From I-85 bridge fire to Gucci Mane: Atlanta defense attorney joins national board

ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) — A prominent Atlanta attorney who represented the mother of a toddler who died in a hot car has been elected to serve on the board of directors of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

Lawrence Zimmerman represented Leanna Taylor (formerly Leanna Harris), the mother of Cooper Harris, the toddler who died in 2014 after being left in a hot SUV by his father, Justin Ross Harris.

While Justin Ross Harris was prosecuted, convicted, and later had his murder conviction overturned in 2022, Leanna Harris was under media and police scrutiny. Zimmerman successfully shielded her from prosecution and navigated her public defense.

Zimmerman, who has been practicing criminal defense law in Atlanta for more than 25 years, also represented rapper Gucci Mane - real name Radric Delantic Davis - who was on probation for an assault conviction. Davis was arrested in 2014 for possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, possession of marijuana and DUI.

Davis was facing a prison sentence of more than three years, but Zimmerman was able to reduce that sentence to one year.

In 2017, a massive fire broke out under an overpass of I-85 at Piedmont Road, quickly escalating and melting the bridge’s concrete and steel supports, causing a major section of the interstate to collapse. This cut off a critical transportation artery for 250,000 daily commuters.

Police arrested Basil Eleby, a 39-year-old homeless man, and accused him of smoking crack cocaine and setting fire to a sofa chair on a shopping cart under the bridge.

Zimmerman joined a high-powered, pro-bono team of civil rights and defense attorneys - including Mawuli Davis, Gerald Griggs, Gary Spencer and Tiffany Roberts - to defend Eleby.

They argued Eleby was being used as a scapegoat to deflect blame from the Georgia Department of Transportation, which had stored massive amounts of highly combustible high-density plastic piping under the bridge for years.

Rather than going to trial where Eleby faced 25 years in prison, Zimmerman and the defense team negotiated a deal, and in December 2017, prosecutors agreed to transfer Eleby’s case to Fulton County’s Behavioral Health Treatment Court.

On February 28, 2020, Eleby successfully graduated from the 18-month mental health and sobriety program, and all felony arson and property damage charges against him were officially dismissed.

Zimmerman attended University of Florida undergraduate school and law school at Roger Williams University in Rhode Island. After law school, he moved to Atlanta and opened his own law firm within the first six months of practicing as a lawyer.

He is a past president of the Georgia Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, and also serves on the board for the Southern Center for Human Rights.

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