Digital Commons Network^™

Reflections On Purpose And Professional Identity Formation, Harmony Decosimo

Mercer Law Review

I am very grateful to Professor Daisy Floyd for starting this important conversation about the role of purpose in professional identity formation, and for inviting me to participate in it. As I know my co-panelists agree, this is an important conversation not simply to us as lawyers, but as humans, trying to help each other figure out how to live good, meaningful lives.

I think what might be most useful in my response to Professor Floyd is to turn at least initially from the theoretical to the personal and practical by offering some insight into my own experience with purpose …

What About Us? How Law Schools Can Help Historically Underrepresented Law Students Develop Their Professional Identities, David A. Grenardo

Mercer Law Review

Talking about race, gender, and sexual orientation can be painful, messy, and difficult. This country’s history of discrimination and violence against historically underrepresented, marginalized, excluded individuals—racial and ethnic minorities, women, LGBTQIA+, those living with disabilities, the socioeconomically disadvantaged/lower class—makes these topics fraught with controversy and risk. We can easily offend someone accidentally when we try to address these topics even with the best of intentions. For example, some people may get nervous trying to figure out whether to use the words African-American, Black, BIPOC, person of color, or all of the above when discussing these topics and referring to someone …

Purpose, Practical Wisdom, And The Formation Of Trustworthy Lawyers, Kenneth Townsend

Mercer Law Review

Lawyers have a “special responsibility for the quality of justice” in our nation and are expected to “further the public’s understanding of and confidence in the rule of law and the justice system” since “legal institutions in a constitutional democracy depend on popular participation and support to maintain their authority.” Upholding these and other commitments enables the profession to promote the “public interest,” according to the Preamble to the Model Rules of Professional Conduct.

The Rule Of Law, The Lawyer’S Role As A Public Citizen, And Professional Identity: How Fostering The Development Of Professional Identity Can Help Law Schools Address The Crisis Facing American Democracy, Kendall Kerew

Mercer Law Review

American democracy is in crisis. The January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol must serve as a renewed wake-up call for the legal profession. We can no longer keep our heads down, focused solely or even primarily on serving our clients, without being mindful that what we do every day as lawyers starts and ends with our duty to uphold the rule of law and our system of justice. We must acknowledge that lawyers are the ones who have put democracy at risk. Lawyers are the ones who, in their role as zealous advocates, attempted to overturn the 2020 …

Brave New Agency: The Ftc’S Expanded Powers In The Eleventh Circuit, Griffin D. Green

Mercer Law Review

In Aldous Huxley’s seminal novel “Brave New World,” a futuristic society grapples with the consequences of technological advancements and the ethical dilemmas they pose. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) finds itself in a “Brave New World” of its own, particularly in the Eleventh Circuit. The case FTC v. Simple Health Plans, LLC is a potential watershed moment, redefining the scope and authority of the FTC to impose equitable damages. It serves as a pivotal juncture, not just for the agency, but also for consumer protection laws, monopolistic businesses, and what remedies courts may provide. The decision potentially leads to harsher …

Editor's Note, Kirsten P. Ehlers Scott

Mercer Law Review

No abstract provided.

Going Beyond Fear In Addressing Attorney Mental Health, Eric C. Lang

Mercer Law Review

We know that a career in law is challenging, but our profession has only recently focused on the mental health consequences of those challenges. We first started analyzing mental health issues after a number of attorney suicides caught the public eye. Realizing the problem was much broader than the tragic outcome of suicide, we have spent the last several years focused on the use of statistics to convince the profession of its own dangers. The solution, to date, has been an emphasis on Lawyer Assistance Programs and “wellness” initiatives accompanied by what could be described as scare tactics designed to …

Editor's Note, Jordan Bracewell

Mercer Law Review

No abstract provided.

Mercer Law School’S Legacy Of Service To The Profession, Franklin T. Gaddy, Siena Berrios Gaddy, Thomas Alec Chappell, E. Tate Crymes

Mercer Law Review

Hon. William Augustus Bootle, a 1925 graduate of Mercer Law School and 1924 graduate of Mercer University, penned of his alma mater, “[the] school was conceived in professionalism and dedicated to excellence.” Similarly, “Altruism, not the promotion of selfish aims, has been the inspiration of the [Georgia Bar] Association throughout its entire history.” As noted by Judge Bootle, Mercer Law School’s legacy of service to the profession began long before the establishment of the State Bar of Georgia as we know it today.

Today, Mercer Law School remains dedicated to serving the legal profession. This commitment to serve and devote …

Accountability Courts In Georgia: Judges In The State Of Georgia Explain How They Have Been Empowered By Visionary Political And Judicial Leaders To Tackle Crime, Prison Population, Mental Illness, And Drug Dependency Through Service In Accountability Courts, W. James Sizemore Jr.

