How to Effectively Conduct Zoom Trials during the COVID-19 Pandemic and Beyond

Ural D. Glanville is a judge for Atlanta Judicial Circuit of the 5th Superior Court District of Georgia. His current term ends on December 31, 2020.

Glanville ran for re-election for the Atlanta Judicial Circuit judge of the 5th Superior Court District of Georgia. He won in the general election on June 9, 2020.

Glanville received his undergraduate degree in history from Brevard College and his J.D. from the University of Georgia.

Susan Guthrie, nationally recognized as one of the Top Family Law and Mediation Attorneys in the country, has been helping individuals and families navigate separation and divorce for 30 years. Susan provides online divorce mediation and legal coaching services to select clients around the world. As a leading dispute resolution professional, Susan is honored to serve on the Executive Council of the American Bar Association’s (ABA) Section of Dispute Resolution as the Membership Officer and to be a Co-Chair of the Mediation Committee.

After a year and half of co-hosting the award winning podcast, Breaking Free: A Modern Divorce Podcast which reached almost 3 million listeners, Susan recently launched her fresh and inspiring new podcast, The Divorce and Beyond Podcast with Susan Guthrie, Esq. (www.divorceandbeyondpod.com) which debuted on iTunes' “Top Podcasts” List for self-help podcasts! Divorce & Beyond is focused on pulling back the curtain on the mysteries of the divorce process and bringing tips and resources to help people to thrive and shine in their new future beyond divorce.

Susan has been featured in and on media outlets such as CNBC, Market Watch, Forbes, the ABA’s Just Resolutions Magazine, Thrive Global, The Nook Online and many more. She is licensed to practice law in the States of California and Connecticut as well as before the Supreme Court of the United States.

A practitioner of family law in the metro-Atlanta area for more than thirty-eight years, Robert G. Wellon is a former president of the Atlanta Bar Association and the 2012 recipient of the Chief Justice Thomas O. Marshall Professionalism Award, presented annually by the State Bar of Georgia. In 1997, he helped found and became the first president of the Charles Longstreet Weltner Family Law American Inn of Court. He also was an organizing member and initial president of the Atlanta College of Trial Advocacy, for whom he has served as an instructor at various times since 1980. His teaching credentials also include seventeen years as adjunct professor at Emory University School of Law, where he teaches classes in advanced civil trial practice. In addition, Wellon is an active member of the Georgia Trial Lawyers Association, and serves on the Board of Directors for various community organizations, including GreenLaw and the Atlanta Foundation for Psychoanalysis. Robert Wellon graduated from Emory University in 1970 and from Stetson University School of Law in 1974.

Rebecca Crumrine Rieder is a judge for Atlanta Judicial Circuit of the 5th Superior Court District of Georgia. Rieder assumed office in 2018. Rieder's current term ends on December 31, 2020. Rieder previously worked as a partner in the law firm Hedgepeth, Heredia & Rieder.

Rieder ran for re-election for the Atlanta Judicial Circuit judge of the 5th Superior Court District of Georgia. Rieder lost in the general election on June 9, 2020.

Rieder earned a bachelor's degree from the University of the South, a master’s degree from the University of Georgia and a J.D. from the University of Georgia School of Law.

Judge Paige Reese Whitaker was appointed to the Superior Court of Fulton County in February 2017 after being on the short list for a seat on the Georgia Supreme Court in late 2016. Judge Whitaker graduated magna cum laude from the College of Charleston with a degree in political science in 1989 and earned her law degree from Duke University School of Law in 1992.

Before assuming the bench, Judge Whitaker practiced at a private law firm prior to joining the Criminal Justice Division of the Georgia Attorney General’s Office, where she served under both Mike Bowers and Thurbert Baker. There, Judge Whitaker practiced in both the state and federal court systems, handling murder appeals and other post-conviction matters before being chosen as a charter member of the Capital Litigation Section of that Office. As part of that select team of Georgia death penalty experts, Judge Whitaker litigated numerous complex post-conviction challenges to all aspects of Georgia murder convictions and death sentences, including co-authoring a merits brief filed in the United States Supreme Court on an expedited briefing schedule in the first case to interpret the Federal Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act. Judge Whitaker received the Appellate Advocate of the Year Award from the national Association of Government Attorneys in Capital Litigation for her excellence in the litigation of capital cases at the appellate level.

Immediately prior to her judicial appointment, Judge Whitaker served as a Deputy District Attorney for Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard, heading the largest and busiest Appellate Division of any Georgia DA’s Office. In that capacity, Judge Whitaker employed her significant advocacy skills to secure pro-prosecution decisions in criminal law matters, provided legal expertise in complex and sometimes highly-charged cases, and crafted legislation significant to prosecutors and crime victims. Judge Whitaker received numerous awards and accolades for her work in that Office.

