Gerald R. Weber Jr., the longtime legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia, is leaving his post and going to work for the Southern Center for Human Rights. All three of the organization’s staff attorneys have left in the past three months. Pending the arrival of an interim legal director Sept. 10, the local ACLU has no staff lawyers.
Weber’s departure coincides with a new direction for the local chapter, according to Elizabeth V. Tanis, a partner at Sutherland Asbill & Brennan who is president of the ACLU of Georgia Foundation. She said the board wants the local chapter to litigate more “high-impact” cases, in keeping with the national ACLU’s emphasis on international human rights, racial justice and immigration issues. Tanis also suggested that the local ACLU hasn’t made sufficient connections to Atlanta’s major law firms.
