ABOUT HARMON CALDWELL, JR.

FOUNDER

Harmon Caldwell was born in Athens, Georgia in 1948. His parents moved to Atlanta shortly after his birth, and he attended The Westminster Schools in Atlanta. He graduated cum laude from Georgia State University in 1974 with a Bachelor of Visual Arts degree and a major in sculpture; he is the only lawyer in Georgia who also holds a Bachelor of Visual Arts (BVA) degree.

He won a number of awards and prizes for his art, including the first prize for sculpture at the prestigious Winter Park Sidewalk Arts Festival in 1974. Nonetheless, he decided that he could not make a living making art and decided to attend law school. Even so, his art training turned out to be an asset for his trial practice, and he regularly utilizes visual aids during his trials to represent details to juries.

He earned his Juris Doctor (cum laude) from the University of Georgia Law School in 1977. He continues to stay involved with UGA .

In 1994, he opened his own firm. He enjoys the practice of law, working with clients, and the intellectual challenge of presenting a client’s case in the most effective way possible. Over the years, many of his clients have become close personal friends.

He is married to the former Cathleen O’Donnell and has 3 children: Harmon III, Kimberly, and Reagan, all graduates of UGA.

Hobbies

While in high school, Harmon became interested in cars and top fuel drag racing. He worked on anybody’s car who would pay him, saved his money, and in the summer following high school, went to California in his mother’s station wagon and got everything he needed to go racing, other than an engine. He tied the race car frame to the top of the station wagon and brought it back home. Several weeks later, he had cobbled enough engine parts together to race in Phenix City, Alabama.

In those days, to have an “unlimited” drag racing license, a driver had to have 2 other drivers certify they were willing to ride down the track next to him. The 2 drivers who vouched for Harmon were Bob Stewart from Minneapolis and Danny Ongais, a California racer who later gained fame as an Indy car driver.

He raced almost every weekend at different tracks throughout the U.S. Most runs would result in a top speed of well over 200 mph. He learned quickly that promoters would pay more to have a full-bodied car for the crowds to watch. So, in 1967, he went back to California and had race car body builder Tom Hanna construct a full body to cover the frame. Those years were incredible, and his experience in dealing with all kinds of folks “on the road” was invaluable training for his trial work.

Foward-THinking

In the mid-90s, he designed and built a commuter electric car. The car worked brilliantly, and there were a number of favorable stories about it in the media, magazines, and TV shows. Unfortunately, his efforts to raise capital and produce the car went nowhere due to the lesser appeal of electric vehicles at the time.

He also has a wonderful collection of toy trains. The trains range from a Milton Bradley toy train manufactured in 1881 to some made in 2020, and hundreds in between.

He has built a layout for the trains, which was featured in the November 2019 edition of Classic Toy Trains magazine. The layout is 36 feet long and 12 feet wide.

He has run numerous marathons throughout the United States, including the New York City Marathon. He and his oldest son have run 31 consecutive 10K July 4th Peachtree Road races. His younger son has now run 11.

Harmon has traveled extensively with his wife and children. He has biked through the Provence, Burgundy, and the Loire Valley regions of France. He and his daughter were at Normandy Beach on the 65th anniversary of D-Day.