Sanders elected chairman of Ga. Investigative Panel

After being selected as District Attorney of the Year at the district attorneys seminar in Jekyll Island, Toombs Judicial Circuit District Attorney Dennis Sanders has been elected chairman of the Georgia State Bar's Investigative Panel of the State Bar Disciplinary Board for 2006-2007.

Sanders was appointed by the Supreme Court of Georgia to this prestigious committee in 2004, and the panel members elected Sanders chairman at their last July meeting in Cedartown. The panel is composed of 22 attorneys and six nonattorney members.

It is the duty of the Investigative Panel to protect the general public and to administer discipline to an attorney when that attorney acts in an unethiccal manner. Discipline can vary from a confidential letter of admonition to an investigative reprimand by the panel (Sanders) to a recommendation for disbarment in the most serious cases.

"It is an honor to be selected by the Supreme Court to serve our profession in this manner and certainly an honor to be elected chairman by my fellow panel members," Sanders said.

Sanders also said that this is the hardest working and most time consuming panel on which he has served. The panel meets once a month and will consider 25 to 30 cases each session. Each case requires one of the panel members to conduct extensive investigation and give time away from his or her regular responsibilities, all without compensation.

The Investigative Panel had to take action in 356 cases last year. "An allegation of unprofessional conduct against an attorney is a serious matter and we take our duty very seriously," Sanders said. "Lawyers are human," he said. "Sometimes even the most conscientious attorneys make mistakes. However, when they do, it is our duty to take disciplinary action when those mistakes breach our rules of ethical conduct.

Sanders points with pride to the State Bar's Disciplinary procedures. According to Sanders, he is not familiar with any other profession that governs itself in the strict manner that attorneys do. Georgia now has approximately 31,000 attorneys that are members of the Bar in Georgia.

"Everyone of the men and women worked hard to be a member of this profession, and we want to maintain the highest standards possible for the profession that is the backbone of our society," Sanders concluded.

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