Criminal Practice

Mr. Patrick G. Longhi Related Seminars and Products

Law Office of Patrick Longhi

Patrick G. Longhi, Esq. is an Attorney at Law admitted to practice law in Georgia and Washington, D.C. With his general trial practice, he has been advising and representing individuals and businesses since the 1980s. He teaches lawyers at continuing legal education seminars for close to three decades in the area of Legal Ethics but also Trial Tactics and has lectured in Criminal Law. He is the author of papers on Ethics and has been published in professional law journals. He has practiced before both federal and state trial courts and filed briefs with the Georgia Court of Appeals, the Supreme Court of Georgia, theUnited States 11th Circuit Court of Appeals and the United States Supreme Court.

As a local bar president, he received an Award of Merit from the State Bar for writing, directing and hosting an educational film, "Lawyers and the Justice System,"  distributed to local libraries and school media centers. He appeared in Marquis Who's Who in American Law 10th, 12th,14th and 15th editions,before receiving its Lifetime Achievement Award, and has been rated a "highly respected, ethical member of the Bar"by Martindale-Hubbell Law Directory. He still serves the legal profession and community on the Fulton County Law Week Committee as chair of the Washington Workshops Scholarships Subcommittee[for Atlanta area high school students], as an active member of various localbar associations and also as an alumni ambassador for his undergrad university.

Hon. Paige Reese Whitaker Related Seminars and Products

Judge, Fulton Superior Court

Judge Whitaker is a Fulton County Superior Court judge and a 32 year resident of Fulton County. She has served as a trial judge since 2017, winning election twice since that time.  She currently presides over felony criminal cases, civil suits, equity cases, and other matters.  She served as a Fulton Family Division judge from 2018 – 2020, handling divorce and family matters and presided over the Parental Accountability Court during that time.  Judge Whitaker is a graduate of Duke University School of Law and the College of Charleston. 

Judge Whitaker has practiced as a civil litigator, a prosecutor, and an appellate lawyer. As a Georgia Senior Assistant Attorney General, she practiced extensively in Georgia’s state and federal trial and appellate courts, winning national accolades for her work.  Immediately before being selected as a Superior Court judge, she served as the Deputy Fulton County DA leading the Appeals Division of the State’s largest and busiest district attorney’s office.

Judge Whitaker currently serves as Chair of the Georgia Commission on Family Violence, Secretary/Treasurer-Elect of the Council of Superior Court Judges, and Treasurer of the Lawyers Club of Atlanta.  She holds an elected seat on the Board of Governors for the State Bar of Georgia, is a Master with several Georgia Inns of Court, and serves as a board member or committee chair of numerous other bar organizations.  Judge Whitaker has also served as a Committee Chair on the Chief Justice’s Statewide COVID Task Force and on the Chief Justice’s Ad Hoc Committee of Criminal Justice Reform. Judge Whitaker has trained at the prestigious National Judicial College, is a certified neutral/mediator, and is a regular presenter at trainings for fellow judges and practicing lawyers. She was an adjunct law professor at Mercer Law School for several years, where she taught a third-year seminar on Advanced Persuasive Legal Writing.  Judge Whitaker is an alumna of the YWCA’s Georgia Women’s Policy Institute and the Leadership Academy of the Georgia Association of Women Lawyers.  

Judge Whitaker has held leadership roles in several civic and charitable organizations as well, including chairing a committee advising Fulton’s Juvenile Court on foster care placements for the County’s youth and serving on the March of Dimes Atlanta Chapter’s Prematurity Prevention Committee. She is a sustainer with the Junior League of Atlanta, an ambassador for breast cancer survivors, and a parishioner at the Cathedral of Christ the King. 

Hon. Verda M. Colvin Related Seminars and Products

Supreme Court of Georgia

Justice Verda M. Colvin was appointed to the Supreme Court on July 20, 2021, by Gov. Brian Kemp. She is the first African-American female appointed by a Republican governor to the state’s high court.
Previously, she served on the Court of Appeals, having been appointed by Gov. Kemp in April 2020. Her time as judge also includes nearly six years as a Superior Court judge in the Macon Judicial Circuit, during which she served on the Council of Accountability Court Judges.

