Local & State Headlines

Legal experts talk to students

Staff Reports

ALBANY — Dougherty County students had the chance Tuesday to ask everything and anything of a few legal experts.

The dozen or so students in Richard Barbree’s Advanced Placement macroeconomics class at Dougherty Comprehensive High School probed U.S. Marine Corps Capt. Russell McGeehan and Staff Sgt. Curtis Wilson, an attorney and a paralegal, respectively, on everything from salary to the bar exam to the different fields of law, such as entertainment and criminal.

The Marine Corps Logistics Base-Albany Marines, in celebration of the 50th annual Law Day, took care to answer those questions while pointing out differences between military and civilian law.

Marines, from the Office of the Staff Judge Advocate, made similar presentations at Monroe Comprehensive High School and Albany High School.

“Law is complicated,” said Capt. Russell McGeehan. “I’m licensed (as an attorney) in California. I’m not licensed in Georgia, but I am licensed to practice federal law.”

Law Day, celebrated on May 1, was an effort of President Dwight D. Eisenhower and the American Bar Association to celebrate the principles of American government and civic duty and to promote the legal profession.

The Marines presented the students with data, including average salaries for attorneys and paralegals and the expected increase in demand of legal professionals.

“I highly encourage (you to go to law school),” McGeehan, an attorney before he joined the Marines, told the students.

More Headlines>>