Boot Camp For Trial Lawyers

Mr. Jeffrey H. Brickman Related Seminars and Products

Jeffrey H Brickman LLC

Jeffrey H. Brickman was born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia. For the first fifteen years of his career, he served as both an Assistant District Attorney in DeKalb County, and then an Assistant United States Attorney in Atlanta. In 2004, then Governor Sonny Perdue appointed Jeffrey as DeKalb County District Attorney. After practicing “big firm” law for five years, Jeffrey opened up his own firm, Jeffrey H. Brickman, LLC, where he specializes in state and federal criminal defense. During the course of his thirty-three year career, Brickman has presented at numerous CLE events. He is an Adjunct Professor of Law at Georgia State University Law School where for several years, he has taught Advanced Criminal Litigation. He is currently on the Board of the Georgia Innocence Project and in 2021, was inducted as a Fellow into the American College of Trial Lawyers. Jeffrey and his wife, Susan, have been married for thirty years and have a twenty-eight year old son, Joseph, who practices law in Decatur, Georgia.

Mr. Richard Sterling Moultrie Jr. Related Seminars and Products

US Attorneys Office

Richard is the First Assistant U.S. Attorney. Previously he served as Chief of the Violent Crime & National Security Section and as a Deputy Chief in that section.  He also acted as the office’s Human Trafficking Coordinator and a member of the Hiring Committee. Richard has extensive experience handling complex, high-profile matters in federal court, including forced labor and domestic and international sex trafficking violations, and public corruption matters. He was the recipient of the Attorney General’s Distinguished Service Award in 2004 and the 2010 recipient of the Director’s Award for Superior Performance by a Criminal Trial Team. He is also a member of the American College of Trial Lawyers. Richard earned a B.A. in History from Morehouse College in 1988 and his J.D. from the University at Austin School of Law in 1991.

Mr. Charles Prescott Boring Related Seminars and Products

Robbins Alloy Belinfante Littlefield LLC

Charles “Chuck” P. Boring is an experienced trial attorney, having litigated several of the highest-profile cases in Georgia over the past two decades. Chuck represents clients in high-stakes civil litigation, governmental and internal investigations, and white-collar criminal matters. He has extensive experience handling cases in the spotlight and navigating the public relations aspects of matters involving individuals and entities attracting significant media attention.

As a former prosecutor and lead judicial ethics enforcement official for over 20 years, Chuck has tried well over 100 cases resulting in successful jury verdicts involving public corruption, murder, human trafficking, sexual assault, technology-facilitated crimes, and child abuse in several jurisdictions across the state. He has also successfully defended public officials at trial and on appeal regarding their right to hold public office. A Fellow in the prestigious American College of Trial Lawyers, Chuck is recognized as an expert in trial advocacy, complex investigations, and judicial and legal ethics.

Prior to joining the firm, Chuck was the Director of the Georgia Judicial Qualifications Commission (JQC), leading the state agency responsible for training and advising all state-level judges on legal and ethical issues, as well as investigating and prosecuting complaints of judicial misconduct. Before being named Director of the JQC, Chuck was the Deputy Chief Assistant District Attorney for Cobb County, Georgia, responsible for supervising the Special Victims Unit, Office Training, and other divisions in the office. Chuck previously served as a homicide, major case, and special victims prosecutor in the Atlanta Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s Office and as a prosecutor in the Coweta Judicial Circuit. Chuck has also briefed and argued numerous cases before the Supreme Court of Georgia and the Georgia Court of Appeals.

In recognition for his trial work, Chuck was named Georgia’s Assistant District Attorney of the Year for 2017. Additionally, Chuck received Attorney of the Year Awards for the Cobb Judicial Circuit (2016, 2013) and the Atlanta Judicial Circuit (2007), and the Trial Attorney of the Year for the Atlanta Judicial Circuit (2006). In 2014, the Fulton County Daily Report named Chuck as a “Rising Star” among attorneys under 40.In addition to his work in the courtroom, Chuck has trained judges on judicial ethics, and attorneys, law enforcement officers, public officials, medical providers, non-profit organizations, and business community partners, on investigations, crime prevention, and legal ethics, among other legal matters. In 2011, Chuck traveled to Africa to help train representatives from the countries of Djibouti, Ethiopia, and Eritrea in the investigation and prosecution of human trafficking and smuggling cases. Chuck is a frequent lecturer and presenter locally, nationally, and internationally, and is an Adjunct Law Professor at Georgia State University College of Law. Chuck has testified on numerous occasions as a subject matter expert before Committees in the Georgia House of Representatives and Senate regarding legal issues coming before the Georgia General Assembly, and he has assisted in drafting several bills that have been signed into law, including those positively impacting survivors of sexual abuse and human trafficking.

