In a joint letter, 16 former Supreme Court chief justices, past presidents of the state bar, and former directors of the state’s judicial watchdog last week scolded judicial candidates who make public statements about cases and issues they might encounter on the bench.
At stake, the letter said, was public confidence in the courts. A “partisan judiciary,” the who’s who of the state’s legal community warned darkly, would mean the “end of the rule of law in Georgia.”
What they did not mention in their missive, however, are their own campaign contributions to the incumbent Supreme Court justice in a hotly contested race with a former U.S. congressman who has made abortion the centerpiece of his campaign.
Nine of the letter’s 16 signers — including former Supreme Court justices Keith Blackwell, Harold Melton, David Nahmias, and Leah Ward Sears — have made individual contributions as of April 30 totaling $12,050 to the campaign committee of Supreme Court candidate Andrew Pinson, according to finance reports filed to the state campaign commission.
In addition, the august, mostly Atlanta-based law firms where the nine now work since leaving their state jobs for the private sector have donated an additional $114,361, either as corporate donations or donations by firm lawyers or staff, according to the filings.
Pinson, 37, is running for a full, six-year term on the nine-member court, following his appointment to the bench by Gov. Brian Kemp in 2022. His challenger is John Barrow, 68, a Democrat and former five-term congressman from eastern and southeastern Georgia.
Professional, if not ethical, lapse
The contributions by the letter’s signers are, of course, legal. But their failure to disclose their individual donations while bemoaning the prospect of the courts becoming “just another political institution” is a professional — if not arguably ethical — lapse, some experts say.
The 355-word letter was posted on Pinson’s campaign website on May 6, apparently with the approval of the signatories. And while it mentions neither Pinson nor Barrow by name, it is clearly an endorsement of Pinson and a denunciation of Barrow, who has made abortion rights the centerpiece of his campaign.
Also, the letter is prefaced with an introduction by Pinson’s campaign that describes the dangerous injection of partisan politics into Georgia’s nonpartisan judicial races and portrays the choice facing voters on May 21 as one between a “principled jurist” and a “partisan activist. It directly quotes Pinson accusing Barrow of running a “hyper-partisan campaign.”
Given the context, should the letter writers have divulged their financial contributions to Pinson’s campaign?
“Absolutely,” said Howard “Woody” Hunter, dean for 12 years at Emory University’s law school who now resides on St. Simons.
“Writing a letter criticizing a candidate without disclosing that you are a financial backer of his opponent may not be technically a violation of ethical rules applicable to lawyers, but it certainly violates the concept of professionalism.” (Editor note: Hunter is a donor to The Current.)
It is not publicly known who initiated the letter-signing effort or oversaw the drafting of the text.
Heath Garrett, a spokesman for Pinson and longtime Georgia political operative who is a partner in the Washington-based political consulting firm Strategic Partners & Media, did not return phone calls and emails seeking comment.
Former justices Sears and Blackwell did not reply to requests for comment.
Nor did Patrick O’Connor, a past president of the state bar association who is now a partner at the Savannah law firm of Oliver Maner. He has made four separate contributions to Pinson’s campaign totaling $1,400.
“I’m not going to comment,” said Melton, who served as chief justice of the Supreme Court from 2018 until 2021, when contacted by phone and asked if he thought that it would have been proper to disclose his contributions to Pinson’s campaign, especially in a statement condemning the politicization of judicial races.
Let it rain
By themselves, the $12,050 in individual contributions by letter’s signers is modest compared to the more than $1.33 million that Pinson’s campaign committee, Georgians for Justice Pinson, has raised as of April 30. Barrow has raised nearly $806,000.
But it is more than the sum of their individual contributions that matters. In the legal community, the signatories of the May 6 letter are known as “rainmakers” — venerable, even superstar, lawyers whose past experience in the public sector generates mountains of profit for their private law firms.
The financial reports filed to the state’s campaign commission suggest that “rainmaker” status, applied to campaign fundraising, could make a difference in what may become the most expensive Supreme Court race in the state’s history.
Lawyers for the high-powered law firms where former Supreme Court justices Blackwell, Melton, Nahmias, and Sears now work in Atlanta, either as partners or senior counsels, have contributed $77,883 to Pinson’s campaign. Three of them — Nahmias, Melton and Sears — have served as chief justice.
Four of the 10 past presidents of the State Bar of Georgia who signed the letter have donated to Pinson’s campaign. The law firms where they now work contributed $14,351 to his campaign, either as individual or corporate donations.
Neither Charles Boring nor Robert Ingram, two former directors of the Judicial Qualifications Commission who signed the letter, have made individual donations to Pinson’s campaign committee. (Ingram is also listed as an ex-president of the state bar association.)
But the Atlanta-based Robbins Firm, where Boring is now a partner, has donated $23,127 in individual or corporate contributions to Pinson’s campaign, while the Marietta firm where Ingram is a name partner, Moore Ingram Johnson & Steele, has donated $2,500.
Deep ties
Pinson’s own connections in Georgia’s legal community have also proved a lucrative source of cash for his campaign.
Pinson has longtime ties to the firm Jones Day, working there first as an intern, then in two stints as an associate, most recently from 2014 until 2017.
Nahmias, a former chief justice of the Georgia Supreme Court, is now a partner at Jones Day and co-signed the May 6 letter. In addition to the $2,000 contributed by Nahmias to Pinson’s campaign, the firm’s lawyers have contributed a total of $41,037 in individual donations to the campaign.
The largest donation from a Jones Day lawyer — $7,900 — came from Victoria Cuneo Powell, who served in the Georgia Solicitor General’s Office alongside Pinson. Her focus at Jones Day is “appellate and complex trial litigation,” according to her profile page on Jones Day’s website.
In January, Pinson was the featured speaker at a fundraising luncheon for Brian Kemp’s political action committee, Georgians First, that was attended by the governor, who appointed Pinson to the Supreme Court in 2022, and First Lady Marty Kemp.
The lawyers for the firm that hosted the fundraiser, Troutman Pepper, have donated a total of $11,000 to Pinson’s campaign, according to campaign finance reports.
Lawyers dominate donor list
Indeed, contributions from lawyers dominate Pinson’s list of campaign donors — a reflection, perhaps, of the issues that face the Supreme Court, not least the battle over tort reform, which Kemp has promised.
All but 337 of the 1,202 donors to his campaign list their occupation as “attorney,” “lawyer,” “general counsel” or some other job in the legal profession.
In contrast, only 46 of the 233 donors on Barrow’s filings list their occupation as related to the legal profession, with the largest category — 102 — as “retired.”
The largest donor to Barrow’s campaign is the candidate himself — $546,839.78.
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