Comments from the chair

Monica K. Gilroy, Esq.
Gilroy Bailey Trumble, LLC
Alpharetta, Georgia
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“It’s tangible, it’s solid, and it’s beautiful. It’s artistic, from my standpoint, and I just love real estate.” -Donald Trump

Love him or hate him, Mr. Trump echoes my pleasure as being elected to serve as your 2015-2016 Real Property Law Section Chair-I love begin a real estate lawyer and am honored to take on this role. I am looking forward to a productive and successful year for our Executive Committee. As the largest section of the State Bar of Georgia, the RPLS Executive Committee is comprised of many incredible attorneys working tirelessly to advocate for each of the RPLS members and to work to better the practice of real estate law for RPLS members.

What does it mean to serve on the Executive Committee? The Executive Committee meets monthly, and serving on the committee is a serious time commitment. The Executive Committee has an upcoming weekend planning retreat in which significant time is spent discussing and mapping out the goals for the RPLS and its members for the upcoming year. Between monthly meetings, the members of the Executive Committee operate various subcommittees that serve by putting together CLEs, running pro bono programs, monitoring, drafting and suggesting real estate related legislation, monitoring important litigation decisions, publishing a comprehensive newsletter, running the listserve and enhanced Website, and serving our section through countless other services and duties. As we look to the year ahead, the Executive Committee will organize and run for its members various CLEs, including a Title Standards seminar, a Commercial Real Estate seminar, a Spring Residential seminar (that will be broadcasted statewide ) and will co-sponsor the Foreclosure seminar. All of our educational efforts culminate with Chair Elect Gayle Camp’s organization and planning of the agenda for the Real Property Law Institute, which will take place in May of 2016 in Amelia Island.

Executive Committee members this year, in addition to myself and Gayle, include immediate Past Chair Rob Brannen, Triece Ziblut- Secretary/Treasurer, Lee Cohen, Tenise Cook, Hilary Fentress, Deborah Bailey, Vanessa Goggans, Jeff Greenway, Chad Henderson, Edward Hudson, Anisa Abdullahi, Kent Altom, Wallace Bonner, Mike Fowler, Matt James, Matt Mashburn, Willie Phelan, Missy Robinson, Christina Rogers, Chuck Waters, and last but not least, Phil Wilkins. I want to personally thank this group of incredible professionals for their contributions, now and in the upcoming year. This group chairs various subcommittees such as Title Standards, Newsletter, Legislative, Education, Forms and Litigation. All members of the RPLS are invited to submit inquiries to me as to ways to serve on the various subcommittees. Serving on a subcommittee is the best way to learn more about the Executive Committee. Please see the website for more details on the various subcommittees.

In June of this year, the Executive Committee was thrilled to celebrate the installation of fellow RPLS Member Robert J. “Bob” Kauffman as the 53rd President of the State Bar of Georgia. Bob’s tenure comes after former Executive Committee Chair Patrise Perkins-Hooker concluded her year as the 52nd President of the State Bar of Georgia. We are fortunate as a section to have two experienced real estate professionals sitting in this position two years running. I encourage all RPLS members to support the efforts of, and seek more information on, the agenda of President Kauffman during his year in office. The section hosted a lovely cocktail party in honor of Bob, in connection with Mercer University (Bob’s law school Alma Mater) and his law firm, Hartley, Rowe and Fowler, at the Annual State Bar Meeting at Stone Mountain, Georgia. We are very proud of Bob, as we are of Patrise, and wish them both a successful year in their role in State Bar leadership.

Goals for this year include the following. As we approach the TRID implementation deadline for our brothers and sisters in the residential estate bar, rest assured the Executive Committee will keep watch on all developing issues and keep all members abreast of the same. We will continue to work on the pervasive issue of the Unauthorized Practice of Law as it affects our members, work on issues with the Department of Insurance as to the licensing of real estate attorneys, work to enhance our Commercial Real Estate subcommittee to advance the interests of the commercial practitioners, strive to provide increased educational opportunities for our members, including webinars, and keeping watch on various legislative and litigation matters to share with our members. We are here to serve you, so do not hesitate to share your needs with us.

I welcome the opportunity to speak with you as to your concerns, comments, suggestions or questions. Please contact me at mkg@gilroyfirm.com or call at 678 280-1922. Thank you for this opportunity to serve you.