David E. Nahmias

David E. Nahmias (nah-mee-us) is a partner in the Atlanta office of the global law firm Jones Day. He uses his broad experience and distinguished judgment as a former Georgia Supreme Court Justice and senior U.S. Justice Department official to counsel organizations and individuals on government and internal investigations, compliance and regulatory matters, and high-stakes litigation and appeals. Dave also teaches State Constitutional Law as an Adjunct Professor at the Emory University School of Law.

Dave served as a Justice on Georgia's highest court for nearly 13 years, including three years as Presiding Justice and the final year as Chief Justice. Appointed in 2009, he won two statewide elections to six-year terms. He authored more than 470 published opinions and joined more than 2,700 others while becoming an influential leader in the judiciary. He also chaired the Judicial Council of Georgia, the Commission on Professionalism, and the Court's Committee on Justice for Children, and served as the liaison Justice to Georgia's judicial ethics commission. The Chief Justice of the United States appointed Dave to serve on the U.S. Judicial Conference's Advisory Committee on Civil Rules from 2013 to 2018.

Before taking the bench, Dave served for almost 15 years in the U.S. Justice Department. As an Assistant U.S. Attorney in Atlanta, he handled high-profile fraud, public corruption, and domestic terrorism cases and was lead counsel for multiple jury trials. After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Dave worked in the Criminal Division in Washington, including as the Deputy Assistant Attorney General overseeing the Fraud, Counterterrorism, and Appellate Sections.

In late 2004, Dave was unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate as the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia — the chief federal law enforcement official for metropolitan Atlanta and more than six million residents. For almost five years, Dave supervised significant terrorism, public corruption, and corporate, health care, and other fraud cases. He also served on the Attorney General's Advisory Committee (AGAC) and chaired the AGAC's subcommittees on both White Collar Crime and Terrorism and National Security.

The child of immigrants from Egypt and Germany, Dave grew up in Atlanta and attended Duke University, where he graduated summa cum laude and second in his class, and Harvard Law School, where he graduated magna cum laude and served on the Law Review.  After law school, Dave served as a law clerk for Judge Laurence H. Silberman on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and for Justice Antonin Scalia on the U.S. Supreme Court before working for a large law firm in Washington, D.C.

Dave has two sons with his late wife, Catherine O'Neil, and three step-daughters with his wife Linda Willis.