Chuck is a graduate of Georgia State University College of Law, where he clerked for Senior Superior Court Judge William W. Daniel and edited and re-wrote portions of Judge Daniel’s preeminent trial treatises, Daniel’s Georgia Handbook on Criminal Evidence and Daniel’s Georgia Criminal Trial Practice. Chuck earned his undergraduate degree in Communication Arts with a minor in Journalism from Georgia Southern University.

Hon. Brian M. Rickman Related Seminars and Products

Georgia Court of Appeals

2015 – Present

Chief Judge Brian M. Rickman was appointed to the Georgia Court of Appeals in November 2015 by Governor Nathan Deal and took office on January 1, 2016.

Born in Madison County, Georgia, Judge Rickman was a jailer working in the Rabun County Detention Center before entering Piedmont College where he graduated cum laude with a Bachelor’s degree in 1998. He earned his Juris Doctor from The University of Georgia School of Law in 2001. While in law school he was a member of the Mock Trial Board and was involved in the Prosecutorial Clinic. Judge Rickman was admitted to the State Bar of Georgia on October 29th, 2001. He began his legal career as an Assistant District Attorney for the Alcovy Judicial Circuit and then the Mountain Judicial Circuit. In 2004 he left the District Attorney’s Office to become a partner in a small town law firm in Rabun County, Georgia. He was a partner at Stockton & Rickman. At Stockton & Rickman, in addition to taking on whatever clients came through the door, including several pro bono cases, he was involved in civil litigation and was defense counsel in several cases including murder cases. In 2008, Judge Rickman was appointed by Governor Sonny Perdue to be the District Attorney for the Mountain Judicial Circuit and this was the position Judge Rickman held prior to taking office at The Georgia Court of Appeals.

In 2004, Judge Rickman became an adjunct professor at Piedmont College. He has taught several courses, including, American Government, Criminal Law and Procedure, and Courts and Society. He is a member of the Piedmont College Board of Trustees.

Judge Rickman was involved in several Professional Organizations as District Attorney. He was a member of the Georgia Board of Public Safety. The Georgia Board of Public Safety has statutory oversight over the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, the Georgia Department of Public Safety, and the Georgia Public Training Center. He was elected to be Secretary of the Georgia Board of Public Safety. Judge Rickman also served on the Criminal Justice Coordinating Council as the Board of Public Safety representative. Judge Rickman was elected by colleagues to serve on The Prosecuting Attorney’s Council of Georgia. The Prosecuting Attorney’s Council has statutory oversight over the State budget and training of Georgia’s District Attorney’s Offices. He served as chairman of the Personnel Committee.

In 2008, Judge Rickman was a recipient of the Piedmont College Alumni Association’s Pacesetter Award. In 2013 he was named by the Fulton Daily Report as a “40 under 40 On the Rise,” selection.

Judge Rickman’s most important role is as husband to his wife, Maggie, and father to his two young children.

Ms. Claudia Susan Saari Related Seminars and Products

Claudia Saari is the recently retired Circuit Public Defender for DeKalb County, Georgia.  Ms. Saari received a bachelor’s degree from Brown University and a law degree from Emory University. She joined the DeKalb County Public Defender’s Office in 1987 and over the next three decades tried a wide variety of cases ranging from DUI to death penalty cases.  Ms. Saari led an office of over 110 people who represented clients in all courts.

 Ms. Saari is a Fellow with the American College of Trial Lawyers (ACTL), a 1999 graduate of Leadership DeKalb, a Master with the Carley-Clarke Inn of Court, a member of the State Bar Board of Governors, a former Chairperson of the Commission on Continuing Lawyer Competency, and Chairperson for the State Bar Indigent Defense Committee. Ms. Saari also serves on a number of committees and boards including the State Bar, ACTL, the Georgia Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, Georgia Association of Women Lawyers, and Olmsted Linear Park.  In 2009, Ms. Saari was the recipient of the Georgia Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers Indigent Defense Award, a recipient of the GACDL President’s Commitment to GACDL Award, in 2016 she was honored by the American Constitution Society with its Legal Legend Award, and in 2020 she received the Gideon’s Promise John Lewis Lifetime Achievement Award.

