Release date: Dec. 17, 2004
Contact: Elaine Justice, Associate Director, University Media Relations,
at 404-727-0643 or elaine.justice@emory.edu

Judge Hatchett to Host Emory Law School EPIC Awards

The Hon. Glenda A. Hatchett of television fame and a 1977 alumna of Emory Law School, will host the school's ninth annual EPIC Inspiration Awards. The ceremony and reception will be held at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 8 in the law school's Tull Auditorium, 1301 Clifton Rd. on the Emory campus.

Each year, EPIC (Emory Public Interest Committee) honors outstanding attorneys who have demonstrated a strong commitment to public interest law. This year's recipients are: Mary Ann B. Oakley Emory law class of 1974, partner at Holland & Knight LLP; Georgia State Attorney General Thurbert E. Baker, Emory law class of 1979; and Judge Sharon N. Hill of the Fulton County Juvenile Court, class of 1985.

EPIC is a student-run organization that promotes law in the public interest at Emory Law School, encourages and helps Emory law students to get jobs in public interest law practice, administers and supports public interest programs at the law school, and promotes the professional responsibility of lawyers and law students to make legal services more accessible.

The awards ceremony is the major fund-raiser for EPIC. Donations are used to provide stipends for law students who pursue summer internships with public interest agencies. Donations are accepted at various levels with a minimum of $35 requested. Inquiries about contributions and reservations should be directed to Sue McAvoy, Emory's public interest adviser, at 404-727-5503 or smcavoy@law.emory.edu.

Last year EPIC raised more than $60,000, which provided 15 grants. Students worked at agencies such as Children's Rights in New York, the Kenyan Human Rights Commission in Nairobi, and the Georgia Innocence Project.

Oakley, who will receive the Lifetime Commitment to Public Service Award, has worked with almost every woman's organization in Atlanta for more than 30 years. "I got involved during the women's rights period in the late '60s and early '70s, and during the Civil Rights Movement," Oakley says. "I understand the legal barriers for women and minorities."

Oakley, a partner with Holland & Knight LLP in Atlanta, has spent most of her life since high school involved with organizations that promote equality and rights for many groups, including gays, women, minorities and the disabled. That hard work continues today.

She is on the board and steering committee of Vote Choice, a Georgia PAC and affiliate of Planned Parenthood, has served on the cabinet of the United Way, and served in dozens of positions with the State Bar of Georgia.

Baker will be honored with the Outstanding Leadership in the Public Interest Award. He was appointed the attorney general of Georgia by then-Gov. Zell Miller in 1997. Baker was re-elected to two subsequent terms. Before that, he served five terms in the Georgia House of Representatives.

The state attorney general has focused his career on fighting crime, corruption and consumer fraud. Baker proposed Georgia's groundbreaking financial identity fraud statute, which allows him to prosecute those who steal personal identifying information. He created the Open Government Mediation Program, which helps Georgians resolve their request for open government without having to go to court.

During his tenure, Baker has fought to protect the state's children by successfully passing legislation that increased penalties for pornographers and which closed loopholes in Georgia's child pornography laws.

Hill, who is receiving the Unsung Devotion to Those Most in Need Award, is an associate judge in the Fulton County Juvenile Court. She has spent the last seven years serving on the bench of the busiest juvenile court in Georgia. Her extensive experience with child welfare issues--especially in the areas of deprivation, education, truancy, delinquency and mental health--has allowed her to dispense justice to thousands of children.

Hill is an active member of the Council of Juvenile Court Judges, serving on the council's permanency planning committee, the children with special needs committee, and the model [deprivation] courts advisory committee. A frequent speaker on issues of child welfare, truancy and court initiatives, Hill also initiated the Guardian Ad Litem Program, a pro bono joint project of the Atlanta firm Hunton & Williams and the Fulton County Juvenile Court.

Former Gov. Roy Barnes appointed Hill to serve on the Georgia Child Fatality Review Panel from 2002 to April 2004. She also is vice chairperson of the board of directors of the new Fulton County charter school, KIPP South Fulton Academy.

Back