Justice Colvin discovered her love for trial work early in her career as an Assistant Solicitor in Athens-Clarke County. From there, she went on to serve as Assistant General Counsel to Clark Atlanta University and then as Assistant District Attorney in Clayton County. Before becoming a judge, Justice Colvin was an Assistant United States Attorney in the Middle District of Georgia, where she prosecuted a wide range of offenses from drug trafficking to white collar crime.

Born and raised in Atlanta, Justice Colvin attended Daniel McLaughlin Therrell High School. She earned her bachelor’s degree in government and religion from Sweet Briar College in Virginia and her juris doctorate from the University Of Georgia School Of Law.

Judge Colvin is committed to service professionally and personally. In 2019, the Supreme Court appointed her to serve on the Judicial Qualifications Commission (JQC). Additionally, during her tenure as a Superior Court Judge she served on the CSCJ Bench & Bar and Legislative Committees and as a member of the Council of Accountability Court Judges (CACJ) where she was part of the Funding Committee, the Committee Chair for Accountability and Treatment Courts and a member of the CACJ Executive Committee. Justice Colvin was serving as co-chair of the Rules Committee for the Council of Superior Court Judges (CSCJ) at the time of her appointment to the Court of Appeals by Gov. Kemp.
She formerly served on Gov. Nathan Deal’s Criminal Justice Reform Committee and the Law Enforcement Task Force Committee. During her service on the Court of Appeals Justice Colvin served as a member of the Internal Operations Manual and the Continuing Judicial Education and In-house Continuing Legal Education for Staff Attorneys. She co-chaired the Strategic Planning/Court Futures Committee and was appointed to serve on the Continuing Judicial Education Board of Trustees. In her service on the Supreme Court of Georgia she currently serves as the Chair of the Access to Justice Committee.

Justice Colvin is a member of several organizations and boards: The Order of Barristers, Macon Bar Association, American Bar Association (ABA), Georgia Association of Black Women Attorneys (GABWA), Georgia Association for Women Lawyers (GAWL), Gate City Bar-Judicial Section, William A. Bootle American Inn of Court, Charles Weltner Family Inn of Court, Clarence Cooper Inn of Court, Clarke-Carley Inn of Court, the Downtown Rotary Club of Macon , Board of Trustees for Mount de Sales Academy (Chair of Board in 2021), Jack and Jill of America-Macon Chapter, Board of Directors for the Fuller Center for Housing of Macon (President 2018-2021), Boys and Girls Club of Central Georgia Corporate Board of Directors, Macon Bibb Citizens Advocacy Board, Secretary (2021-Present), Co-chair of ONEMACON 2.0, Georgia Citizen Advocacy Board, Sweet-Briar College Board of Trustees, Goodwill Industries Board of Directors, Wesleyan College Board of Trustees, and Knight Foundation Advisory Board. Justice Colvin is a proud Leadership Macon 2010 graduate.

Among her numerous awards and honors are Justice Verda M. Colvin Month in honor of Women’s History Month in Macon-Bibb County (2022) by Mayor Lester Miller, Alaimo Award (2022) by Georgia Trial Lawyer Association (GTLA), The Leah Ward Sears Award for Distinction in the Profession (2021) by GABWA, The Young Lawyer Division of the State Bar of Georgia Distinguished Judicial Award (2020-21), The Honorable Debra Bernes Community Volunteer Award (2021) by GAWL, Tradition of Excellence Award as a Judge by The General Practice and Trial Section of the State Bar of Georgia (2019), Middle Georgia Association of Women Lawyers Outstanding Woman Lawyer of the Year (2019), The House of Hope-Women’s History Month Award (2019), NAACP President’s Award (2018), Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. Pearls of Service Award (2017), Omega Psi Phi Fraternity Citizen of the Year (2016 and 2017), Career Women’s Network Woman of Achievement (2016), Georgia Orthodox Missionary Baptist Association Community Service Award (2015), and Leadership Macon’s Robert F. Hatcher Distinguished Alumni Award as a Community Leader.

