{"id":260,"date":"2023-09-29T11:37:21","date_gmt":"2023-09-29T11:37:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/rp-jamesbowling\/?p=260"},"modified":"2023-12-13T03:59:34","modified_gmt":"2023-12-13T03:59:34","slug":"beatqa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/rp-jamesbowling\/beatqa\/","title":{"rendered":"Beat Q&A"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Q & A with Hon. Lawton E. Stephens<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Photo courtesy of Judge Stephen\u2019s judicial assistant – Diane Russell<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By James Bowling<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Comments trimmed for length and clarity<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hon. Lawton E. Stephens has served in Athens as the presiding judge of the Western Judicial Circuit Superior Court since 1991, overseeing the communities of both Athens-Clarke County and Oconee County.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q:<\/strong> What originally sparked your interest to receive a law degree, and to enter the legal field as a whole?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A:<\/strong> My father was a lawyer, and I was interested in politics, and I felt like law was a good training for a political career, that was my primary motivation. And then I ran for the legislature, got elected to the legislature. Being a lawyer is a great asset if you are in the legislature because people come to you and ask you questions, how to explain bills, what\u2019s the effect it will have on the everyday practice of law or even people\u2019s everyday lives. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q:<\/strong> And so that being paired with you stepping out on the political scene, as well as the representative for the 16th district, what did those kinds of two experiences teach you regarding the importance of representing and serving Georgians, and then specifically in Athens Clarke-County as well?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A:<\/strong> I got a vision of a real education on how laws are made and how laws are passed. And I was able to give some advice on the practical effect that a certain bill might have on people because I\u2019d seen it at work. I was always interested in elective office, and so Superior Court Judge is an elected position every four years, it\u2019s a nonpartisan. It kind of combined both of my interests: my interest in the law, my interest in politics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Q:<\/strong> What do you feel allows you to have the greatest impact on the local government of Athens, and just the Athens community in general?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A: <\/strong>So <\/strong>I\u2019ve always tried to be involved in the community, serving on different boards, and trying to, you know, to serve different charitable organizations and things like that, and that\u2019s been important: to get involved in the community and to be out among the community. And hear what, you know, people don\u2019t tell judges the stuff that they need to hear, right? They want to tell you what they think you want to hear, especially if they\u2019re trying a case in front of you. \u201cOh Judge, my goodness! I read about your wonderful ruling in this case.\u201d You’re like, just get on with it. So, you\u2019re out in the community and you’re involved in different things, you know, I\u2019m involved in a lot of different things, you hear what\u2019s going on and you\u2019ve got your ear to the ground. That helps politically, but it also helps you understand what the dynamic is that\u2019s going on and where you might need to pay attention to certain legal things and make sure justice is getting done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Why I Wrote the Story: <\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Leading up to my interview with Judge Stephens, I could not have been more nervous. When his assistant got back to me so promptly to schedule a time for the Judge and I to meet, I was honestly shocked – I really was not expecting for him to be available. However, the conversation that I had with Judge Stephens was one of the most unique and impactful experiences that I\u2019ve had during my academic career at UGA thus far. Now that I have shot for one of the highest stars – interviewing a highly ranked government official in Athens – I have much more confidence in my ability to interview other figures of authority in the future. My skills in making an interview more conversational have also improved after completing this assignment, as I was able to shake off the nerves and see what it feels like to engage in a natural discussion in this setting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Q & A with Hon. Lawton E. Stephens Photo courtesy of Judge Stephen\u2019s judicial assistant – Diane Russell By James Bowling Comments trimmed for length and clarity Hon. Lawton E. Stephens has served in Athens as the presiding judge of the Western Judicial Circuit Superior Court since 1991, overseeing the communities of both Athens-Clarke County […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4432,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-260","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/rp-jamesbowling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/rp-jamesbowling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/rp-jamesbowling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/rp-jamesbowling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4432"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/rp-jamesbowling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=260"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/rp-jamesbowling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/rp-jamesbowling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/rp-jamesbowling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ctlsites.uga.edu\/rp-jamesbowling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}