BRIEFS
When Dean Richardson Lynn presented
Tracee R. Benzo, class of 2008, with the
John Marshall Law School’s Distinguished
Alumni Award in Chicago six years later, he
said, “She will eventually be president of
any organization she joins.”
One down, anyway. Benzo, a workers’
comp attorney, is the immediate past
president of the Georgia Association of
Black Women Attorneys (GABWA). “I like
to galvanize other people and be of service,
with the law as my catalyst,” she says.
Benzo ushered in her 2014 tenure with
GABWA—the almost 1,000-member
strong group dedicated to nurturing and
supporting black women attorneys—
Part of that future was harnessing
technology. “We started online streaming,
so even those outside the country can
attend CLEs or general body meetings,”
she says. “We were able to bring everyone
together.”
Other points in her initiative included a
focus on increasing diversity in the state’s
judiciary. “We led seminars to educate
voters and lawyers about the judiciary and
the voting process,” she says. “We are
activists. GABWA gets in before anyone
else is willing to say one word.”
During her tenure, GABWA created a
documentary, Her Story, about the history
of the organization, and saw membership
numbers hit record levels—a point of pride
FROM PARALEGAL TO PARTNER TO PRESIDENT—AND NOW PRINCIPAL AT BENZO LAW—
IT’S BEEN A STEADY CLIMB FOR TRACEE R. BENZO BY AMY KATES
THE BENZO WAY
for Benzo. Her relationship with GABWA
began in law school, when she was the
recipient of the organization’s foundation
scholarship.
“Let me tell you, these women put you
to work,” she says. “And I am grateful. I
got so much out of it, even when I was just
a person in the room. I climbed the ranks,
not setting out to be president, but the role
was a fantastic leadership opportunity—
once you finish that tenure, you feel ready
to take on anything.”
Like starting a solo shop, which Benzo
did in March 2015. It was just one more
transition to add to Benzo’s history of
move-making. Her first stop was Hasner
Law in Atlanta. “I was my ex-law partner’s
paralegal, then I became an associate,
then partner,” she says. “I learned so much
at Hasner; I grew up there, built my own
book of business. But it was time for me to
leave the nest and fly, to do it the Benzo
way: top-tier litigation boutique services. I
want to change Georgia and the world, and
this is my first stop.
“I was just reading an article, ‘Why Small
Businesses Fail,’ because I want to know
why,” she says, adding, “That won’t happen
here. I’m so energized and rejuvenated
to succeed. I recently set up our health
insurance plan … even doing that on my
With a statewide workers’ compensation
practice, there’s nothing typical about
Benzo’s day. “I’m either working on
business issues, or attending mediation, or
spending time with clients,” she says. One
of those was a 35-year-old woman who
received a telephone call on the morning
of her 10th wedding anniversary that her
husband was killed.
“She’s waiting for her husband to come
home, to go out and celebrate a decade of
love; meanwhile, his supervisor is backing
up an 18-wheeler that crushes him,”
Benzo says. “We were able to get that
case accepted, paid out and settled under
She also had a recent client who
couldn’t read or write. “He needed me to
be his lawyer because he couldn’t do these
simple things,” she says. “Now he knows
we’re going to educate him, advocate for
him. Story after story, that’s our motto:
to educate and to advocate. It is a great
responsibility. I know we’re changing the
world one family at a time.”
