Dr. Roderick Edmond is the distinguished founding and managing partner of Edmond Lindsay & Atkins LLP, an Atlanta law firm specializing in wrongful death and catastrophic personal injury cases.
He has a bachelor’s degree in biology from Morehouse College, a medical degree from Duke University, and a Juris Doctor degree from Georgetown University. Throughout his career, Edmond has successfully litigated multiple
multimillion-dollar cases and won one of the largest settlements in one South Carolina county’s history.
What made you go from practicing medicine to practicing law?
Like many things in life, law essentially chose me. I practiced family medicine for about 12 years. I got a law degree simply to distinguish myself and to be in executive medicine. … I got a call from a friend of mine, Charles Mathis, who was a great trial lawyer and needed some help. After 18 months [of working with him], I got a call from Johnnie Cochran. I worked with Johnnie as a lawyer in his firm here in Atlanta for about 18 months.
When did you realize that you had a love for the city of Atlanta?
Atlanta is my home. I am a native Atlantan. All roads, wherever I went, were eventually going to lead back to Atlanta. … I’ve traveled to numerous cities throughout the nation, and Atlanta has something special. What is most special about Atlanta is that you have African Americans doing things at the highest levels in every field of human endeavor — and it is the norm, it is not the exception.
How does Atlanta support Black entrepreneurs?
I think it probably started back with [Alonzo] Herndon. He was a Black entrepreneur back in the 1920s and ’30s. He had barber shops, and he turned those barber shops into insurance companies. [Then, former Atlanta mayor] Maynard Jackson basically sent the message out [to] all people, Black and White, that this is a city that is about diversity and inclusion. … Atlanta chose a path of diversity, insisting that minorities get participation in all city contracts and businesses. That’s what makes Atlanta special. We built a bigger pie by including more people.
Culturally, what are some of the things you feel are a part of the fabric of Atlanta?
The first is the Atlanta University Center [and its] historically Black colleges. … That, [in] my opinion, [is] the deepest, richest and most powerful resource for Black folks here in Atlanta. Graduates from the Atlanta University Center have gone on to do tremendous things at the highest level globally. After that comes the church. Ebenezer Baptist Church is my home church, [and the] Rev. [Dr. Raphael] Warnock is my pastor. [Ebenezer] is the home church of Daddy King and Martin Luther King Jr. That trails into the third thing —the base of the civil rights movement. The leadership of the civil rights movement came through Atlanta from Atlanta.
To learn more about Edmond, visit his website by clicking here.
