes dealing with neglected and delinquent youth, this morning at a detention center in Dalton.

The legislation also includes several recommendations by the governor’s criminal justice reform council aimed at keeping low-risk youth offenders out of detention centers, including creating a two-tiered system of designated felonies and creating more community-based treatment programs.

“We acted because Georgia could not afford its own numbers,” Deal said in a written statement. “Not when we have more than half of all youth offenders ending up back in a detention center or prison within three years. Not when we have each youth in a detention center costing Georgia taxpayers $90,000 or more every year and not when 40 percent of juveniles in detention facilities are considered a low risk to reoffend.”

The bill calls for allotting $5 million as incentives for communities  to create community-based treatment programs, which would give judges more sentencing options. The new laws also are expected to save the state $85 million over the next five years and curb the need to open two new residential detention centers for juvenile offenders.

The governor’s criminal justice reform council, which is made up of lawyers, judges, lawmakers and law enforcement officers, worked closely with the Pew Charitable Trusts and the Annie E. Casey Foundation. Those organizations also assisted the state with its adult criminal justice reforms last year.

“This legislation marks a turning point in how Georgia approaches crime and punishment,” said Adam Gelb, director of Pew’s public safety performance project, in a written statement. “Building on last year’s criminal justice reforms, state leaders again reached bipartisan consensus by using data and research to craft policies aimed at making sure Georgia’s tax dollars are producing the best possible public safety results.”

Research conducted by the council found that the state gave the Department of Juvenile Justice $300 million in fiscal year 2013, of which nearly two-thirds went to operating facilities where juvenile offenders were locked up. During that same time, more than 65 percent of youth released from those facilities committed new offenses within three years—and the rate had increased since 2003.

The Georgia Legal Food Frenzy is living up to its title on Wednesday, as the Georgia Tech Office of Legal Affairs leapt to the top of the online giving list with $5,771.

Tech’s big move and increased momentum in the Frenzy’s final days pushed the online donation total to $36,625, nearly $8,000 more than yesterday’s late afternoon total.  The money, plus actual food donations and other cash gifts, will benefit Georgia’s food banks as they get ready for the summer months. That’s when many school children can go hungry away from school lunch programs.  Georgia’s food banks can turn $1 into more than $7 in food for its recipients.

As of 2:10 p.m. Wednesday, 10 offices had raised $1,000 or more, with Tech’s legal group on top.

Displaced to second was Kilpatrick, Townsend & Stockton, which has led much of the way, with $4,940.  Alston & Bird followed with $3,090; Office of the DeKalb County Solicitor-General, $2,470; King & Spalding, $2,390; Georgia Department of Law, $2,290;  Hunton & Williams, $1,790; Atlanta Legal Aid Society, $1,380; Southern Company/Georgia Power Legal, $1,060; and The Coca-Cola Company Legal Department, $1,055.

Donations can be made here: http://engage.acfb.org/site/TR/LegalFoodFrenzy/GeorgiaLegalFoodFrenzy?fr_id=1560&pg=entry

With nearly $29,000 in online donations collected, the Legal Food Frenzy has crossed the halfway mark to its goal of $55,000 by the end of business on Friday.  The money goes to Georgia food banks, which can stretch each $1 into more than $7 of food.

As of 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, the online tally stood at $28,945, with eight offices having raised $1,000 or more.  Some offices are getting creative in the competition, as detailed below the standings.

With $4,940 donated online, Kilpatrick, Townsend & Stockton continues to lead. (Totals for the contest will be based on pounds of food raised, with each $1 counting as four pounds of food, and actual food donations weighed.)

They were followed by:

Alston & Bird, $2,655; Office of the DeKalb County Solicitor-General, $2,385; Georgia Department of Law, $2,140; King & Spalding, $2,140; Hunton & Williams, $1,705; Atlanta Legal Aid Society, $1,280; and The Coca-Cola Company Legal Department, $1,045.

Southern Company/Georgia Power Legal was only $40 away from the $1,000 mark, and the Daily Report stood just $78 away from one grand.

Paige Boorman, an assistant solicitor-general in DeKalb County, writes the following about how the office’s efforts has earned third place in online donations.

“Since we lawyers like to compete at just about anything, what a better way than to have it benefit a wonderful cause! And the bonus is, even those of us without lofty paychecks can make a difference with a little bit of creativity. DeKalb County Solicitor-General Sherry Boston decided some healthy competition would help boost our numbers… and she was right! Within our office, we’re divided up into teams and the winner gets to have lunch on the boss lady. On Monday, we had “Taste of the Caribbean” where our Special Victims Unit created dishes to share with the office for a $5 donation.

“So far we have had two luncheons testing our office culinary skills, candygrams for a cause, raffles for gas cards, massages & braves tickets, candy & snack sales, along with traditional fundraising by each employee reaching out to friends and family outside the office. Currently in 1^st place for Government groups, we look forward to finishing out the week with even better numbers so that more families can receive the benefit of the Food Frenzy!”

My apologies for a short post, but the Food Frenzy is nearing $24,000.  Here are the details.