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
Emch as in Mensch
Al Emch pilots the Jackson Kelly law firm like he did C-130sHalf a planet and several decades removed from his old one-room country schoolhouse, Al Emch flew into the worst part of a storm. “Our navigator said it was OK, so we flew inadvertently into the clouds—one of those instances where radar can be completely wrong,” says Emch, who was flying C-130s for the West Virginia Air National Guard at the time, but now pilots Jackson Kelly, headquartered in Charleston. “So a beautiful, bright sunny day became pitch black and a bolt of lightning …
JAG
A siren blast alerted everyone at Camp Doha, north of Kuwait City, to an incoming missile, but the piercing, urgent sound didn’t disturb Scott Holcomb, one of the chief advisers to the war planners of Operation Iraqi Freedom. “I might have been nervous if I’d just gotten there, but I’d been through this drill many times before,” says Holcomb. “I never let it bother me.” Except this time someone at the computer monitor yelled, “Holy shit, this one’s coming right at us!” …
The Greatest Lawyer in the World
Emmet Bondurant isn't the lawyer other lawyers want to hire; he's the lawyer other lawyers want to beEmmet Bondurant still has sweaters given to him by a condemned man. Gary X. Nelson learned how to crochet during his 11 years on death row, where 15 fellow inmates were taken from their cells and electrocuted. Sometimes he smelled burnt flesh. Bondurant keeps the sweaters, sleeves long enough to accommodate Yao Ming, because occasionally the air conditioning is too high or the heat is too low in the offices of Bondurant, Mixson & Elmore (BME), a celebrated Atlanta litigation …
There She Is … A Plaintiff’s Lawyer
A former Miss North Carolina gets down to casesJanet Ward Black learned long ago that it takes more than a pretty face to sway a jury — unless, of course, that jury consists of Bert Parks and Bob Barker. Black, a plaintiff ’s lawyer and name partner in the Greensboro firm of Donaldson & Black, was Miss North Carolina in 1980 and a Miss America contestant in 1981. “Hey, we’ve all gotta be something,” Black quips. It’s because of the grace, charm and talent she put on display 25 years ago that she can represent victims …
Mr. Reed Goes to Washington?
Thanks to his parents’ sacrifices, Kasim Reed has opportunities in both law and politicsIt was emotional political theater straight out of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. Except unlike the anger and frustration of Jefferson Smith, the idealistic pol played by Jimmy Stewart, State Senator M. Kasim Reed’s emotional speech and tears were not scripted. Neither was the subsequent walkout by Reed and fellow Democrats when a contentious voting bill passed a Republican-dominated Senate on a Friday night last March. Ostensibly designed to prevent voter fraud, the bill, signed into law in …
Find top lawyers with confidence
The Super Lawyers patented selection process is peer influenced and research driven, selecting the top 5% of attorneys to the Super Lawyers lists each year. We know lawyers and make it easy to connect with them.
Find a lawyer near you