With great blessings come great responsibility. The Firm and its attorneys recognize their moral obligation and keep busy with a number of philanthropic, public service, and pro bono activities serving a wide array of worthy causes. Their efforts include the representation of Clients in need, governmental service, the mentoring of at-risk youths, teaching, coaching, and a variety of other activities, all designed to “give back” to the community.

Phil Pic2
At the signing-into-law of Georgia’s 2005 “Slam Spam E-mail Act,” of which Wellborn and Wallace were the primary authors, Wellborn poses with Governor Sonny Perdue and Wellborn’s family – wife Susan, daughter Maggie, mother Jane, and father Paul
Phil Pic3
Wellborn confers with his daughter/shortstop Maggie prior to their 2008 win in the ISA Classic in Daytona Beach, Florida.

PHILANTHROPY & SERVICE

Paul F. ("Pete") Wellborn III

Pete Wellborn is an active volunteer in support of a variety of charitable, educational, and pro bono causes. Since 2004, Wellborn has served as a member of the Board of Directors for the Georgia Technology Authority. Wellborn was the primary author of Georgia’s 2005 “Slam Spam” law, which prohibits the sending of deceptive commercial e-mails. He is a technology law advisor for Governor Sonny Perdue, a role he also filled for the late U.S. Senator Paul Coverdell.

Wellborn’s philanthropic efforts also include a substantial body of pro bono work, serving foundations, non-profits, and individuals unable to afford legal representation. His pro bono Clients include the Johnny Gant Foundation, which provides athletic opportunities and outlets to at-risk inner-city boys and girls, and Women Alone Together, an organization that provides companionship and education for women who are divorced, widowed, or otherwise “alone.” Wellborn’s wife Susan, who also serves as the Firm’s Office Manager, is an active volunteer for Action Ministries and its annual “Night of Champions” fundraising event. Wellborn’s pro bono victories include the successful argument before the Supreme Court of Georgia of a case involving the right of a biological parent to have actual notice of litigation impacting that parent’s custodial and child-related rights. Another of Wellborn’s favorite pro bono cases involved an elderly Client whose husband had passed away years earlier. In that case, Wellborn forced a Macon cemetery to exhume and move a body that the cemetery had erroneously buried in the Client’s plot adjacent to her departed husband’s grave site.

Wellborn has taught, on a volunteer basis, a number of law-related courses at Georgia Tech and Mercer Law School, and has guest-taught similar courses at Georgia State University. He served for eight years as a volunteer tutor at Georgia Tech and was a member of the “Key 11,” the board of directors of the boosters’ club for the women’s basketball team there. From 1991 until the school’s closing in 2005, Wellborn served as a mentor for at-risk students at Eugenia Hamilton Elementary School (“EHES”). During his fifteen year run as the Black History Month Speaker there, Wellborn’s annual presentations always carried the same three themes – that color does not matter, that each student is beautiful and special in his or her own way, and that each student has unlimited potential. Wellborn’s devotion to public service dates back to his hometown of Macon, where he was a member of Junior Advisory Council to the Georgia Lung Association, was chairperson of the Bibb County Math Tournament, tutored inmates at the Bibb County Transitional Center, and tutored homeless youth at the Georgia Industrial Home.

Finally, Wellborn is a longtime coach and volunteer in various youth sports organizations in or around Atlanta, including Tophat Soccer, NYO (where he was twice voted “Coach of the Year”), Terrell Mill, and Murphey-Candler. While in law school, Wellborn coached a 16-18 year-old baseball team that won the Georgia state championship and the Southeastern U.S. championship before losing to Texas in the National Championship round in Miami. Over the last decade, Wellborn has coached more than 25 seasons of youth basketball, softball, and soccer. In 2006, he led the NYO 10U softball team (a recreation-league All-Star team) to the Final Four of the GSA State Championship, a tournament composed primarily of higher-ranked A/B teams. In 2008, his Terrell Mill Titans 12U softball team compiled a 41-17 record, winning four tournament championships along the way in Georgia and Florida. Wellborn’s sports philosophy – much of it learned from his friend, Client, and former coach Bill Curry – focuses on four goals, in this order: FUN! – HUSTLE! – TEAM! – WIN!

Kelly Wallace

Kelly Wallace is a technology law advisor for Governor Sonny Perdue and, along with Pete Wellborn, was a primary author of Georgia’s 2005 law prohibiting the sending of deceptive commercial e-mail (the “Slam Spam” Act). Kelly is also a member of the Georgia Lawyers for the Arts.

Jamie Woodard

Jamie Woodard is a passionate volunteer for a variety of causes geared toward the education and development of young law students and lawyers. He is a longtime member of the Student Moot Court Competition Organizing Committee for the Georgia Bar Association’s Younger Lawyer’s Division. Woodard is also a frequent lecturer and guest-judge for Mercer University’s moot court program. Woodard participates in Hands On Atlanta’s “Service Juris” project and is a member of the Atlanta Volunteer Lawyers Foundation and the Stonewall Bar Association.