About Lee Morris
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As a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and lawyer, Lee Morris is widely regarded as “The Taxpayer’s Friend” on the Fulton County Commission. He received his undergraduate degree from Duke University in three years, and practiced as a CPA before studying law at Emory University, where he was Managing Editor of the Emory Law Journal. Lee practiced law in Atlanta for nine years before serving as General Counsel and Chief Financial Officer for 32 years for an Atlanta-based architectural-engineering firm. For many years he taught Accounting for Lawyers at Emory Law School.
A Lifetime of Service
Lee has been committed to community service his whole life including coaching youth sports, serving as President of the Atlanta Council of Younger Lawyers and serving on the board of the Atlanta Bar Association. In 2003, Governor Perdue appointed Lee to the board of the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority (GRTA) where he served for three years, and currently serves on the Georgia Public Defenders Council, the state agency which oversees the statewide public defenders system. He has served on many non-profit boards, including:
• Midtown Alliance
• Regional Leadership Forum (chairman)
• Atlanta Urban League
• Atlanta Metro Group
• Common Cause Georgia
• Brookwood Alliance
• Literacy Action
• Piedmont Park Conservancy
• Buckhead Neighborhood Alliance (chairman)
• Atlanta Downtown Improvement District
• Buckhead Community Improvement District
• Midtown Improvement District
Lee was elected to the District 7 seat on the Atlanta City Council in November 1993, with 79% of the vote, and re-elected without opposition in November 1997. After chairing the City Utilities and Zoning committees during his first term, he chaired the Finance-Executive Committee for four years and was an outspoken critic of corruption and waste in government, but also a proponent of stronger environmental policy, new urbanism, alternatives to automobile-oriented policies and campaign finance reform. Among other accomplishments, he helped initiate the City’s sidewalk building program, introduced traffic calming, sponsored perhaps the first transit-oriented zoning in the region around the Buckhead MARTA Station and wrote legislation strengthening neighborhoods. He honored his pledge not to serve more than two terms by stepping down in December 2001.
Active Representing You
Lee is in his second four-year term as the Fulton County Commissioner representing District 3, which encompasses the southern part of Sandy Springs, all of Buckhead and parts of Midtown. In May 2014, Lee won a four-person primary without a runoff and took office the next January as there was no opponent in the November general election. He was unopposed for re-election in 2018.
Lee presently serves the Commission on the Audit Committee, the Defined Benefit Pension Board and the Defined Contribution Board. He also represents the County on the Atlanta Beltline Board and the Atlanta Development Authority/Invest Atlanta.
Personally
Born in Greenville, Alabama, in his youth Lee lived in 14 different cities until graduating from the public schools in suburban Washington, D.C. While at Emory and for a few years thereafter, Lee played rugby, despite childhood polio which required a series of surgeries until his teen years.
Lee has been active for 45 years in his church, St Dunstan‘s Episcopal, having served as vestryman, treasurer, youth advisor, Sunday School teacher, choir member, and occasional soloist and guitarist. He currently serves as treasurer and sings in the choir.
Lee was married for more than 40 years to the late Gilda Anne Walker. Their children are Carson Emily, Everett Lee, IV, and Jessie Claudia. If you want to see him smile, ask Lee about his six beloved grandchildren.
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