Release date: Oct. 8, 2002
Contact: Elaine Justice, Associate Director, University Media Relations,
at 404-727-0643 or ejustic@emory.edu

Local Judge Receives Emory Law Distinguished Alumni Award

Emory University School of Law has honored Judge Stanley F. Birch, Jr., and two other alumni for outstanding service to the school. Attorney Kenneth F. Murrah of Winter Park, Fla., and the late John B. Zellars also were honored.

Birch began active service in 1990 on the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. A native of Atlanta, Birch distinguished himself as a practitioner of law in Gainesville, Ga., and in Atlanta with Vaughan, Davis, Birch & Murphy until he was nominated to the Court of Appeals by President George Bush. His practice focused on copyright law in the entertainment and computer software industries.

Birch was counsel to, and a business associate of, Xavier Roberts, the creator and owner of the Cabbage Patch Kids doll copyrights and trademarks. Birch litigated many of the first cases involving software copyright issues in the Southeast. He is co-author with professor L. Ray Patterson of articles and a book on the law of copyright.

Birch earned a law degree from Emory in 1970, and a master of laws in taxation in 1976. He served in the United States Army as a first lieutenant with the Army Special Forces and is a Vietnam veteran.

An active force in the legal community, Birch serves on the Chief Justice’s Commission on Indigent Defense of the Supreme Court of Georgia. An alumnus of the Peabody Conservatory, he plays trumpet with community music groups. He also is active in the alumni associations of Calvert Hall, the University of Virginia, and Trinity College (Oxford). Birch is a resident of Fulton County.

Murrah, one of Emory's most committed alumni leaders, is a graduate of both Emory College (1955) and the law school (1958). He created the Central Florida Scholarship Fund, which provides scholarships for students from Central Florida to attend Emory Law School.

Professionally, Murrah is a distinguished estate-planning practitioner in his law firm of Murrah, Doyle and Wigle in Winter Park.

Among his many civic activities, Murrah serves or has served as National Chancellor of the Alpha Tau Omega Fraternity and as a member of its foundation’s board of governors; as chairman of the Cornell Fine Arts Museum board of visitors; as a commissioner on the Florida Elections Commission; and as president of the Winter Park Chamber of Commerce. He is on the board of directors of the Mary Lee DePugh Nursing Center, which historically serves the African American population.

Zellars had a long and distinguished career as a leader in the savings and loan industry. Joining Atlanta Federal Savings and Loan Association, he rose to become president and chairman in 1977. The company later became known as Georgia Federal Bank, the largest savings bank in Georgia with assets of over $4.5 billion.

Zellars was elected by his peers nationally to serve as the president of the United States Savings and Loan League, and was credited with helping to establish a more secure savings and loan industry. He was a director at Fuqua Industries and of several other savings and loans, and served as chairman and CEO of the Federal Asset Disposition Association in Washington to liquidate the failed savings and loans during that troubled time.

Zellars served his country in the Army Air Corp during World War II in England, and was actively involved with the establishment of the World War II Veterans Scholarship Fund at the Emory Law School. He held various positions in the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, the United Way, the American Cancer Society, and the Georgia Economic Council.

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