About Jerry Grillo
Jerry Grillo is an award-winning journalist who has written for Newsday, ESPN, Golf Magazine and Atlanta magazine, among others. For 14 years, he was senior and executive editor at Georgia Trend, where he helped transform the magazine into a leading business resource. His book, The Music and Mythocracy of Col. Bruce Hampton: A Basically True Biography, was published in April 2021 by the University of Georgia Press. A biography of Baseball Hall-of-Famer Johnny Mize is slated for publication by University of Nebraska Press in 2024.
Articles written by Jerry Grillo
Golden Opportunities
Brian H. Ratcliff takes on a new firm and the Arkansas Bar presidencyIt’s the middle of July and Brian H. Ratcliff is one month into his term as president of the Arkansas Bar Association. “Or another way to look at it is I’m one-twelfth done,” he says. Ratcliff, 52, is actually very glad to have the gig. It’s the fulfillment of a promise he made to a now-departed friend—the same friend whose last advice helped guide Ratcliff through the biggest transition of his professional career: a move to PPGMR Law. “It’s a good story, a long time in the …
Two Bobs and a King
How Brinson Askew Berry became the biggest firm in RomeThey’d talk about it over drinks, Bob Brinson and King Askew, how they’d be better off on their own, away from the big firm—the kind of cavalier bravado you’d expect from young men at a bar. “We talked about it for three years, off and on,” Brinson says. “You talked about it,” Askew corrects. Brinson was a young partner and Askew a senior associate at Rogers Magruder Hoyt, one of the largest firms in Rome, Ga., at the time. One night after a Rome Bar Association meeting, they …
The Greg Maddux of Georgia Law
Tom Carlock isn’t intimidating; he just beats youColleagues agree on the following: that Thomas Carlock, a civil defense trial lawyer, has an easygoing style that belies a competitive nature; that he remains good-natured even as he exploits his opponents’ weaknesses. They just disagree on the proper metaphor to describe him. Joey Loudermilk, executive vice president and general counsel of Aflac, the Columbus-based insurance giant that has used Carlock’s services for 20 years, goes the baseball route. “Basically, Tom is Greg Maddux,” …
Feet on the Ground
Teri Plummer McClure ensures that UPS runs smoothlyTeri Plummer McClure’s love for the law might be in her DNA. “My grandfather was a lawyer, but he didn’t go to law school. He sat for the bar the old-fashioned way [reading for the bar, apprenticing under an attorney and then taking the bar exam] and was a great advocate for the people in his community,” says McClure, general counsel, corporate secretary and senior vice president of legal, compliance, audit and public affairs for UPS Inc., the Fortune 500 package delivery company based …
The Possible Dream
Charles Kuck, lover of both Don Quixote and Atlas Shrugged, has five ways to reform immigration lawThe ink on Charles Kuck’s unframed law school diploma was barely dry when he realized that helping people was much more rewarding than suing people. It was 1989, the summer following his graduation from law school at Arizona State University, and he was employed at the Phoenix office of Mariscal, Weeks, McIntyre & Friedlander. He wanted to be a litigator but knew most first- and second-year lawyers rarely see the inside of a courtroom, and he hadn’t even passed the bar yet. Then a …
Supreme Decision
Leah Ward Sears is off the bench and in the gameLeah Ward Sears made history in judge’s robes, but today she’s wearing high-heeled boots and a pencil skirt. “Women lawyers are often afraid to admit they like feminine things because, you know, that’s not part of the tough image,” says Sears, the first African-American woman chief justice of a state Supreme Court and now partner at the Atlanta office of Schiff Hardin, where she leads the national appellate team. “But I like high tea at the Ritz, I like to go shopping and I do …
The New King of Torts
Thomas Malone learned from losing; now he rarely doesWhen Tommy Malone was a 16-year-old pool hustler and rodeo cowboy in Albany, Ga., with dreams of becoming an auctioneer, or possibly a blacksmith, he used to plunk down $50 in pool-hall winnings in the church collection plate every Sunday to cover his action for the following week. “I really believed the Lord would reward me if I gave Him something,” Malone says. “And generally He did.” His father, Rosser Malone, an attorney who eventually became a state court judge, didn’t encourage …
Breaking Away
Ryan Pumpian on teamwork and the joys of finishing 10thIn June 1993 the people of Philadelphia screamed and cheered for a relatively unknown 21-year-old rider named Lance Armstrong, who pulled out a comb and ran it through his hair while cruising to the finish line of the USPRO National Championship. Ryan Pumpian, who was visiting his mother at the time and became part of the crowd, got hooked. "It was like this huge party," he says, "tens of thousands of people lining the streets, a thrilling race. I'd always been a soccer player, but I was …
The Two Lives of Bernard Taylor
The successful trial lawyer was once an undercover narcotics cop in DetroitThe scene unfolds at sudden-death speed. Bernard Taylor, an undercover cop in 1970s Detroit, enters a darkened house with a shotgun to make a bust. From the front room a rifle is fired, but—as will be discovered later—gunpowder pulverizes the bullet in the chamber and the old .22 simply spits tiny bits of lead and powder off the bill of Taylor’s cap and into his eye. Taylor, hardly blinking, levels his shotgun. At that moment, he hears children’s voices coming from the gloom behind the …
The Deciders
Phaedra Parks and others talk about being young and hanging a shingleWhen Phaedra Parks describes her transition from corporate attorney to independent practitioner, she sounds a bit like one of her celebrity clients. "If I was at a big law firm, I would have to stifle the essence of who Phaedra is," says the 34-year-old Atlanta entertainment lawyer whose client list includes Jermaine Dupri, Jazze Pha, Mannie Fresh and, most notably, Bobby Brown. "Being my own boss means that I'm the decision maker, that I ..." She hesitates, then laughs, as if embarrassed by …
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