Open Letter to Our Communities

January 7, 2021

Yesterday, we were witnesses to one of the most momentous and starkly contrasting days in the story of American democracy.  In the morning, we awoke to the news that a Black minister who now preaches from the same pulpit from which Dr. Martin Luther King once inspired a generation with his dream of racial justice was elected to represent the State of Georgia in the United States Senate, in an election with record turnout and peaceful participation in the democratic process.  Later in the very same day, we watched the gruesome spectacle as mob violence engulfed the Capitol in a frontal assault on our most fundamental democratic values.  We once again reaffirm our abhorrence of the kind of violence that we witnessed yesterday and our condemnation of the actions of those among our leaders who inspired that violence.  As a law firm, we consider it our obligation to engage in and promote civil discourse with those with whom we disagree, which is essential to the functioning of our democratic republic -- and to speak out against those who seek to nullify that discourse through violence.  As we move forward from yesterday’s unprecedented events, we intend to celebrate the best elements of our democracy represented by the historic participation in the Presidential election in November and the more recent election in Georgia, while continuing to speak out and remain vigilant against the very real dangers posed to our democracy by the events in Washington.  We join with our colleagues in the legal and business communities in reaffirming the fundamental principle of our democracy that we resolve our differences in free and fair elections.