Hon. Shawn Ellen LaGrua Related Seminars and Products

Supreme Court of Georgia

Shawn Ellen LaGrua has been a Justice on the Supreme Court of Georgia since January 7, 2021. Prior to joining the Supreme Court, Justice LaGrua was appointed to the Superior Court of the Atlanta Judicial Circuit by then-Governor Sonny Perdue and was sworn in on June 29, 2010. She served on the bench in the Superior Court of the Atlanta Judicial Circuit until January 2021, having been elected in 2012 and reelected in 2016 and 2020. Before serving on the Fulton County bench, Justice LaGrua served as Inspector General for the Georgia Secretary of State and has over 20 years of trial experience, serving as Chief Senior Assistant District Attorney in DeKalb and Fulton Counties, and Chief Assistant District Attorney in the Tallapoosa Circuit. Additionally, she served as the Solicitor General for DeKalb County. 

While on the bench in Fulton County, Justice LaGrua initiated and presided over “My Journey Matters,” a pilot accountability program designed to divert young offenders from a lifetime of incarceration, and presided over the Court’s first Re-Entry Court, which worked to integrate prior offenders back into the community using close supervision, substance abuse counseling, job-training, and advancing education. In 2016, Justice LaGrua received the St. Thomas Moore Award from the St. Thomas Moore Society in recognition of “specific actions manifesting a commitment to justice and humanity, especially in difficult circumstances” related in part to her formation of and continued commitment to the My Journey Matters Program.

In May 2020, Justice LaGrua was appointed by then-Chief Justice Harold D. Melton as the Chair of the Supreme Court’s COVID-19 Task Force. In January 2019, she was appointed by Governor Brian Kemp to be a member of the Judicial Nominating Commission. She was appointed by Governor Nathan Deal and re-appointed by Governor Kemp to the Georgia Child Support Commission and served as Chair of the Judicial Council’s Process Servers Committee. Justice LaGrua also served as the President of the Council of Superior Court Judges in 2019-2020. She served on the Legislative Support Team, as vice-chair for the Access to Fairness and Justice Committee, and as a member of the Accountability Court and Bench and Bar Committees. She is a former member of the Criminal Justice Reform Sub-Committee, and she has served as the Chair of the Judicial Section of the State Bar of Georgia.

Justice LaGrua was recently awarded the 2024 Kathleen Kessler Award by the Georgia Association of Women Lawyers. In 2022, she was inducted into the Georgia State University College of Law Order of the Barristers. She is a founding member and past Chair of the Georgia Association of Women Lawyers, Judicial Application Review Committee.

She is currently serving as President of the Georgia State College of Law Logan E. Bleckley Inn of Court, Chair of the Judicial Council Standing Committee on Judicial Security, co-chair of the Judicial Council Standing Committee on Technology, liaison to the Judicial Workload Assessment Committee, advisor to the Ad Hoc Committee on Judicial Emergency Preparedness, and co-chair of the Judicial Nominating Commission. After graduating from the University of Georgia, Justice LaGrua received her Juris Doctorate from the Georgia State University College of Law. She is the daughter of Brooks and Anne LaGrua, career military parents. She is married to husband Chris and has two step-sons and two Bernese Mountain dog rescues. 

Hon. LaTisha Dear Jackson Related Seminars and Products

DeKalb County Superior Court

The Honorable LaTisha Dear Jackson was elected Superior Judge of the Stone Mountain Judicial Circuit in 2018. In both 2021 and 2022, Judge Jackson was selected to serve by designation as a Justice of the Supreme Court of Georgia on two separate cases.  Her service in 2022 was historic in that it was the first time the Supreme Court had an all-woman bench preside over oral arguments.  After just nine months in office, Judge Jackson began serving as a Presiding Judge over Track 1 of the Circuit’s Drug Court.  After a year of service, Judge Jackson was unanimously elected to serve as the Presiding Judge for the Circuit’s four Accountability Courts. In 2022, Judge Jackson was elected to serve as the Chief Judge of the Stone Mountain Judicial Circuit as well as the Administrative Judge for the Fourth Judicial Administrative District which is comprised of DeKalb and Rockdale Circuits.

Immediately before her election, Judge Jackson was a Senior Associate at Thomas Kennedy Sampson & Tompkins, LLP (“TKST”). There, she defended corporate and governmental clients in medical malpractice, wrongful death, premises liability, and insurance matters. She also represented individuals in personal injury and wrongful death matters.

Prior to joining TKST, Judge Jackson served as a full-time judge in the DeKalb County Recorders Court and sat by designation in both the Superior and State Courts of DeKalb County. In 2008, she made history by becoming both the first female and youngest judge to ever serve as a Municipal Court Judge in the City of Stone Mountain. In 2012, she again made history by becoming the first female Chief Municipal Court Judge in the City of Lithonia.

