Jeffrey O. Bramlett 46th State Bar President - Arnall Golden Gregory ...

Sweatt, an African-American, onaccount of his race. Sweatt broughta lawsuit seeking admission andultimately prevailed (Sweatt v.Painter, 339 U.S. 629, 1950), but thelawsuit dragged on for four years.The lack of interim relief wasdelaying Sweatt’s education andlegal career. Williams and a handfulof his faculty colleagues volunteeredto teach Sweatt at night tomitigate the delay and to accelerateSweatt’s opportunity to earn a UTlaw degree and begin law practice.Williams and his faculty colleaguesendured death threats for doing so.Thirty years on, the U.S. Senateconfirmed President Carter’sappointment of Jerre Williams tothe U.S. Court of Appeals for the5th Circuit, just as Bramlett wasgraduating law school. Williamsoffered Bramlett a position as oneof his first law clerks. Bramlettaccepted eagerly.“Judge Williams was a fine legalscholar whose integrity and quietcourage move me, even today,”Bramlett recalled. “I learned somevaluable lessons about appellateadvocacy and how courts decidecases. And because most of ouroral argument sittings were in NewOrleans, I acquired an abiding lovefor New Orleans cooking and NewOrleans jazz. I believe being JerreWilliams law clerk was the best jobI’ll ever have.”The son of an electrical engineerdescended from Bramletts living inChattooga County since at least the1850s, and an immigrant motherfrom Scotland, Bramlett was bornin Detroit and lived in seven differentstates before graduating fromhigh school in Houston.When Nancy and Jeff weredeciding on a place to settle afterhis clerkship, they were bothattracted to Atlanta. “Atlantawas—and is—a beautiful place tolive and a wonderful place to raisea family,” he says.He got in on the ground floor ofan upstart law firm formed in 1977named Trotter, Bondurant, Miller& Hishon. “I was lucky to get thejob. Two of the five lawyers in myentering class were U. S. SupremeCourt clerks. I was the runt of thelitter.” Bramlett has been with thefirm for his entire career in privatepractice.In the summer of 1985, severalname partners and a number ofassociates departed what had beena full-service operation for largerfirms. Those who did trial andappellate work reconfigured as alitigation boutique and changedthe firm name to Bondurant,Mixson & Elmore. “We haveattracted an outstanding group ofpeople who have earned a collectivereputation for integrity andexcellence. I am immensely proudto be a part of this firm.”Bramlett’s clients have rangedfrom officers and directors of majorinternational corporations toprison inmates and homeless persons.He aims to maintain a healthybalance between representingplaintiffs and defendants in businessdisputes “because it gives mebetter perspective in analyzinghow problems can be solved andhow cases should be tried.”Although much of his work overthe past 10 years has been resolvingclass actions and complex businessdisputes, “I’m a trial lawyer atheart. Trials are rarely the bestsolution for clients embroiled in abusiness dispute, but there is nothingmore fun for a trial lawyer thantrying a case to a jury. The fascinatinghuman interaction with clients,witnesses, jurors and judges in thePhoto by Jennifer R. Mason2008-09 State Bar President Jeffrey O. Bramlett and family at the Presidential Inaugural Gala.(Left to right) Tom and Cynthia Czabala, Jeff andNancy Bramlett, Melissa Price and Donal Nichols, Sarah Grant and Robert Bramlett.August 2008 45