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Jury Trials in Divorce, 10/28/2022, On Demand More info »
Livestream

Livestream - Jury Trials in Divorce


CLE Hours: 6 including 6 General, 0 Ethics, 0 Professionalism, 4 Trial Practice

Categories:
Trial Practice

Dates


Description

 

Presiding:

 

Randall M. Kessler, Program Chair; Kessler & Solomiany LLC, Atlanta, GA

 

 

8:00

IN-PERSON REGISTRATION

 

 

8:25

INTRODUCTION

 

Julia D. Neighbors, ICLE Director, State Bar of Georgia, Atlanta, GA

 

 

8:30

WELCOME AND PROGRAM OVERVIEW

 

Randall M. Kessler

 

 

8:40

WHERE ARE THE COURTS WITH JURY TRIALS

 

Hon. Christopher S. Brasher, Judge, Fulton County Superior Court, Atlanta, GA

 

 

9:10

JURY TRIALS IN A SMALL TOWN 

 

John Lyndon, Law Offices of John F. Lyndon, Athens, GA

 

 

10:10

BREAK 

 

 

10:20

TIPS FROM A FORMER JUDGE  

 

Hon. Christopher C. Edwards, Former Judge, Attorney at Law, Griffin, GA

 

 

11:20 

HOT TIPS FOR TRYING JURY CASES FROM LAWYERS WHO DO IT A LOT  

 

Panelists:

 

Martin L. Fierman, Fierman Law Firm, Madison, GA

 

Robert G. Wellon, Attorney and Counselor at Law, Atlanta, GA

 

 

12:20

BREAK

 

 

 1:05

THE VALUE OF THE JURY TRIAL SYSTEM

 

Hon. Chris McFadden, Georgia Court of Appeals, Atlanta, GA

 

 

1:35

TRIAL JUDGE’S PERSPECTIVE: WHAT DIVORCE LAWYERS NEED TO KNOW ABOUT JURY TRIALS 

 

Hon. Gregory A. “Greg” Adams, Judge, DeKalb County Superior Court, Stone Mountain Judicial Circuit, Decatur, GA

 

Hon. Kellie S. Hill, Judge, Superior Court, Cobb Judicial Circuit, Marietta, GA

 

 

2:10

JURY TRIALS AND APPEALS 

 

Nancy Ingram Jordan, Kessler & Solomiany LLC, Atlanta, GA

 

 

2:40

BREAK

 

  

2:50

JURY VERSUS JUDGE, WHEN TO CHOOSE: An Open Debate Session  

 

Darryl B. Cohen, Cohen Cooper Estep & Allen LLC, Atlanta, GA

 

Randall M. Kessler

 

 

3:50

ADJOURN

 

 

 

 

 

PROGRAM COORDINATORS:

 

Colette Reed, Program Coordinator

 

Cheyenne Scipio, Program Coordinator

Handouts

Speaker

Mr. Randall Mark Kessler's Profile

Mr. Randall Mark Kessler Related Seminars and Products

Kessler & Solomiany LLC


Randy Kessler is the founding partner of Kessler & Solomiany Family Law Attorneys, a 30-person family law firm in Atlanta, and is the author of many family law books, including Divorce: Protect Yourself, Your Kids and Your Future (www.divorceprotect.com), The GA Library of Family Law Forms (https://www.lawcatalog.com/gaflf.html) and How to Mediate a Divorce. He teaches Jury Trial Litigation at Emory School of Law and is the former Chair of the Family Law Sections of the American Bar Association, the State Bar of Georgia, and the Atlanta Bar Association.

 

Mr. Kessler has over 35 years of experience in domestic relations and family law matters, including divorce, custody, paternity, prenuptial agreements, and child support. He has lectured in over thirty states and six different countries.  

 He is a LinkedIn “Influencer” with over 400,000 followers and often appears as a contributor for national media such as Fox News, CNN, NBC, and others. He is a graduate of Brandeis University and Emory University School of Law.

 And he is the Founder and inventor of MyFanPark.com, providing Personal Videos from Stars to their Fans.


