Ron Daniels Receives Award from the State Bar of Georgia

Ron Daniels, the official attorney for the Montgomery County Board of Commissioners and a number of other Georgia local authorities, received the Ross Adams Award from the Young Lawyers division of the State Bar of Georgia’s 2026 annual meeting.

The Ross Adams Award is the second highest honor he can receive as a Georgia lawyer, Daniels said, right after the Lifetime Achievement Award, which he said he is far too young to receive.

“It really is the penultimate award a young lawyer – a former Young Lawyer division president – can receive other than the Lifetime Achievement from the State Bar of Georgia, and I obviously am nowhere near the point in my life where I should be getting a lifetime achievement award,” he said. “So, it’s pretty much the highest honor I could get.”

Daniels served as the 76th president of the Young Lawyers division from 2022 to 2023, where he had to make the decision on who would receive the Ross Adams award. He described the process as “grueling” as he was unsure who to pick, eventually settling on John C. Sammon.

“It’s hard for me to imagine myself getting this award, and I hope that as much as people think I earned it, that I actually do all those things, and keep doing them and keep earning it,” said Daniels. “Because, I don’t think it’s just something you go put on a shelf. I think it’s a commitment to this is what you’ve done, and this is what you’re going to keep doing.”

Daniels was not originally committed to becoming a lawyer. He likened his early career ambitions to his young daughter who, when asked what she would like to be when she grows up, answers “a pirate astronaut.”

“The closest thing I had to… any experience with lawyers was watching Matlock with my grandparents during the summer,” said Daniels. 

Daniel’s version of the pirate astronaut became a desire to be a history teacher as he became the first in his family to go to college. He began considering law school at the suggestion of some friends, and eventually found himself in a business law course while attending Georgia Southwestern State University in Americus.

“I enjoyed it, and I asked [the professor] if I could come intern with him for a semester and get class credit for it, and he agreed to,” said Daniels.

The jury trials and municipal work he assisted with during his internship spurred Daniels to apply for law school. He graduated in May 2012, took the bar exam in July and received his results in October.

Daniels began his work representing government authorities with the Heart of Georgia Regional Airport Authority in Eastman, assisting the authority during a transition period. Through his work in Eastman, he caught the attention of the Perry-Houston County Airport Authority and eventually local governments.

Today, Daniels represents several local government authorities, including Montgomery County, Telfair County, the Eastman-Dodge County Development Authority, the Heart of Georgia Regional Airport Authority, the city of Ryan, the city of Milan and the Perry-Houston County Airport Authority. He also represents the seven Department of Corrections facilities in the local circuit, as well as the circuits division of child support services.

“I have a fun calendar,” said Daniels.

In Montgomery County, Daniels serves as the appointed attorney for the Montgomery County Board of Commissioners. In addition to representing the board and other Montgomery County departments in court, he also provides them with legal advice during government meetings, as well as enforcing parliamentary procedure.

“It’s to, if they have legal questions during the meeting, to opine about those things and give them an opinion,” said Daniels.

During most Montgomery County Board of Commissioners meetings, Daniels sits alongside the board members, ready to provide legal counsel when called upon or when the topic calls for a legal expert.

For many questions, Daniels already has an answer at hand, such as whether or not the board can implement an ordinance mandating residents only own a green car (according to Daniels, the answer is no). He also has access to his laptop during meetings in order to research any issues which he may not know.

“Sometimes you get questions that you have to go look, and I’m always somewhat careful about that, just because sometimes you are surprised with what’s out there, what you can and cannot do,” said Daniels.

Another one of Daniel’s responsibilities as county attorney is to assist in drafting local ordinances and other legislative documents. When working on these documents, Daniels attempts to research similar legislation in Georgia to guide his drafting process.

“There’s a lot of research that goes into that just right out of the gate, because what I have found in 14 years of practicing law is that somebody most likely has done it before, and there’s some benefit to that because you see what works and you see what doesn’t work,” said Daniels.

He also makes an effort to anticipate what his clients – the board – will want in a particular ordinance and incorporate those desires into the document as best he can. For example, when the board discussed a potential land use ordinance regarding data centers on July 9, Daniels preemptively incorporated a suggestion from Commissioner Leland Adams into the ordinance draft, as he knew the board members would likely ask for its inclusion.

He also tries to future-proof ordinances in order to avoid amendments due to changes and oversights, since “if you do it right the first time, you shouldn’t need to go fiddle with it a thousand times.” Although, he admits not every problem can be foreseen in advance.

“Ronnie Piper had a quote when he was doing his promos, [it’s], ‘Just when they think they have all the answers, I change all the questions,’” said Daniels. “I think that’s very true about life.”