On April 23, 2025, Professor Jonathan Rapping introduced Atlanta John Marshall Law School’s (AJMLS) new Criminal and Civil Justice Institute (CCJI) to a full house at Igniting Change 2025, Igniting Change is an annual event hosted by Gideon’s Promise to celebrate public defenders and inspire a legal community committed to equal justice to support lawyers doing critical work in the fight for our democracy. CCJI is a partnership between AJMLS, Gideon’s Promise, and the Barristers Society (TBS). As Professor Rapping shared at the event, the mission of CCJI is perfectly aligned with the work of Gideon’s Promise as both seek to develop a generation of passionate, skilled, and ethical lawyers to address a justice gap that denies our most vulnerable neighbors meaningful access to counsel and our courts.
Gideon’s Promise awarded its Community Impact Award to The Honorable Gino Brogdon, Sr. and its John R. Lewis Lifetime Achievement Award posthumously to President Jimmy Carter. President Carter’s grandson, Jason Carter, accepted the award. Jason carter reminded the audience of his grandfather’s famous 1978 Law Day speech when he said “[America is] over lawyered and underrepresented.”
This statement is as true today as it was fifty years ago. CCJI was launched to address this challenge.
AJMLS was well represented at the event. Attendees included members of the AJMLS Board of Directors, both the outgoing and incoming Deans, members of the law schools’ faculty, several accomplished AJMLS alumni, and more than a dozen student-volunteers who spent the evening networking with leaders in the Atlanta legal community.