Jones Day partner and former Georgia Supreme Court Chief Justice David Nahmias receives award for Judicial Excellence
David E. Nahmias, a Jones Day partner and former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Georgia, has been selected to receive the Logan E. Bleckley Award for Judicial Excellence. Given annually by the Litigation Section of the Atlanta Bar Association to a judge in Metro Atlanta in recognition of years of devoted and exemplary public service as a member of the judiciary, the award is named for Logan E. Bleckley, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Georgia from 1887-1894 (and Associate Justice from 1875-1880).
Mr. Nahmias is a partner in the Atlanta Office, where he leads the Investigations & White Collar Defense team, while also working with the Firm's Issues & Appeals Practice. He served as a Justice on Georgia's highest court for almost 13 years, during which time he wrote more than 470 opinions and joined more than 2,700 others. He was appointed to the Georgia Supreme Court by then-Governor Sonny Perdue in 2009, won two statewide nonpartisan elections to six-year terms, served as Presiding Justice from 2018-2021, and became Chief Justice in July 2021. He resigned from the court effective July 17, 2022. In 2012, then-Justice Nahmias was appointed by the Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court for a six-year term on the U.S. Judicial Conference's Advisory Committee on Civil Rules. Mr. Nahmias joined Jones Day in January 2023.
"We congratulate former Chief Justice Nahmias, our friend and partner, on this well-deserved recognition," said Al LaFiandra, Partner-in-Charge of the Atlanta Office. "He is widely viewed as one of the most influential justices to serve on our state's Supreme Court in the last generation, and is respected throughout Georgia's business and legal communities as a lawyer of great integrity and intellect."
Prior to his appointment to the Supreme Court of Georgia, Mr. Nahmias spent nearly 15 years with the U.S. Department of Justice. He started as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in Atlanta, handling numerous significant fraud, public corruption, and domestic terrorism cases and trying nine jury trials as lead counsel. After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Mr. Nahmias served as Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General and then Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division at Main Justice, overseeing the Counterterrorism, Fraud, and Appellate Sections. In 2004, he was nominated by President Bush and unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate to serve as the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia, overseeing all of that large district's criminal and civil cases for almost five years before going on the bench. Mr. Nahmias also served on the Attorney General's Advisory Committee and chaired the AGAC's White Collar Crime Subcommittee.
