Western Circuit Bar remembers State Court Judge in Athens

Several family members, including his wife, Karlene Lawrence, attended the luncheon, where Lawrence’s legacy in Athens was remembered by State Court Judge Charles Auslander and Superior Court Judge Lawton Stephens.

Many University of Georgia football fans remember Lawrence as a star wide receiver.

“If you were a child growing up in Athens, Georgia, in the 1960s, Kent Lawrence was a household name,” Stephens said about the man who became his close friend during their time with the judicial branch of law.

But after Lawrence’s playing days in college and the NFL, he returned to Athens to obtain a master’s degree while working for the UGA Police Department. In 1974, he became the first police chief for the newly formed Clarke County Police Department, according to Auslander, who described Lawrence’s rise to a seat on the bench where he was appointed in 1986 to the judgeship.

“He realized he had a true love for the law and decided he would enter law school while he was working full time,” Auslander said.

But it was while working in law enforcement and then as a lawyer that Auslander said Lawrence became “tired of seeing the same people coming before him with substance abuse issues” with no other solution offered but more jail time.

In 2000, Lawrence created the first DUI court, but with no such program in Georgia, he traveled to New York, Michigan and New Mexico to study how similar courts operated, according to Auslander.

Today, the court has 17 probation officers to supervise more than 3,000 people, and Lawrence also installed a drug lab that can provide drug-testing results in a hour.

“He was not an average person. He was not an average lawyer. He was not an average judge. He did not accept the status quo,” Auslander said, adding “he blazed a trail that we now follow.”

Stephens recalled that at age 12 he attended the 1966 UGA game against Georgia Tech, which was undefeated. He watched as Lawrence went out to return a punt.

“He took the punt back 75 yards for a touchdown and we beat Tech and ruined their undefeated season,” Stephens said.

Lawrence was a gifted athlete, “but you’d never know it if you saw him play golf,” Stephens joked as he leveled good-natured barbs that good friends share with a laugh.

“I’ll miss your compassion for the underdog and those people having a hard time in life, who came to your court seeking justice and found it,” he said.

“He knew that at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter how many touchdowns you score. It doesn’t’ matter how many cases you win. What really matters is how many people you help along the way and how many lives you’ve saved. By that measure, the legacy of Kent Lawrence will never be forgotten,” Stephens said.

Bar Association President Gregory Sowell told the gathering the Georgia Athletic Department has established a scholarship endowment for a student-athlete pursuing a degree in criminal justice. To contribute to the endowment in Lawrence’s honor, go to

https://thegeorgiabulldogclub.com/judgekentlawrence/