Atlanta, Ga. – Carlton Fields is pleased to announce that Gail Podolsky, an associate in the firm’s Atlanta office, was elected president of the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia (ACLU). Podolsky will serve a one year term.

Podolsky has been a board member of ACLU for several years. In addition to her new role and commitment and support of the ACLU, she also partners with the ACLU on pro bono cases. Most recently, Podolsky and the ACLU secured a settlement from the city of Douglasville, Ga. on behalf of a Muslim woman who was told she could not enter a municipal courtroom unless she removed her religious headgear and was jailed for contempt of court and forced to remove her headscarf when she protested. Case details can be read here.

The ACLU of Georgia is one of 52 affiliates and has more than 6,000 card-carrying members and donors. It comprises two separate corporate entities, the ACLU of Georgia, and the ACLU Foundation of Georgia, both statewide organizations with the same overall mission: to advance the cause of civil liberties in Georgia, with emphasis on the rights of free speech, free press, free assembly, freedom of religion, due process of law and to take all legitimate action in the furtherance of such purposes without political partisanship.

In addition to Podolsky’s role with ACLU, she serves as a member of the International Trademark Association North America Subcommittee of the Parallel Imports Committee and the American Intellectual Property Law Association Anti-Counterfeiting and Anti-Piracy Committee and is a graduate of the Anti-Defamation League’s Glass Leadership Institute.

Podolsky practices in Carlton Fields’ Intellectual Property and Technology practice group. She has significant experience in trademark, trade dress, copyright and patent infringement, anti-counterfeiting, false advertising, misappropriation of trade secrets and unfair competition. Podolsky received her B.B.A. from Emory University and her J.D. from Emory University School of Law.