Justice Colvin has served as an adjunct professor at Mercer School of Law and she is a member of First Baptist Church where she serves as a children’s Sunday school teacher and on the Women’s Ministry Leadership Team. She is the proud mother of two children, Weston and Taylor, and the wife of Nathaniel Walker with whom she shares two other adult children, Nathan and Nathalie.

Hon. Christopher J. McFadden Related Seminars and Products

Georgia Court of Appeals

Presiding Judge Christopher J. McFadden was elected in November 2010 for a term beginning January 1, 2011 and reelected in 2016 and 2022. He is a son of the late Isabel McFadden and the late Judge Donald B. McFadden, who served for twenty years as a trial court judge in Akron, Ohio.

Judge McFadden graduated from Oglethorpe University in 1980 and from the University of Georgia School of Law in 1985. He opened his own law office in 1988 and remained a sole practitioner until he joined the Court of Appeals. For most of that time, he practiced in Decatur and focused on appellate litigation. Before joining the Court of Appeals as its 74th judge, he appeared as appellate counsel before 26 of the judges who preceded him.
 
In 1996, along with the late Professor Edward C. Brewer and attorney Charles R. Sheppard, he published Georgia Appellate Practice through the Harrison Company of Norcross, Georgia. With Mr. Sheppard and attorneys Charles M. Cork, III, David A. Webster, Kelly A Weathers, and formerly with the late attorney George W.K. Snyder, Jr., Judge McFadden continues to update it for West, which now publishes it in annual editions.

With attorney Laurie Webb Daniel, he is a founding past Chair of the Appellate Practice Section of the State Bar of Georgia. For twelve years, Judge McFadden served as an officer or director of the Atlanta Bar Association. He is a past chair of its Sole Practitioner/Small Firm and Judicial Sections and is a recipient of the its Distinguished Service and Charles E. Watkins, Jr. Awards, as well as its Judicial Section’s Romae Turner Powell Judicial Service Award.

Judge McFadden is an elected member of The American Law Institute. He presently serves as Chair-elect of  the Appellate Judges Conference of the American Bar Association and chaired its 2018 Appellate Judges Education Institute, which was held in Atlanta. He has served as a volunteer attorney for the Innocence Project and the Election Protection Project. In addition to the Atlanta Bar Association and American Bar Association, he is a member of the DeKalb Bar Association, Lawyers Club of Atlanta, Gate City Bar Association, Federalist Society, American Constitution Society, Saint Thomas More Society and of Oglethorpe University’s Stormy Petrel Bar Association. He served for more than six years on the State Bar of Georgia’s Committee on the Judiciary. He chaired a committee of the Judicial Council of Georgia that drafted the Superior and State Court Appellate Practice Act.

He is a parishioner at St. Thomas More Catholic Church in Decatur, Georgia and has served as a lector since 1988. Judge McFadden is married to Dr. Linda Hyde, Professor of Biology at Gordon State College in Barnesville, Georgia. They have a son.

Hon. Joe D. Whitley Related Seminars and Products

Womble Bond Dickinson (US) LLP

Joe Whitley represents clients nationally and internationally in a variety of white collar matters including corporate internal investigations, regulatory enforcement, Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and export controls compliance, corporate compliance, health care fraud and FDA-related matters, securities fraud, criminal antitrust, financial institution fraud, public corruption and campaign finance, and commercial bribery.

In addition to his years of private practice experience, Joe has served in several high-level roles with the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS). During the Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations, he served as Acting Associate Attorney General, the third-ranking position at Main Justice. He was also appointed by Presidents Reagan and Bush, respectively, to serve as the U.S. Attorney in the Middle (Macon) and Northern (Atlanta) Districts of Georgia. Throughout his career, Joe served under five U.S. Attorneys General and four Presidents in a number of key operational and policy positions. Earlier in his career, he served as an Assistant District Attorney in the Chattahoochee Judicial Circuit in Columbus, Georgia. Joe maintains strong professional relationships with the state and federal law enforcement community.

