Panel 4: The Lawyer as Active Participant in Public Life - Moderator Tim Floyd

Meet the Panelists\nDouglas B. Ammar has been an active presence at Georgia Justice Project (GJP) since its beginning in 1986. Starting as a volunteer, then joining as a staff attorney in 1990, Ammar has led GJP as executive director since 1995. GJP has sought to be advocates for clients not only by providing holistic criminal defense and social services, but also seeking systemic change in Georgia law that will reduce the number of people under correctional control and reduce barriers to reentry. During Ammar’s time as executive director, GJP has help change 22 laws in Georgia that have worked to reduce barriers to reentry for people impacted by the criminal justice system\nOriginally from Charleston, West Virginia, Ammar earned a bachelor’s degree in history from Davidson College in 1984, and then a law degree from Washington and Lee University in 1989. Ammar has received numerous awards for his leading voice in criminal justice reform and reentry, including but not limited to: Georgia Legislative Black Caucus Heritage Dinner 2022 Awardee; Nonprofit Times2019 Power & Influence Top 50; Urban League or Greater Atlanta’s Man of Empowerment & Distinction; Davidson’s College’s 2016 Game Changers, Emory University’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Service Award, Milner S. Ball Working In the Public Interest Lifetime Achievement Award; Georgia Center for Nonprofits’ Evelyn G. Ullman Innovative Leadership Award; Georgia Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers Indigent Defense Award; Davidson College’s John W. Kuykendall Award for Community Service; and Georgia Indigent Defense Council’s Commitment to Excellence Award. In addition to these recognitions, Ammar is also an Omicron Delta Kappa Alumni inductee at Washington and Lee University and an Annie E. Casey Foundation fellow.\nGene Nichol is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin School of Law and currently serves as the Tinsley Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill where he teaches courses on the constitution and federal courts. He previously served as president of the College of William & Mary and dean of the law schools at UNC and the University of Colorado. Nichol is the author of numerous books including, most recently, Lessons From North Carolina. He has been a columnist for the Raleigh News & Observer for more than 20 years. He has published articles in the Harvard, Yale, Chicago, Pennsylvania, California, Virginia, and Duke law reviews – as well as the Nation, Washington Post, Supreme Court Review, Southern Cultures, and Slate magazine. Nichol was director of the Poverty Center at UNC until it was closed for publishing articles critical of the North Carolina governor and general assembly.\nTeresa Pike Tomlinson is a partner at Hall Booth Smith where she specializes in complex trial and appellate civil practice. She is known for her ability to handle strategically complicated and potentially high value cases. She is admitted to courts throughout the country, including numerous federal circuit courts and the United States Supreme Court. In February of 2024, Tomlinson led a trial team to a $20.7 million jury verdict in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Georgia, which is believed to be the highest wrongful death verdict in that jurisdiction. She has led litigation teams in notable cases throughout her career, such as the ValuJet air crash in the Florida Everglades, the Richard Scrushy/Healthsouth collapse, and most recently Hall Booth Smith’s multi-district efforts battling COVID-19 related claims in health care settings. Tomlinson earned her law degree at Emory University School of Law.\nTomlinson served two terms as mayor of the Columbus, Georgia Consolidated government, Georgia’s second largest city. On January 3, 2011, she was sworn in as the city's first female mayor having been elected with over 68% of the vote. On May 20, 2014, she was re-elected to a second term, making her the first mayor since the city's consolidation in 1971 to win re-election in a contested race. As mayor, she oversaw nearly 3,000 employees and a $275 million budget. As the chief elected official of the city/county government, Tomlinson served as public safety director and Homeland Security Director for a 16-county region. She was a statewide candidate for United States Senate in 2020 finishing second in a field of seven in the primary election.\nTomlinson was integrally involved in the effort to save her undergraduate alma mater, Sweet Briar College in Virginia, an effort which raised $28.5 million. At the conclusion of the court battle which forced the reopening of Sweet Briar, the court named Tomlinson to the board of trustees where she served from 2015-2018 as chairwoman, overseeing the stabilization and rebuilding of the college.