David's decades of practice, and his reputation for doing good work and being trustworthy and honest, paved the road for me that day.

A bad reputation can haunt a lawyer; a good reputation can not only bless that lawyer, but also those that need to rely on that reputation for themselves.

None of the words I uttered after my introduction mattered one bit. He asked me one question when I finally stopped talking: "You're with David Flint's firm?" I repeated that I was, and he motioned for me to hand him the papers, and he signed what I had prepared with only a cursory glance down.

Eventually, Judge Seeliger saw me in the gallery with my stacks of papers, and in a break in the calendar called me up to the bench. I introduced myself and stammered my way through an explanation of what I was doing there, and that I needed him to sign an order before I could even file our appeal.

The first judge I could find was Clarence Seeliger, who had been on the DeKalb Superior Court bench for more than thirty years. He was a throwback to a time when DeKalb County was a very, very different place than it has since become. He was imposing by virtue of his sheer longevity and presence.

... The certiorari process required a superior court judge to sign orders approving a bond and other procedural matters even before the case was filed -- which is unusual in itself.

I also had next to no idea what I was doing as I took my stack of papers to the courthouse in Decatur. ...

As a young lawyer, a founding partner of my firm, David Flint, trusted me to prepare and file a zoning appeal in the Superior Court of DeKalb County. This involved a byzantine (and recently repealed) process of seeking certiorari from the superior court to bring the zoning record up. ...

... you may never regain that trust with judges (or lawyers, or clients).

But I learned in practice an equally important lesson: that the trustworthy reputation that you work to earn and preserve for yourself can reach others that need that reputation to precede them. ...