Georgia Supreme Court Presiding Justice P. Harris Hines, Charleston Mayor Joseph P. Riley, Jr. and Rev. Dr. Norvel Goff, Sr. of Charleston’s Emanuel A.M.E. Church to Be Honored at Atlanta St. Thomas More Society’s Traditional Red Mass and Awards Luncheon Oct. 8, 2015
The 2014 Red Mass was held on Thursday, October 9th at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Following the Red Mass, the Society will hold its annual awards luncheon at the Capital City Club.The Society is honored to present the St. Thomas More Award to:
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H. LANE DENNARD, ESQUIRE, KING & SPALDING, LLP (RETIRED)
& PATRICK C. DICARLO, ESQUIRE, ALSTON & BIRD, LLP
The 2013 recipient of the Archbishop Donoghue Service Award is Brent Herrin. Brent has served as the coordinator for the Red Mass for the past two years.
Brent received his Bachelor of Business Administration in Banking and Finance from the University of Georgia. He obtained his JD from Samford University’s Cumberland School of Law and his Master of Laws in Taxation from the University of Alabama.
Brent previously served as Counsel to United States Senator Jeff Sessions and as Counsel to the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary Subcommittee on Administrative Oversight and the Courts in Washington, D.C.
He is a partner with the firm of Cohen Pollock Merlin & Small where he divides his practice between litigation and transactional matters. His litigation practice is concentrated in bankruptcy and creditors’ rights matters, including advising clients regarding out of court workouts and representing clients before state and federal courts. He concentrates his transactional practice in the areas of taxation, estate planning, deferred and executive compensation, and business planning, including advising clients on the tax implications of merger and acquisition transactions.
The St. Thomas More Society Board of Directors named Richard P. Kessler as the Archbishop John Donoghue award winner for 2012 because of the example he has shown to us in the service that he has devoted to his Church, his profession, as President of the St. Vincent DePaul Society Council for Atlanta and North Georgia, and to the St. Thomas More Society.
Dick was born in 1945 in Latrobe Pennsylvania. He graduated with an A.B. from Fairfield University in 1968 and went on to Emory Law School where he was on the Editorial Board of the Emory School of Law Public Law Journal form 1970 to 1971. After law school he clerked from 1971 to 1973 for Northern District of Georgia Judge Charles Moye, Jr. He is a partner in the law firm of Macey, Wilensky, Kessler & Henning.
Dick has served as Chair of the Business Law Section and UCC Committee of the Georgia Bar Association, and as Business Law Section Committee on Credit Unions of the American Bar Association. He is an author of numerous scholarly legal articles and a frequent lecturer on legal issues in Bankruptcy, Credit Union and Business Law.
In January, 1998 Dick wrote an article that was published in the American Bar Association Journal, “Out of Loss – A Lesson for Living” in which he described lessons that he had learned in his relationship and experiences with his late wife, Kathy Kessler. He wrote:
Kathy proved that you could practice law successfully at a high level, take time for the things that are important in life, and earn the respect of others. She was not a super human being. She was just a person who lived in the present, established her priorities, and let the future take care of itself. She was true to the oath that she took the day she was admitted to the Bar.
If we could all do this we would not have to spend millions of dollars of our bar dues to try to improve the image of lawyers . . . I urge you to go home and hug your spouse, if you are married, and your kids, call your parents, brothers, sisters, or close friends, and resolve any conflicts that you may have with them. Be present to those we love.
Every day Dick practices what he what he wrote in that article. He is a man who always is present to those whom he loves and with whom he works. He demonstrates these qualities as a friend and mentor to fellow lawyers, and as a leader serving as President of the St. Vincent dePaul Society of Atlanta and North Georgia since 2008. Dick oversees the Society’s work to be Christ’s presence in the lives of the poor, to those experiencing personal and family crises and to others in North Georgia. He is a constant presence in our St. Thomas More Society’s work serving Catholic lawyers in North Georgia.