Professionalism Page

• Jurisdiction: Georgia,United States
• Citation: Vol. 24 No. 6 Pg. 0080
• Pages: 0080
• Publication year: 2019

Professionalism PageVol. 24, 6 Pg. 80Georgia Bar JournalJune, 2019

Honoring Georgia's Lawyers

BY KARLISE Y. GRIER

I sincerely hope the Commission on Professionalism's work will honor Georgia's lawyers for what they do each day and will help each lawyer to become consummate professionals while they do the tireless and often thankless work of representing clients.

In June of 2018, I was shaken to the core when I learned of the death of attorney Antonio Mari. I did not personally know Mari, a family law attorney who was murdered by a client's ex-husband. I had, however, as a former family law attorney of almost 18 years, personally experienced the dynamics that caused his death: enmity, anger, retribution and a myriad of other vitriolic emotions directed at you as a lawyer (by opposing parties or clients) because you are striving to do your job to the best of your ability. I wanted to take a moment in this article to pay tribute to Mari and to honor the thousands of other Georgia lawyers who are just like him, men and women who toil in the trenches every day—putting their clients interests above their own personal well-being—as they strive to provide exemplary service and excellent representation. I also wanted to commend the wonderful professionalism example set by the Bartow County Bar Association, which stepped up in the midst of this horrible tragedy to divide up and take Mari's cases and to help close down his law practice.^[1]

According to the Daily Report, Mari was afraid of the pro se opposing party who ultimately killed him.^[2] Nevertheless, Mari fulfilled his legal obligations to his client and obtained a final divorce decree...