Robert Charles McBurney | Atlanta Circuit, Post 36

Candidate Statement

“To the profession, I offer assistance.” This commitment, enshrined in our Lawyer’s Creed, sums up my application to join the State Bar’s Board of Governors. I have long benefitted from the privilege of practicing law in Georgia and its courts, and it is now time to give back to the profession and the community in a new and different way. So, I offer my assistance as a career public servant who has worked as a government attorney at both the state and federal level. I offer it as a Superior Court judge who has had the (mis)fortune to preside over many significant and challenging matters and who has had the opportunity to work with some of the finest (and most ornery) lawyers in the state. And I offer it as a member of our Atlanta community, a community whose need for a robust and ethical legal system is greater than ever.

I offer this assistance to the State Bar as the institution that governs, guards and grows our profession. I offer it to my fellow lawyers, who are the living embodiment of the profession and who (for the most part) strive to meet the standards set by our rules of professionalism. And I offer it to the public that has continued to entrust me with my judicial responsibilities.

If you believe my assistance would benefit the Bar, the profession, and the community, I hope you will vote accordingly. Thank you.

Education

• A.B. Harvard ’90
• J.D. Harvard ’95

Personal/Family

• Married with three children, two dogs, and not much free time.
• Primary extracurricular pursuits are running with the slow dog, walking with the fast dog, carting around my kids and their gear to various sporting events, and keeping a small vegetable garden safe from deer (hint: grow a lot of basil; deer don’t like it).

Professional Background, Bar Activities, Civic Activities

• Judge, Superior Court of Fulton County, 2012–present (chief judge, 2018–2020)
• Presiding officer, Hearing Panel, Judicial Qualifications Commission, 2017–2024
• Assistant U.S. attorney, Northern District of Georgia, 2002–2012
• Assistant district attorney, Fulton County District Attorney’s Office, 1998–2002
• Current member, Judicial Council’s Ad Hoc Committee on Artificial Intelligence and the Courts; chair, Subcommittee on AI and Court Proceedings
• Current member, Judicial Council’s Ad Hoc Committee on Court Reporting and Digital Takedown
• Co-chair/instructor, ICJE’s New Judge Orientation, a four-day mandatory training program for newly appointed and elected Superior Court judges
• Co-chair, Justice Policy Board, a City of Atlanta/County of Fulton entity responsible for developing and overseeing the state’s first Diversion Center

Main Issues Facing the State Bar/Position

The State Bar faces two immediate challenges of particular significance.

• First and most pressing is artificial intelligence (AI) and its impact on the legal profession. AI is a transformative technology that is dimly understood by many lawyers (and their clients) yet it has the power to fundamentally restructure the nature of legal work. Misapplied, AI can lead to legal error and even malpractice; harnessed, it can boost lawyer productivity many times over. Whether we like it or not, AI is here to stay and it has an important role to play in the legal profession. For that role to be positive and constructive, the State Bar must provide rules and guidelines for incorporating AI into the practice of law. Through ongoing internal State Bar initiatives as well as the Judicial Council’s Ad Hoc Committee on Artificial Intelligence and the Courts, chaired by Justice Pinson and on which I and former Bar President Darrell Sutton serve, we can develop just such provisions so that lawyers can be comfortable incorporating this burgeoning technology into their practice—and the public can be confident that lawyers are controlling AI and not the other way around.
• The other issue is lawyer distribution. Georgia has plenty of lawyers—tens of thousands of them. The problem we face is that they are not evenly distributed around the state. Our Circuit is awash in attorneys; nearly 40% of all licensed lawyers in Georgia work here. Throw in DeKalb, Cobb and Gwinnett and you’ve accounted for 70%. Move beyond metro-Atlanta, however, and the situation gets dire: the 154 counties outside metro-Atlanta represent nearly two-thirds of the state’s population yet only one-third of the state’s lawyers live and work there. Seven counties have no—zero—resident lawyers and more than a dozen more counties have fewer than 10 lawyers. The State Bar must develop more effective programs that create incentives for lawyers to practice in these legal deserts. These initiatives will likely require partnerships with law schools and private firms to provide tuition relief and/or pro bono credit. Plus, in this era of virtual court appearances, many of the needed legal resources can be provided remotely, without lawyers having to physically relocate to assist people in need—assuming the technology infrastructure is in place in those locales. Finally, AI, once it is properly harnessed, can aid in the provision of basic legal services.