In 2003, Joe was appointed by President George W. Bush as the first General Counsel for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the highest ranking legal official at DHS. He held that position for two years working for DHS Secretaries Tom Ridge and Michael Chertoff, before returning to private practice. 

Joe's white collar practice focuses on corporate defense and representation of clients in complex civil and criminal enforcement matters brought by the DOJ, other federal agencies, state Attorneys General and local prosecutors. He has represented numerous individuals and corporations in major government investigations throughout the US and internationally. 

Joe’s practice also includes representation of clients before the Antitrust Division of the DOJ together with State Attorneys General and the Federal Trade Commission. He has represented clients in criminal antitrust cases including price fixing and market allocation matters, and he has participated in compliance training programs for clients including sessions devoted to dealing with worldwide dawn raids.

He is a frequent speaker on white collar, compliance, corporate governance and DHS-related issues. 

Homeland Security Experience

• General Counsel for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and responsible for providing legal advice to more than 180,000 employees of the Department. 
• Responsible for directing and coordinating the creation of a single legal department from the legal departments of the 22 agencies that were combined in the formation of DHS. 
• Responsible for supervision of a total of 1,800+ lawyers in agencies, directories, and offices, including attorneys in the following components of DHS (as configured in 2006):
  • U.S. Secret Service (USSS);
  • U.S. Coast Guard (USCG);
  • Transportation Security Administration (TSA);
  • U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS);
  • U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP);
  • Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA);
  • Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC);
  • U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE);
  • Information Analysis and Infrastructure Protection (IAIP); and
  • The Offices for Privacy, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties.
• Responsible for a budget in excess of $10 million in the front office of General Counsel.
• Provided legal assistance to Secretary Tom Ridge and Secretary Michael Chertoff on key legal issues, such as:
  • Worked closely with General Counsel counterparts throughout the federal government at the White House, Departments of Justice; State, Treasury, Defense and other agencies to include the coordination of counterterrorism and federal law enforcement initiatives;
  • Responsible for responding to frequent Congressional inquiries, and the timely proposal and adoption of hundreds of regulations;
  • Provided guidance and input to staff attorneys representing the department in litigation on a variety of matters; and
  • Worked closely with the Office of the Inspector General in conducting reviews of various department programs and responding to issues raised by those reviews.

Private Sector Homeland Security Experience

• Assisted in Homeland Security consultation and internal investigations for major U.S. defense contracting company.
• Assist companies with government procurement and contracting issues with DHS.
• Provides counsel to major corporations on public policy and legislative issues, such as:
  • Cyber-security and critical infrastructure protection;
  • Customs and trade compliance;
  • Immigration compliance;
  • Laws and regulations affecting all segments of the transportation industry; 
  • SAFETY Act applications for certification and designation by DHS;
  • Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) implementation;
  • Vulnerability assessments for members of the energy sector to include the broad spectrum of environmental regulations.
  • Disaster recovery and forward-looking mitigation strategies;

Prosecution Experience

• U.S. Attorney for the Northern (Atlanta) District of Georgia
• Acting Associate Attorney General
• Principal Deputy Associate Attorney General
• Deputy Assistant Attorney General Criminal Division
• U.S. Attorney for the Middle (Macon) District of Georgia
• Assistant District Attorney Chattahoochee Judicial Circuit

Mr. Robert Laurence Barr Jr. Related Seminars and Products

Bob Barr represented the 7^th District of Georgia in the U. S. House of Representatives from 1995 to 2003, and now practices law in Atlanta, Georgia, where he serves as chairman of the state's Judicial Qualifications Commission. Bob also chairs Liberty Guard, Inc. a non-profit and non-partisan organization dedicated to protecting individual liberty. He also heads a consulting firm, Liberty Strategies, Inc., and is a registered Mediator and Arbitrator. Bob has taught constitutional law at Atlanta’s John Marshall Law School and government at Kennesaw State University.

