After graduating from the University of Georgia School of Law in 1984, I was selected for a two-year judicial clerkship (staff attorney for four Superior Court judges). Afterwards, I was employed with the insurance defense law firm of Irwin, Bladen, Baker & Russell, in Atlanta. My position involved the defense of clients accused of negligence, including automobile and tractor-trailer collisions, wrongful death, premises liability claims, slander, and false arrest.