For Immediate Release, with Photo April 15, 2016
Contact: Ruby Moore, 404-885-1234, info@thegao.org

GAO Attorney with Disability to be Admitted U.S. Supreme Court

An attorney with the Georgia Advocacy Office (GAO) in Decatur is among 13 members of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Bar Association (DHHBA) who will be sworn in and admitted to the Bar of the U.S. Supreme Court next week on April 19. For the ceremony, the Court is providing both sign language and real time transcription interpreters and allowing the attorneys to use their personal cell phones or tablets to receive the real-time captioning. Following the ceremony, the attorneys will be received at the White House.

Julie Kegley, who was born with a bilateral sensorineural hearing loss, is one of the inaugural participants in the swearing in on Tuesday at 10 a.m. She has been an attorney with the GAO for nine years.

The GAO is the independent, federally mandated protection and advocacy system for people with disabilities in Georgia.

The fact that there are fewer than 250 attorneys who are deaf nationwide highlights the significance of the swearing in at the nation’s highest court and recognizes the advancements that lawyers with disabilities have made since the Americans with Disabilities Act was passed in 1990, Ruby Moore, Executive Director, said in a statement.

Kegley is a 1997 political science graduate of Auburn University and a 2001 graduate of the Cumberland School of Law in Birmingham, AL. She has also worked for the disAbility Law Center of Virginia.

“Being sworn into the nation’s highest court with my peers of deaf and hard of hearing attorneys in this inaugural, historic event is a satisfying honor that I hope sends a message to Americans with disabilities—especially youth with disabilities—to pursue your dreams, work hard, embrace your obstacles, and most of all—never give up,” Kegley said.