Mercer Law Review

Georgia leads the way nationally when it comes to promoting and funding the expansion of accountability courts (commonly called drug courts or mental health courts). The fact that the effort to expand such courts in Georgia was spearheaded by Republican Governor Nathan Deal is surprising to some. This article provides a peek behind the curtain at the massive judicial and political effort to make accountability courts an essential part of criminal justice reform in the State of Georgia.

The article begins with a brief look at the history of accountability courts in Georgia, specifically focusing on several Superior Court Judges …

The Journey Toward Creating Georgia’S First National Park, Brian P. Adams, Stuart E. Walker

Mercer Law Review

For one of us, fittingly enough, it was a class about transportation law that started the journey recounted here. Now, almost two decades later, that journey has brought to the brink of national prominence a cherished and sacred land in the heart of Middle Georgia: the ancestral homeland of the Native American tribe of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation. This paper briefly recounts the efforts of many people to create—and massively expand the footprint of—Georgia’s first national park. The story of the park’s creation and expansion has seen it all—incremental progress, disappointing setbacks, years of inactivity, and historic achievement. Yet, more …

Momentum: Experiential And Public Service Learning At Mercer Law School At The 150th Anniversary And Beyond, Sarah Gerwig

Mercer Law Review

In this, the 150th year since Mercer University opened the doors of its fledgling law school, it is good to reflect. We reflect on who we are, where we came from, where we want to be in 2173, if law school and the law and humankind still exist 150 years from now.

Law school faculty and administration often describe our students’ ethic of public service; 1Ls (as we call them with affection) often arrive eager for opportunities to help others—and help they do. Almost every student-led organization spearheads generous annual volunteer projects, including coordinating backpack donation drives, providing holiday presents …

Burning Questions: Changing Legal Narratives On Cannabis In Indian Country, Sam J. Carter, Robin M. Rotman

Mercer Law Review

In the not-so-distant past, thoughts of Cannabis legalization in the United States were radical. In the present day, the narratives around Cannabis are changing. The term “present day” affixes this Article to early 2023, a snapshot in time. To understand the current legal narratives surrounding Cannabis, and what they might become in the future, it is important to examine the history of Cannabis law and policy in United States. This Article begins by discussing Cannabis regulation in the United States, from the rise of federal regulation to the gradual deregulation by states with tacit federal consent. The Article then examines …

Critical Race Theory (Crt) In The Legal Academy: Derrick Bell’S Seminal Law Review Articles And Critical Race Theorists Scholarship; Crt Opponents Conflicting Views And Potential Consequences Of Critics’ Cancellation Strategy, Cynthia Elaine Tompkins

Mercer Law Review

This Article discusses Critical Race Theory (CRT), a legal study developed by law professors for law school education. Many, if not most, critical race theorists credit Derrick Bell as the law professor who founded and inspired CRT, and even after he died in 2011, his extensive volume of scholarship remains influential, especially among scholars of critical race and law topics. This Article examines Derrick Bell’s earliest law review articles’ critiques of civil rights laws, his Interest Convergence theory, and his assessment that racism is systemic and permanent in the United States of America.

CRT critics broadly categorize African American history, …

Dedication: "Hard Work Betrays None", Katie Powers

Mercer Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Path To Coleman Hill: Mercer Law School's 150-Year Journey, Neil Skene

Mercer Law Review

It was a time for entrepreneurs, and Walter B. Hill quickly proved to be one after he finished his studies at the University of Georgia Law School and joined his father’s law practice in Macon, Georgia. Before his first year in Macon ended, he joined Superior Court Judge Carlton B. Cole and Macon’s leading lawyer, Clifford Anderson, to launch a new law school at Mercer, the second in the state. They were the professors. They started with sixteen students.

“The Times They Are A-Changin’:” A Dedication To The Past, Present, And Future Of Mercer Law Review, Cathy Cox

Mercer Law Review

Longtime readers of Mercer Law Review’s Annual Survey of Georgia Law likely know that Mercer Law School is steeped in history. It is the first American Bar Association-accredited law school in the state of Georgia, having earned that distinction in 1925—more than fifty years after the law school was actually founded in 1873. In the same vein, the Mercer Law Review was founded in 1949 and remains the oldest continuously-published law journal in Georgia.

When I became a student at Mercer Law School, I knew little about Mercer Law’s history or heritage, or for that matter, about lawyers or law …

General Information

Mercer Law Review

No abstract provided.

