Donald P. Edwards
A native of Buffalo, New York, Attorney Don Edwards’ professional accomplishments reflect a distinguished career. He has for the past three decades served his clients, his profession and the African American community in Atlanta. He has fashioned legal cases and landmark million dollar verdicts for his clients. As a civil litigation specialist, his professional focus is on personal injury cases. His work has earned him the Martindale-Hubbell “AV” rating, the highest rating offered by this nationally recognized law directory. Attorney Edwards has been selected as one of Georgia’s Super Lawyers in 2010 and 2012, 2013 and 2014.
An agent for social change, Edwards has an array of board affiliations with several major community and professional organizations. His personal commitment has been recognized with many awards and citations for leadership and service including the 2004 Inductee to the Gate City Bar Association’s “Hall of Fame”, NAACP’s Thurgood Marshall Award “For Dedicated Service To The NAACP In The Fight For Freedom And Justice.” Recently, the State Bar of Georgia recognized Attorney Edwards during its Annual Meeting with the “Chief Justice Robert Benham Community Service Award” for exemplary community service as a legal professional.
Edwards is currently involved with organizations that address issues affecting family, community, church,health care and world peace. He is currently Chairman of the Fulton County Board of Ethics; Immediate past Chair of the South Atlanta District for the Boy Scouts of America, where he has received the 2002 Silver Beaver Award, the highest award issued by the Atlanta Area Council for volunteer service; Founding President of Southwest Hospital Foundation and a Trustee of Southwest Hospital; Past Board President of the Christian Council of Metropolitan Atlanta; founding president of the Association of Metro Atlanta DFACS Boards, and the past chairman of the Board of the Fulton County Department of Family and Children Services, where a dormitory for boys in foster care was named after Attorney Edwards. Edwards is a member of the 100 Black Men of Atlanta and Leadership Atlanta. Edwards is also a past president of the Gate City Bar Association, and is a member of the Association of Trial Lawyers of American and the National Bar Association, where he has served as a member of the Board of Governors.
An activist in pursuit of a more peaceful world, Don is the Southeast Coordinator of Every Church A Peace Church, and producer-host of the TV program, Every Church A Peace Church, which received the 2004 Allen Award presented by Atlanta Interfaith Broadcasters for best continuous faith based program in 2004. Don’s peace work also earned him the World Council of Churches “Blessed Are The Peacemakers Award”, personally presented to him by the WCC General Secretary Samuel Kobia in October, 2004.Edwards is an active and long time member of Atlanta’s Hillside Chapel and Truth Center, where he had served as Chairman of the Trustee Board for several years.
“I am very much a beneficiary of the civil rights struggle of the 1950’s and 1960’s,” he says. “Not only did I learn the importance of people becoming active in social change, I also saw lawyers leading that change.” With that motivation, Edwards completed Boston University School of Law in 1973, after graduating with honors from Morehouse College to begin his legal career as a civil rights lawyer in the firm of well known former Atlanta attorney, Howard Moore, Jr.
A well-respected trial lawyer, Edwards’ firm specializes in serving clients involved in automobile accidents, medical negligence, wrongful death and personal injury claims. “Clients who are injured or killed because of someone else’s fault have the same civil rights to obtain full compensation for their losses as the civil right to vote and to work without being discriminated against. My three decades of experience tells me that it requires competent, ethical and aggressive legal representation to assert those rights on behalf of injured victims.”
Attorney Edwards resides in Southwest Atlanta with his wife of 34 years, Jo Roberson Edwards, an entrepreneur, daughter, Nia (Spelman College ’15) and daughter, Domia. Edwards (USC’20) remarks: “My family is my most important accomplishment”.