S. Lester Tate, III was installed as the 48th President of the State Bar of Georgia during the Annual Meeting Inaugural Gala on Saturday, June 19, 2010, at Amelia Island Plantation, Fla. Tate assumes leadership of the 41,000 member State Bar over a century after John W. Akin, a founding firm partner, held the same office.

A shareholder in Akin & Tate, P.C., Tate is widely recognized as one of the state's top trial lawyers. In 2007, Georgia Trend Magazine named him to its list of "Georgia's Legal Elite" and Atlanta Magazine has repeatedly named him as one of Georgia's "Super Lawyers."

Tate has spent his entire professional career as a courtroom trial lawyer. He was inducted into the American Board of Trial Advocates, one of the nation's most prestigious groups of trial lawyers, with the rank of "Advocate." He has also argued dozens of times in Georgia's state and federal appellate courts. Tate has been a member of the State Bar Board of Governors since 1996 and its Executive Committee since 2005, serving as Treasurer from 2007-09.

He served as chair of the General Practice and Trial Section in 2002. He is a fellow of the American Bar Association (ABA) and the Lawyer's Foundation of Georgia, as well as a member of the Georgia Trial Lawyers Association, a member of the Georgia Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, the American Association of Justice and the ABA.

Tate was elected to the board of the Federal Defender Program for two terms, ultimately becoming president. The Supreme Court of Georgia appointed Tate to the State Disciplinary Board's Investigative Panel, where he served as both vice chairman and chairman. He also served as a member and chairman of the Georgia Commission on Continuing Lawyer Competency.

Tate received his undergraduate degree from the Georgia Institute of Technology (1982) and his J.D. from The University of South Carolina School of Law (1987).

Tate has served his community in a variety of ways. He was chairman of the Bartow United Way campaign in 1995; coached baseball and soccer in Cartersville's youth sports programs; and coached the Woodland High School Mock Trial Program, for which he received the 1999-2000 Woodland High School Community Volunteer award. In 2009, the New Frontiers of Bartow County gave him the Friends of the Frontiers Award. He continues to serve as volunteer legal counsel for Advocates for Bartow's Children.

A single father, Tate has raised two children, his son, Sam, 20, and his daughter, Grace, 17. The Tates are members of Heritage Baptist Church in Cartersville, where he has been both Sunday school superintendent and a deacon.