Tate, partner at the Cartersville firm Akin & Tate P.C., is widely recognized as one of the state's top trial lawyers, the State Bar news release said. 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."
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.
He has been a member of the State Bar's Board of Governors since 1996 and its Executive Committee since 2005, serving as treasurer from 2007 to 2009. He served as chair of the General Practice and Trial Section in 2002.
Tate is a fellow of the American Bar Association and the Lawyers Foundation of Georgia, as well as a member of the Georgia Trial Lawyers Association, the Georgia Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, the American Association of Justice and the ABA.
He 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 bachelor's of science degree from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1982 and his law degree from the University of South Carolina School of Law in 1987. He was admitted to practice law in Georgia in 1987.
Tate has served his community in a variety of ways. He was chairman of the Bartow United Way campaign in 1993; 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 Bartow's Advocates for Children.
Tate has two children, Sam, 20, and Grace, 17.