About Kenna Simmons
Kenna Simmons is an award-winning writer and editor whose work has appeared in Atlanta magazine and the Atlanta Business Chronicle, and on WebMD.com, Cancer.org and the Mother Nature Network. A graduate of the University of Alabama, she lives in Atlanta and writes regularly about economic development and business for Georgia Trend magazine.
Articles written by Kenna Simmons
‘You’re Just Here to Find a Husband’
An oral history of the first group of female attorneys in North Carolina in the 1970sSome were supported by their family; others had to secretly apply to law school. Some were inspired by trailblazers like Susie Sharp, the first female chief justice of a state supreme court. Some only realized they wanted to practice law after they got into law school. Their stories are as different as their lives, but all share a common theme: the status as one of the first female attorneys—in the class, in the firm, in the room. “When I first started, I would go to meetings and I would be …
The Wave
An oral history of the first group of female attorneys in Georgia in the 1970sThey weren’t the first; they know that. Before she went to law school, Virginia Taylor, an intellectual property lawyer with Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton, recalls working for a woman who passed the Georgia Bar in 1925. “There were a lot of old lady lawyers in Atlanta,” Taylor says. “But we were part of this wave.” Most say what they faced wasn’t outright discrimination. When asked, they’ll acknowledge they were one of few women at law school, the first female partner at …
The Master Storyteller
‘Talk to no one except Edward T.M. Garland!’Edward T.M. Garland, a sixth-generation lawyer, and the son of attorney Reuben A. Garland—famous for his flamboyant style and willingness to take on controversial cases—has many stories to tell. Here’s one of them. “I tried a robbery case once in DeKalb Superior Court,” Garland recalls. “A man who was accused of robbing the Piggly Wiggly. It was a big case for me—I had been practicing law for about eight months. Right in the middle of the key examination of the most important …
Family Matters
When breaking up is hard to do, Randy Kessler is the man to seeFamily law attorney Randy Kessler has represented celebrities, such as former Denver Broncos running back Travis Henry, New York Jets wide receiver Braylon Edwards and NeNe Leakes of The Real Housewives of Atlanta. He’s represented the spouses of celebrities, such as the wife of R&B singer Usher. He’s gone after former heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield, former NBA player Jason Caffey and rapper T.I. for child support. Those cases put Kessler in the news. But the vast majority of …
Lawyer in the Mist
Richard Horder represents developers, protects gorillas and searches for common groundDescribing the big and small of his practice, Richard (Rick) Horder, head of the environmental, land use and natural resources team at Kilpatrick Stockton’s Atlanta office, says, “I practice gorilla law and mouse law.” Here’s the mouse law. Horder has represented a number of developers along the Gulf Coast, who, under the Endangered Species Act, created habitat conservation plans for endangered beach mice in order to build golf courses and condos. It’s the kind of thing …
The Man Who Wouldn’t Wait
Why William B. Hill Jr. talks to JuanitaWilliam B. Hill Jr. is a man in a hurry. He makes sure appointments start on time. He speaks fast. "When I am in trial, I'm like a kid on Christmas morning," he says. "I'm up at 4:30. It's like going downstairs to see what's under the tree. I can't wait to get to the courthouse." Time, says the 56-year-old partner at Ashe, Rafuse & Hill, "has never been my friend. It has always been my enemy. I don't know whether that's a strength or weakness." Hill was born at Grady Hospital and grew up in …
The Squire of Muscogee County
James Butler is as prepared as Winston Churchill and as down-to-earth as Atticus FinchThe first time I ever stood in front of a jury," James Butler says, "I knew I had died and gone to heaven."In the 30 years since that celestial moment, Butler has won four verdicts worth over $100 million each, while his firm, Butler Wooten & Fryhofer, has notched more than $1 billion in its top 10 wins.Butler likes to joke about the failure of Troutman Sanders, one of Atlanta's white-shoe firms, to offer him a job after he clerked there while in law school at the University of Georgia. The …
Georgia's Favorite Nephew
Lawton Jordan grew up at Camp David. So why is he disillusioned with politics?When Lawton Jordan was 5 years old, he saw the street outside his childhood home in Augusta lined with police cars. The mere fact that they were there, the pageantry of it all, was cooler to him than why they were there: to provide an escort for former governor Jimmy Carter, who was stopping over at the Jordan house during his 1976 presidential campaign. Jordan’s uncle, Hamilton Jordan, a key adviser to Carter in the campaign and his chief of staff from 1979 to 1980, arranged the …
The Bobby Lee Cook Show
Meet the seersuckersuit-wearing, hot-dog-eating, huge-fee-charging Summerville lawyer who may have inspired MatlockHis hair is shorter, and the trademark seersucker jackets are stored for the winter, replaced by a natty three-piece brown suit; but as he nears 80, Bobby Lee Cook—dean of Georgia criminal defense attorneys, worldrenowned for his pounding crossexaminations, said to be the inspiration for TV’s Matlock—hasn’t lost a step. He can still quote the reference of a decision in one of his cases. “I believe it’s three-ninety-seven Fed. Supp. ten twentyfive,” he says, getting …
A Cause to Fight For
Gayle Abramson Csehy talks about that case, and the case for which she'd rather be rememberedGayle Abramson Csehy doesn’t volunteer much information about March 11, 2005. When asked, she starts to answer and then says, “Can I just take you through a chronology?” and recaps the original rape trial of Brian Nichols, which was tried a month earlier. It involved a compelling witness — “very successful, educated, a private and devout person,” Abramson Csehy says — as well as DNA evidence. But the jury was deadlocked, resulting in a mistrial, and Judge Rowland Barnes ordered a …
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