Carlson on Evidence

Fuller E. Callaway Professor of Law, Emeritus, University of Georgia School of Law, Ron Carlson was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Georgia Trial Lawyers Association, as well as the Federal Bar Association’s highest honor, the Earl Kintner Award. The ABA recognized him with the ALI-ABA Harrison Tweed Award, their top award for CLE contributions at the national level. He has received every faculty honor presented by the law school student body at least once: the Student Bar Association Faculty Book Award for Excellence in Teaching, which is now the C. Ronald Ellington Award for Excellence in Teaching, the John C. O'Byrne Memorial Award for Significant Contributions Furthering Student-Faculty Relations and the Student Bar Association Professionalism Award. He was the first Georgia Law professor to receive the Josiah Meigs Award for Teaching Excellence from UGA. He also was awarded the 1987 Roscoe Pound Foundation's Richard S. Jacobson Award, honoring a single national law professor for the teaching of trial advocacy. Professor Carlson was the lead and sole attorney for indigent prisoners in two significant U.S. Supreme Court appeals, Long v. District Court (establishing indigent habeas applicant’s right to transcript) and Johnson v. Bennett (prisoner freed after 34 years of confinement). He is the author of 15 books on evidence, trial practice and criminal procedure, including the book Carlson on Evidence, co-authored with son Mike Carlson. Carlson regularly comments on WSB radio on high-profile Georgia criminal cases.

Georgia trial and appellate attorney Mike Carlson is recognized with a Martindale-Hubbell attorney peer review rating of “AV Preeminent,” which is “given to attorneys who are ranked at the highest level of professional excellence for their legal expertise, communication skills, and ethical standards by their peers.” After beginning his career in private practice, where he focused on civil litigation and media law, Carlson moved on to the public sector. Carlson has served in leadership positions at numerous Georgia district attorney’s offices, as well as at the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, where Carlson was that agency’s Legal Division Director, Chief Counsel, and Ethics Officer. As an advocate, Carlson has successfully prosecuted many high-profile cases, including as counsel in death penalty trials and landmark Georgia appellate decisions. An avid teacher and lecturer, Carlson routinely presents on the law of evidence, trial practice, and procedure to Georgia’s bench and bar. Carlson has additionally provided his expertise as an adjunct faculty member at Atlanta’s John Marshall Law School and Emory University of Law. A wide array of organizations have honored Carlson with awards and recognition for his dedication, commitment, and contributions to legal education and the positive development of Georgia’s justice system.