Prior to becoming a member of the judiciary, Judge Jackson was a solo practitioner handling juvenile and family law matters as well as criminal defense. Judge Jackson also served as an Assistant Solicitor General in DeKalb County.

Judge Jackson earned her Juris Doctorate from Georgia State University and her undergraduate degree from the prestigious Spelman College.

A native of Los Angeles, California, Judge Jackson is active in numerous professional organizations. She is a current member of both GAWL and GABWA’s Judicial Applicant Review Committees. In 2014, Judge Jackson was appointed by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Georgia to serve on its Access to Justice Committee, where she continually works to ensure that there is unfettered access to the courts by litigants and the public as they navigate the judicial system. She is a member of several bar associations which include the Atlanta, DeKalb and Gate City Bar Associations and DeKalb Lawyers Association where she served an unprecedented two-year term as President and currently serves as the Judicial Section and Review Committee Chair.  Judge Jackson is the Immediate Past Chair of the State Bar of Georgia’s Judicial Section after serving as Chair for three years. She is also a Past President of the Georgia Council of Municipal Court Judges and a current member of the State’s Judicial Council.

In her community, Judge Jackson has served on the Board of Directors for the Georgia Center for Children and is a 2006 graduate of Leadership DeKalb, where she currently serves as a Board of Director and on the Selection Committee, a committee she’s chaired for over a decade. Judge Jackson currently serves as a DeKalb County Board Member for Boys and Girls Club Metro Atlanta and is a proud twenty-six-year active member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.

Judge Jackson has traveled throughout the Southeastern United States and the State of Georgia presenting on various judicial and legal issues with a passion for professionalism and access to justice. She also speaks at various schools throughout the metro-Atlanta area. As a continued investment to the youth, Judge Jackson created a three-year program in the DeKalb County Public School System entitled I. L.E.A.D. (Interactive Law and Education Development) Program, a program that focused on educating high school students on the law while strengthening their comprehension and writing skills.

Judge Jackson not only works and serves DeKalb County, but she also resides there calling it home with her husband Gari Jackson. She is a member of Ray of Hope Christian Church and served for several years as the co-coordinator for the youth, young adult, and college student ministries.

As a testament to her accomplishments, she has received several honors, been featured in several newspapers and magazines as well as her sorority’s international magazine. She has also been honored by her sorority, several county and city associations and elected leaders including receiving the Council for Municipal Court Judges President’s Award for her commitment to access and fairness in Georgia courts. In all that she does and has accomplished thus far, Judge Jackson remains humbled, inspired, and motivated to continue to seek justice because there are still so many lives left to be touched.

Mr. Daniel James Huff Related Seminars and Products

Huff Powell & Bailey LLC

Dan is a founding partner of the law firm Huff, Powell & Bailey, LLC. Dan has tried more than 130 civil jury trials in Georgia. In more than 100 of the trials, Dan represented physicians and hospitals against allegations of medical malpractice.

In October 2022, Dan obtained a defense verdict for a local hospital in a Fulton County case where the jury found against two defendants for $75,000,000 and the Plaintiff sought $40,000,000 against the hospital alone. Dan is a fellow in the American College of Trial Lawyers and has been selected as a Superlawyer for more than 18 years.

Founded in 2003, Huff, Powell & Bailey, LLC has offices throughout Georgia and in North Carolina and South Carolina. HPB prides itself on having a deep bench of diverse first chair medical malpractice lawyers. With over 50 lawyers in three states HPB sets the standard for defending the healthcare industry in the southeast.

Hon. Kellie Stevens Hill Related Seminars and Products

Superior Court of Cobb County

Judge Kellie Hill was elected to serve on the Superior Court of Cobb County, Georgia in June 2020.

Prior to her election to Superior Court, Judge Hill served four years as a full-time Magistrate and Assisting Superior Court Judge in the Cobb Magistrate Court. As a trial attorney in both the public and private sectors, she established “The Kellie Hill Legal Group”, served as the managing attorney for a personal injury practice, an adjunct professor at the John Marshall School of Law, and served as a lead prosecutor on many complex and notable cases in Fulton and DeKalb Counties.

Judge Hill’s work has been featured on national media outlets. She has appeared as a legal expert on nationally and locally aired programs. Judge Hil was recognized by the Georgia House of Representatives for her work as a trial attorney and has been the recipient of numerous other awards and distinctions.

Judge Hill is a member of The State Bar of Georgia, The Council of Superior Court Judges, The Supreme Court's Committee on Interpreters, The Association of Black Women Attorneys, The Gate City Bar Association, The National Bar Association, The Weltner Inn of Court, The Lawyers’ Club of Atlanta, Leadership Cobb Alumni and Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.