Bob is a member of the Board of Directors for the National Rifle Association, and serves as Chair on the Board of the Interactive College of Technology. He is a member of Tau Kappa Epsilon Fraternity.

Bob was appointed by President Reagan as the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia (1986-90), served as President of Southeastern Legal Foundation from 1990-91, and was an official with the CIA from 1971-78.  Additionally, he has served as a member of U.S. delegations at several United Nations conferences on firearms.

Bob Barr was awarded his law degree from Georgetown University, his master's degree from The George Washington University, and his bachelor's degree from the University of Southern California. He and his wife Jeri live in Smyrna, Georgia just outside Atlanta.

Ms. Jessica Gabel Cino Related Seminars and Products

Krevolin & Horst LLC

Jess Cino specializes in high-stakes civil and criminal litigation matters, including  investigations. Jess has litigated cases involving fraud and business torts; business divorce; commercial breach of contract claims, shareholder disputes, lender litigation, IP protection, and insolvency-related issues.

Jess publishes extensively, including the leading authority on lending: the Treatise on Lender Liability. Jess’s practice also extends to drafting and reviewing technology and entertainment contracts. Some of Jess’s clients include book authors, film producers, and musicians.  Jess is a media savvy lawyer, and considered a national legal expert, has lectured throughout the world, and is frequently featured in news programs, print media, and documentaries, including CNN, MSNBC, ABC, NPR, PBS, SundanceTV, TruTV, and Discovery+. Her pro bono cases have been the subject of several true-crime podcasts.

Jess also has lectured throughout the world on business law, bankruptcy, complex evidence, white collar crime, and trial strategy. Jess has received several awards for her legal work and public service.

Before joining Krevolin & Horst, Jess was a tenured, full professor at Georgia State University College of Law teaching courses on evidence, contracts, bankruptcy and scientific evidence. Jess also served as GSU Law’s academic dean.

Jess attended law school at the University of Miami School of Law, graduating magna cum laude. After law school, Jess clerked for the Honorable Peter T. Fay on the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals and practiced in the litigation and white-collar departments of Covington & Burling in San Francisco, California.

Jess and her husband live with their twin boys in Decatur.

Mr. Jacob S. Edwards Related Seminars and Products

Krevolin & Horst LLC

Jake is an experienced litigator at the law firm Krevolin & Horst in Midtown Atlanta, Georgia. He represents plaintiffs and defendants in a variety of civil litigation, including breach of contract, fraud, construction litigation, and other business disputes. He has also worked on appeals in state and federal courts of appeal, including the United States Supreme Court.

Before joining Krevolin & Horst, Jake clerked for Judge Adalberto Jordan of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in Miami, Florida and practiced civil litigation in the Atlanta offices of two international law firms.

While attending law school at the University of Georgia, Jake was an Editor of the Georgia Law Review and was a member of the moot court and mock trial teams, winning the Herman Talmadge Moot Court Competition, the South Texas Mock Trial Team Challenge, the Melvin England Mock Trial Tournament, and the J. Ralph Beaird Closing Argument Competition. He also represented clients working in the Child Endangerment Clinic and Appellate Litigation Clinic.

Jake is a member of the National Order of Barristers and, in 2021, was inducted as a Barrister in the Lumpkin Inn of Court.

Hon. Thomas Craig Earnest Related Seminars and Products

Pataula Circuit Superior Court

Judge T. Craig Earnest was appointed Superior Court Judge of the Pataula Judicial Circuit by Governor Nathan Deal on January 9, 2018.  He served as District Attorney of the Pataula Judicial Circuit from January 1, 2009, to January 8, 2018.  Judge Earnest also served as an Assistant District Attorney for 9 years and was in private practice from 1994 to 1999.  Judge Earnest received his JD degree from the University of Alabama, AB degree from the University of Georgia, and AA degree from Bainbridge Junior College.  He and his wife, Kem, have two daughters and reside in Donalsonville.