Nahmias to join Georgia Supreme Court 

Contact: Louise Plonowski

Gold Concepts Public Relations for BBA

Office: (404) 869-7960 | Email: lplonowski@goldconceptspr.com

 

       Justice David E. Nahmias To Speak at BBA Breakfast on February 11

 

ATLANTA (February 5 , 2010) Justice David E. Nahmias, who was appointed by Governor Sonny Perdue in August 2009 to the Supreme Court of Georgia (www.gasupreme.us),  will be the keynote speaker at the weekly breakfast meeting and networking event of the Buckhead Business Association (BBA) on Thursday, February 11, 2010.  

 

“We are honored to welcome Justice Nahmias,” says Heather Wright, president of the BBA and owner of The Wright Firm, LLC, a law firm specializing in corporate law and commercial litigation. “This is the first time that he will address our members since his appointment. I know that he will provide a unique perspective on Georgia’s judicial system based on his experiences in this and his various previous positions in the legal arena.”  Before joining the Supreme Court of Georgia, Justice Nahmias served as the United States Attorney in Atlanta for five years.

Atlanta-born Justice Nahmias attended Briarcliff High School and was the state’s STAR student in 1982 before graduating from Duke in 1986 and Harvard Law School in 1991, where he was an editor of the Harvard Law Review (along with President Barack Obama). Justice Nahmias then clerked for Judge Laurence H. Silberman of the U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Columbia and for Justice Antonin Scalia of the Supreme Court of the United States.

After practicing with the law firm of Hogan & Hartson in Washington, D.C., in January 1995, Justice Nahmias joined the U.S. Attorney's Office in Atlanta as a federal prosecutor. He worked extensively on the investigation of the Centennial Olympic Park and subsequent bombings that resulted in the indictment of Eric Robert Rudolph. He later worked in the Fraud and Public Corruption Section, where he successfully prosecuted a Georgia state senator on corruption charges and served as co-lead prosecutor on a major investigation of public corruption in the City of Atlanta and Fulton County governments.

Shortly after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, Justice Nahmias returned to Washington and became one of the U.S. Justice Department’s leading terrorism prosecutors. As Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division, he coordinated the investigation and prosecution of terrorist activity around the United States and in numerous foreign countries. He also assisted in counter-terrorism policymaking and served as a liaison to other federal agencies on terrorism-related issues. On August 1, 2003, Justice Nahmias was appointed Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division, responsible for supervision of the Counterterrorism Section; the Fraud Section, which handled policy and litigation matters including corporate, securities, and health care fraud cases and the Enron Task Force; the Appellate Section; and the Capital Case Unit.

 

Justice Nahmias has received numerous local, state, and national awards and honors for his public service, including commendations from FBI Directors Louis Freeh (1999) and Robert Mueller (2001); the Justice Department’s national award for Superior Performance by an Assistant U.S. Attorney (2002); commendation by the Justice Department Criminal Division for strong leadership and outstanding service (2004); and the Common Cause of Georgia “Democracy Award” for work on public corruption cases (2007).

 

The weekly BBA breakfast meetings, which are held at the City Club of Buckhead, take place every Thursday from 7:30 – 9:00 a.m. The City Club of Buckhead is located at 3343 Peachtree Road, Suite 1850. Tickets are $10 for BBA members and $20 for visitors and guests. For more information, please check the BBA website at www.buckheadbusiness.org.

By TY TAGAMI

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

6:25 p.m. Thursday, August 13, 2009

The Georgia Supreme Court will get a new justice with a conservative pedigree.

Gov. Sonny Perdue on Thursday announced his selection of David E. Nahmias to succeed former Justice Leah Ward Sears.

Perdue said he winnowed Nahmias from a list of nine nominees by applying two key criteria: he wanted someone with “intellectual curiosity” who also “exuded integrity.”

“I think he’s someone we can trust to guard this nation’s bedrock principles,” Perdue said.

Sears stepped down in June, after her name surfaced as a possible nominee by President Barack Obama to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Nahmias’ political credentials probably didn’t hurt his chances with Georgia’s Republican governor. Nahmias has served as the U.S. Attorney in Atlanta since President George W. Bush appointed him in 2004. Before that, he clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.

One prominent Republican predicted Nahmias’ conservative bent and prosecutorial background will alter the balance of the state’s high court.

“On criminal issues, our supreme court is known to be a little bit on the liberal side,” said state Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine, a GOP candidate for governor. “He is a conservative; he is a prosecutor. And I think that might balance some of the cases.”

But state Attorney General Thurbert Baker, a Democrat running for governor, said it’s difficult to predict how judges will react until they are asked to rule on specific cases.

“He is a smart guy who understands the law,” Baker said. “I think Dave’s going to make a good addition to the Georgia Supreme Court.”

As U.S. Attorney, Nahmias supervised the corruption prosecution of former Atlanta Mayor Bill Campbell. Earlier in his career as a lower-ranking member of the office, he was involved in high-profile local cases, including the investigations of Centennial Olympic Park bomber Eric Rudolph and of the murder of DeKalb County Sheriff-elect Derwin Brown. He also helped coordinate the U.S. Justice Department’s involvement in Bush’s war on terror.

During a brief introduction at the governor’s office, Nahmias said a judge’s role is to uphold the law as established by the democratic process. He said proper function of the supreme court was vital to safety and prosperity. He noted that his parents emigrated from Egypt and Germany after World War II, and said his appointment was “proof once again of the remarkable opportunities that this state and country provide.”

Perdue’s office released a stack of letters endorsing Nahmias. One, by former U.S. Attorney Kent Alexander, now the general counsel for Emory University, says Nahmias was such an astute student of the law that his name became a verb in the officers of Kilpatrick Stockton, where he was a summer associate two decades ago. It was a sign of excellent legal work if someone were to “ ‘Nahmias’ that brief,” wrote Alexander, who later hired Nahmias as an assistant U.S. Attorney in Atlanta.

Nahmias attended Harvard law school with Barack Obama, and Alexander noted that Nahmias recently surprised him by confiding that he had voted for the Democrat once. Nahmias then smiled and said it was when Obama ran to become editor-in-chief on the Harvard Law Review.

Alexander also hired Nahmias’ wife, Catherine M. O’Neil, to the U.S. Attorney’s office. She later caught Perdue’s attention. In 2006, the governor appointed her to Georgia’s Criminal Justice Coordinating Council, which makes policy for the justice system and administers some grants.

The Nahmiases have two sons. David Nahmias said they “remind me every day of the importance of keeping our state safe and prosperous.”

Nahmias will join a seven-member court headed by Justice Carol Hunstein, who was sworn in as chief justice last month.

Nahmias will serve out the Sears’ unexpired term and will have to run for election next year.

It’s also unclear whom Obama will select to replace Nahmias as U.S. Attorney.

Oxendine speculated that the president might have gotten around to removing Nahmias.

“He could have easily been on the list to be replaced,” Oxendine said. “The U.S. Attorney serves at the president’s pleasure. It might have happened anyway. This way we at least have him in the judiciary.”