Daily Report: DeKalb Prosecutor Strikes Out On His Own

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Font Size: DeKalb Prosecutor Strikes Out On His Own

Meredith Hobbs

Daily Report

05-29-2013

DeKalb prosecutor Tunde Akinyele has left the DeKalb County district attorney's office for private practice.

Akinyele has started his own firm handling criminal defense, immigration and personal injury law after a decade in the DeKalb DA's office, where he was a senior assistant district attorney. Previously he spent a year in the Fulton DA's office and two years as a DeKalb solicitor.

He was among the eight candidates short-listed for two vacant DeKalb State Court judgeships in 2011, out of a pool of more than 50 nominees.

Akinyele, 46, said he loved working as a prosecutor and values the trial practice experience he gained but had always thought of going into private practice someday. "The premise of law is we all learn to evolve. At this stage in my career I have tried all types of cases, ranging from misdemeanors to capital cases. It's time for me to go back to the private sector," he said.

Before earning a law degree from State University in 2000, Akinyele received a master's degree in health care policy from and worked as an environmental consultant. He said a trial coach at Georgia State's law school, former Fulton County prosecutor Tom Jones, encouraged him to become a prosecutor to gain trial experience.

The native of Nigeria immigrated to the United States at 16 to attend the University of South Carolina and became a U.S. citizen in 1996. The Akinyele Law Firm is located in Decatur.

Jonathan Goins has joined Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith as a partner from Gonzalez, Saggio & Harlan. Goins handles trademark, copyright and trade secret matters in areas including new media, entertainment and sports. He is an adjunct professor of copyright and trademark law at Atlanta's John Marshall Law School and was named one of the National Bar Association's 40 Lawyers Under 40 last year.

Julian Fortuna has joined Taylor English Duma as tax counsel from The Saylor Law Firm. Fortuna has more than 30 years of tax experience. He was general tax counsel and vice president for InterContinental Hotels Group before entering

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private practice six years ago and also worked in the tax department at Deloitte & Touche and as a tax attorney for the Internal Revenue Service.

Intellectual property firm Meunier Carlin & Curfman has added David Moreland as of counsel from Paul Hastings, where he was a senior associate. Moreland is a registered patent attorney and IP litigator with a background in electrical engineering. He's handled a range of cases before federal district courts and the International Trade Commission involving payment systems, flash memory, semiconductors and telecommunication devices, as well as cleaning systems and fluids.

The firm has also added two patent agents, MengMeng Fahrni and Janell Cleveland. Fahrni, a chemist, joined the firm from a Minneapolis IP firm, Dardi & Associates. Cleveland is a former patent examiner with the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office with a focus on life sciences.

Jennifer McNeely has joined Political Law Group, a Chalmers LLC. She served as legal counsel for Senate Majority Whip Cecil Staton, R-Macon, during the past Georgia legislative session and worked as a law clerk for the Office of Legal Counsel for the Republican National Committee in Washington. McNeely is a 2012 graduate of the Law School where she was president of the Federalist Society and secretary of the Black Law Student Association.

Carlock, Copeland & Stair has added two associates. Meredith Bryant joined the worker's compensation practice after working as a project attorney for King & Spalding. She received her law degree from the University of Mississippi in 2009. William Owens Jr. joined the firm's general liability and insurance coverage and bad faith litigation practices from Akin & Tate, where he was an associate. Owens received his law degree in 2011 from the University of Georgia.

Hunton & Williams has promoted Trevor Ross to partner. Ross advises on corporate finance and securities law as well as mergers and acquisitions and general corporate matters.

Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz has elected Jonathan Green and Dylan Howard as shareholders. Green handles real estate and business litigation, including mortgage lending and servicing matters and lender liability defense. Howard is also a real estate and business litigator, advising lenders on regulatory compliance, title clearance, foreclosure and other matters.

W. Henry Parkman of Sutherland Asbill & Brennan has been elected to the board of trustees of the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation. Parkman is also a board member of The Wren's Nest and is involved in efforts to preserve the mining history of Bartow County and historic cottages at Tybee Island.

Wayne Hyatt of Hyatt & Stubblefield was awarded the American College of Real Estate Lawyers' highest honor, the Frederick S. Lane Award, at its mid-year meeting in Florida.

On the heels of President Barack Obama's speech on U.S. drone policy last week and an international drone industry convention this week in Atlanta, the American Constitution Society is hosting a program on the legality of the Obama administration's use of military drones.

The all-lawyer panel includes Bob Barr, a Republican candidate for the 11th Congressional District seat, Azadeh Shahshahani of ACLU of Georgia, Laurie Blank, director of the International Humanitarian Law Clinic at Emory Law School, and Todd Stein, former legislative director for Sen. Joseph Lieberman and a lecturer at 's Sam Nunn School of International Affairs. GSU Law professor Neil Kinkopf will moderate.

The program is 6:30 to 8 p.m. June 5 at Bondurant Mixson & Elmore, 1201 West Peachtree St. N.W. To RSVP, contact Sachin Varghese at [email protected].

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