Joe Harris served 22 years in the City of Atlanta Department of Law. Also, Joe served as Assistant City Attorney, Senior Assistant City Attorney and Deputy City Attorney, primarily representing the City of Atlanta’s Department of Finance and Hartsfield Atlanta International Airport. Joe served as Acting City Attorney for the City of Atlanta under former Mayors Maynard Jackson and Bill Campbell during paart of that time.

While with the City of Atlanta, Joe provided day to day advice and counsel to the Mayor and members of the Atlanta City Council, and most of the City’s Department Heads, including the Aviation General Manager, the Chief Executive Officer, and the Chief Financial Officer, and handled a wide variety of municipal litigation, including nuisance claims, condemnations, inverse condemnation claims, police excessive force claims, contract claims, 42 USC 1983 claims, and intergovernmental disputes.

Having served three years as General Counsel to the Georgia Municipal Association, Joe has often lectured on local government law at the Institute of Government, University of Georgia, and has been a guest lecturer at numerous seminars sponsored by the Center for Continuing Legal Education at the University of Georgia.

Joe has over thirty years of extensive litigation experience in Georgia and Federal Courts, representing a wide variety of public and private clients.

A 1966 graduate of Samford University and a 1971 graduate of Emory University School of Law, Joe received the following educational honors: Dean’s list, Emory Case Club, and the American Jurisprudence Award.

For the past fifteen years, Joe has also served as an arbitrator, and is a member of the Arbitrator Panels of the American Arbitration Association and the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service.