Creating A Civil Remedy In Georgia For Survivors Of Out-Of-State Childhood Sexual Abuse, Alexandra H. Bradley

Mercer Law Review

Sexual abuse casts long shadows and causes long-lasting effects on its survivors, particularly children. Especially tragic, most abused children are abused by an adult whom that child knows and trusts. This abuse by anyone, especially by a child’s parents or close family friend, often causes lifelong emotional damage. Survivors generally do not recognize the extent of their abuse until many years later.

This late onset or delayed discovery has made it difficult for courts to provide redress. Although technically children could sue their abuser when the abuse occurs, children generally do not know they have a cause of action, nor …

General Information

Mercer Law Review

No abstract provided.

Editor's Note, Mary Elizabeth Loftus

Mercer Law Review

No abstract provided.

General Information

Mercer Law Review

No abstract provided.

Trumped: Intentional Voter Suppression In The Wake Of The 2020 Election, Wesley N. Watts

Mercer Law Review

There was nothing normal about the year 2020. For just the third time in history, an American president was impeached, world icons John Lewis and Kobe Bryant passed away, the country of Australia was devastated by brushfires that burned some forty-six million acres of land, and The United States faced a racial reckoning the likes of which had been unseen since the Civil Rights era. All of this took place on the heels of a global pandemic that has killed more than 4.3 million people to date and has infected 10% of the global population. These events of the year …

Commercial Transportation, Madeline E. Mcneeley, Sarah L. Adle, Joshua H. Dorminy, Elizabeth M. Brooks, Stephen G. Lowry

Mercer Law Review

Commercial transportation involves all the significant forms of passenger and freight transportation across the United States. This Article surveys significant judicial, regulatory, and legislative developments in commercial-transportation law affecting the federal judicial circuit including Georgia, Alabama, and Florida during the period from January 1, 2020, through December 31, 2020. The first three areas discussed here are subject to heavy federal regulation due to their far-reaching effects on interstate commerce: trucking and other commercial motor vehicles, aviation, and railroads. The other two areas discussed in this Article—autonomous-vehicle technology and shareable electric bicycles and scooters—are regulated primarily at the state and local …

Editor's Note, Jameson M. Fisher

Mercer Law Review

No abstract provided.

Civil Unrest And The Role Of The Attorney General: A Comparison Of Ramsey Clark To William Barr, Lonnie T. Brown Jr.

Mercer Law Review

This article compares and contrasts the manner in which former Attorneys General Ramsey Clark and William Barr dealt with racially-motivated civil unrest. Clark faced this challenge multiple times during the tumultuous late 1960s. Barr, on the other hand, dealt with such unrest in 1992 and again in 2020 following the police-killing of George Floyd. The respective strategies taken by these two men reveal much about their personal values and how those may have, rightly or wrongly, shaped their perspectives on the attorney general’s role. More importantly, Clark’s and Barr’s conflicting approaches in carrying out their responsibilities in addressing social discord …

Partisanship And The Attorney General Of The United States: Timely Lessons From Edward Levi And Griffin Bell About Repairing A Politicized Department Of Justice, Patrick E. Longan, James P. Fleissner

Mercer Law Review

The proper role of the Attorney General of the United States has been much in the news in recent years. William Barr received scathing criticism for how he handled the Mueller Report regarding Russian interference in the 2016 election; the sentencing of President Trump’s associate, Roger Stone; the charges against President Trump’s first national security adviser, Michael Flynn; and numerous other matters.

Mr. Barr’s critics accused him of perverting his office from one that served the rule of law in a nonpartisan fashion into one that catered to President Trump’s personal and political desires. Many of these critiques condemned Barr’s …

Serving A Lawless President, William R. Casto

Mercer Law Review

What does an Attorney General do when confronted with a lawless President? At first glance, the answer is easy, but on second thought, a realistic answer is complicated. The answer is complicated because the phrase “lawless president” is not necessarily pejorative. In fact, western leaders have always exercised a prerogative power to throw the law overboard when they see fit. Some of our greatest Presidents have followed this path. Thomas Jefferson did, as did Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt.

So what does the President’s Attorney General do? The law and principles of professional responsibility offer a clear answer to the …

Chester Arthur’S Ghost: A Cautionary Tale Of Campaign Finance Reform, Anthony J. Gaughan

Mercer Law Review

Chester Arthur may not be the first name that comes to mind when one thinks of major figures in the rise of campaign finance law. But despite his obscurity, he deserves to be ranked among the leading reformers in American history. As President, he signed into law a reform that cleared the way for the modern system of campaign finance to take root.

This Article puts the current debate over money in politics in historical context by examining the first major campaign finance reform in American history. The 1883 Pendleton Act is remembered today for establishing a professional, nonpartisan civil …

Introduction To Symposium, Gary J. Simson

Mercer Law Review

No abstract provided.