Since assuming the bench, Judge Whitaker has received training at the prestigious National Judicial College. Judge Whitaker is also trained and certified as a registered mediator.

Judge Whitaker is an elected delegate to the Board of Governors for the State Bar of Georgia, where she serves on various task forces and committees working to improve the administration of justice and legal service to the public. She is a member of several local bar organizations, including the Atlanta Bar, Gate City Bar, and North Fulton Bar Associations, and is active in the Georgia Association of Women Lawyers and the St. Thomas More Society. Judge Whitaker is on the Board of Advisors for the Atlanta Lawyers’ Chapter of the Federalist Society, is a 2014 alumnus of GAWL’s elite Leadership Academy, and is a past Fellow with the YWCA’s Georgia Women’s Policy Institute. Judge Whitaker was recently honored with a 2016 Law and Justice Award as one of Atlanta’s Most Powerful and Influential Female Attorneys.

In addition to serving on the Community Outreach Committee of the Fulton County Superior Court bench, Judge Whitaker has held leadership roles in several civic and charitable organizations, including chairing a Fulton County Juvenile Court Citizens’ Review Committee, which monitors foster care placements and reunification or adoption efforts for the County’s youth, and working on the March of Dimes Atlanta Chapter’s Prematurity Prevention Committee.

Natalie R. Kelly is the Director of the State Bar of Georgia’s Law Practice Management Program. She earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in English with a minor in Political Science from Spelman College in 1990. Although not a lawyer, she attended law school at the University of Miami and Georgia State University; and has taught Law Office Management as an Adjunct Professor at Atlanta’s John Marshall Law School, where she is currently matriculating to complete her J.D. degree.

Prior to her employment with the State Bar, she worked as a legal assistant to a sole practitioner; and held law-related positions within the hospitality, commercial real estate, education, and communications fields. At the State Bar, she is the staff liaison to the Law Practice Management Program Advisory Committee and the Member Benefits Committee. In 2005, she was named the State Bar of Georgia Employee of the Year.

She is a Certified Consultant/Trainer for Timeslips, Amicus Attorney, Amicus Accounting, ABACUS Law, Clio, Credenza, Time Matters, Billing Matters, TABS3, PracticeMaster, and PCLaw legal software. She is one of the first legal technology consultants in the United States to be certified on multiple legal-specific applications in the same genre. She also consults and trains on several other legal and general business software applications. She has spoken on national CLE and law-related programs for the American Bar Association, the Association of American Law Schools, the National Conference of Bar Presidents, and many other legal organizations. She has also been a faculty member on multiple occasions for the ABA TECHSHOW and LegalTech legal technology conferences. She has presented in over 15 states and Puerto Rico on practice management and law office technology.

In 1991, Randall M. Kessler founded the law firm now known as Kessler & Solomiany, LLC, a 30 person family law firm in Atlanta. He is the author of many family law books including Divorce: Protect Yourself, Your Kids and Your Future, The GA Library of Family Law Forms, and How to Mediate a Divorce. He is an adjunct professor of Family Law Litigation at Emory Law School. Mr. Kessler has served as the Chair of the Family Law Sections of the American Bar Association, the State Bar of Georgia and the Atlanta Bar Association.

Mr. Kessler has represented some of the highest profile clients in the country including judges, national and local politicians, professional athletes, TV Stars and other celebrities, entertainers and artists.

Born in Gainesville, Florida, raised in New Orleans and having attended college at Brandeis University near Boston, MA, Randall M. Kessler came to Georgia in 1985 to attend Emory Law School. He has over 35 years of experience in Domestic Relations and Family Law matters including divorce, custody, paternity, prenuptial agreements and child support. He Founded KS Family Law in 1991 after practicing for years at other family law boutique firms. Mr. Kessler teaches family law jury trials at Emory Law School and taught Family Law at John Marshall Law School from 2005 – 2019. He has lectured for the ABA, AAML, AICPA, NACVA, IAAR, NFLPA, NBPA, the Georgia Psychological Association (GPA), the Georgia Society of CPAs, the Cobb, Gwinnett, DeKalb and Atlanta Bar Associations and others all over the country and in fact, all over the world. Mr. Kessler is the Editor Emeritus of the Family Law Review for the State Bar of Georgia and is the former Chair of the Family Law Sections of the American Bar Association, the Georgia Bar Association and the Atlanta Bar Association. He is proficient in both Spanish and Hebrew.