Remarks of Sally Akins to the Board of Governors

• Citation: Vol. 28 No. 1 Pg. 0038
• Pages: 0038
• Publication year: 2022

Remarks of Sarah B. SallyAkins to the Board of Governors No. Vol. 28, No. 1, Pg. 38 Georgia Bar Journal August, 2022

Remarks of Sarah B. Sally Akins to the Board of Governors

The following is excerpted from Sarah B. Sally Akins remarks to the Board of Governors on June 4, during the 2022 Annual Meeting in Amelia Island, Florida.

BY SARAH B. SALLY AKINS

I am thrilled to be at this podium addressing yall this morning. I deeply appreciate your support, confidence and trust as I become president of the State Bar of Georgia. I could never have imagined standing before you when I first started practicing law 32 years ago, but I am extremely pleased and grateful to be here now. I pledge to you that I will do my best I will always do my best but what I ask is that you help me by sharing your suggestions and your comments as we move forward this year. It takes more than one person to do this job and I am excited to work with each one of you. I am especially thankful for those of you who serve on committees as members or leaders including the Executive Committee and officers. We will get through this as a team and will have a very good year.

I am also looking forward to working with the fabulous employees of the State Bar, many of whom have become very good friends and have already supported me so much. Like so many other Bar volunteers, I rely on the staff daily and they do a tremendous job. They are diligent, dedicated and dependable; they truly have the best interests of the Bar at heart.

I want to thank the members of our appellate courts for their support and their presence here today. We in Georgia are very fortunate to have a great relationship between all members of the bench and bar. From my travels to other states, I can tell you that is not a given.

Above all, I owe a humungous shout out and thank you to outgoing president, Elizabeth Fite, for keeping a steady hand on the wheel while facing several challenges, not the least of which was the unauthorized access of the Bars network and website during the last couple months of her presidency when she should been winding down. Please join me in giving Elizabeth a big round of applause.

You just heard a little bit about this from Paul Painter Paul, we should have traded notes before we both got up here to speak but last weekend, our colleague and former Board of Governors member, Jeff Ward, died accidentally and tragically; he is already sorely missed. Jeff was very active in...