Hon. Christopher Samuel Brasher's Profile

Hon. Christopher Samuel Brasher Related Seminars and Products

Fulton County Superior Court


Former Chief Judge of the Superior Court of Fulton County when he retired from the bench in late 2022, Chris Brasher served on Georgia’s busiest trial court for nearly seventeen years. During his time on the Superior Court bench, Judge Brasher presided over more than 20,000 cases, ranging from commercial disputes involving hundreds of millions of dollars, to catastrophic injury cases, to professional negligence and malpractice cases, to high-asset divorce cases, to complex and vexing custody matters, to capital murder and other violent felony cases. As a lawyer prior to his service on the bench, Judge Brasher tried cases in more than 130 counties in Georgia, as well as in all of Georgia’s Federal District Courts. As an appellate advocate, Judge Brasher argued more than forty cases in appellate courts, including before Georgia’s Court of Appeals and Supreme Court, as well as in the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals and in the United States Supreme Court. Judge Brasher has more than 70 reported decisions as lead appellate counsel.

On the bench, Judge Brasher earned a reputation as a hard-working, efficient, and effective jurist who was always prepared, patient, and fair. Judge Brasher’s court was known to be a place where disputes were resolved in an efficient way, where parties and counsel would be heard, and where professionalism and respect were expected and practiced.

As a colleague and in the community, Judge Brasher has served in leadership roles in local, county, and statewide organizations. Teaching and mentoring have always been a part of Judge Brasher’s efforts to equip others in their professional, academic, and personal lives. As a veteran trial judge with over two hundred jury trials, Judge Brasher knows what works and what does not before a jury. As a trained and certified mediator, Judge Brasher has honed the skills needed to assist in resolving disputes.



Mr. Robert G. Wellon's Profile

Mr. Robert G. Wellon Related Seminars and Products

Attorney and Counselor at Law


Rob Wellon has been practicing law since 1974, with an emphasis on litigation, and concentrating on family law. He is recognized as a creative problem-solver, whether in settling issues or trying cases. With a lifelong commitment to service, Wellon has over twenty years of guiding law students into the profession, as an adjunct professor at Emory Law School.  Wellon is the founder and initial director of the Atlanta College of Trial Advocacy, former chairman of the Atlanta Bar Litigation Section and Adjunct Professor on Trial Advocacy.



Ms. Nancy I. Jordan's Profile

Ms. Nancy I. Jordan Related Seminars and Products

Kessler & Solomiany LLC


Nancy Ingram Jordan serves clients in all areas of family law with a special emphasis on appellate law. Having been an appellate advocate for over 30 years, Ms. Jordan brings a distinctive mindset and established legal and tactical skills that are vital in appellate litigation. Ms. Jordan provides services to clients and to trial lawyers as an appellate lawyer and/or consultant. In this role, she helps navigate the options that exist, either prior to a final judgment or following a final judgment in which time-sensitive decisions must be made.

Ms. Jordan initially developed her passion and expertise in appellate law based upon her many years in civil and criminal appellate practice in both the state appellate courts and federal courts. Prior to entering private practice, she served as a felony prosecutor in the Cobb County District Attorney’s Office, with an emphasis on appellate law.

Ms. Jordan has authored or co-authored over 500 appellate briefs and has appeared before the appellate courts in over 80 oral arguments. Ms. Jordan’s name appears in approximately 332 reported decisions of the Supreme Court of Georgia and the Court of Appeals of Georgia. She has argued several cases of the first impression before the Georgia appellate courts. Her appellate practice has focused on a variety of civil cases, as well as family and criminal law in both the state appellate courts and the federal courts.
Ms. Jordan is currently a registered civil and domestic mediator and arbitrator with the Georgia Office of Dispute Resolution.

Ms. Jordan is a noted speaker who shares her experience and legal knowledge with various professional groups through speaking engagements. She has lectured on appeals at appellate, criminal, government and family law seminars sponsored by the State Bar of Georgia, the Cobb County Bar Association and Kennesaw State University’s College of Continuing and Professional Education. Ms. Jordan has also taught at the North Georgia Police Academy and at the Emory Trial Techniques Program.


Hon. Christopher J. McFadden's Profile

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. Kellie Stevens Hill's Profile

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.



Important Information

Please be advised that your credit will not be reported to the State Bar of Georgia CLE Regulation Department until after you have completed the steps necessary to earn credit for that program. 

Self reporting is required for all other jurisdictions.

The information presented is solely for educational purposes. The opinions expressed by the faculty in their materials and presentations are their own and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the State Bar of Georgia, its officers, directors and/or employees. The faculty is not engaged in rendering legal or other professional advice and these presentations and publications are not a substitute for the advice of an attorney. All publications and presentations were created to serve the continuing legal education needs of practicing attorneys.

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