Zahra Karinshak, Partner, and Josh McLaurin, Associate, won their elections to the Georgia Senate and House respectively on November 6, 2018. Zahra is now Senator-Elect for District 48 which encompasses Gwinnett and North Fulton counties. Josh is now Representative-Elect for District 51 which encompasses parts of parts of Sandy Springs, Roswell, and Johns Creek in Fulton County.

Zahra Karinshak focuses her practice on whistleblower cases (False Claims Act/qui tam), white collar criminal defense, corporate internal investigations, and complex civil litigation.  Due to her experience and expertise, Zahra has been called upon numerous times to be a legal analyst in high profile cases.  For 8 years, Zahra served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia.  As a federal prosecutor, Zahra gained extensive experience in conducting grand jury investigations, trials, and prosecuting cases involving fraud, public corruption, money laundering, violent crimes, child exploitation, and immigration.  Zahra also has briefed and argued cases before the Eleventh Circuit.  Prior to serving as a federal prosecutor, Zahra served as the Deputy Executive Counsel to Georgia Governor Roy Barnes, was an associate at Sutherland, and clerked for the Honorable J.L. Edmondson, Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals.

Zahra is a graduate of Emory University School of Law, Order of the Coif, with distinction, where she was a Sidney Parks Scholar and Editor-in-Chief of the Emory Law Journal. Zahra received her B.S. from the United States Air Force Academy. She was a Captain in the Air Force serving as an intelligence officer and was the top graduate from intelligence school, with the highest academic average in the course’s history. Zahra received the Meritorious Service Medal, the Air Force Commendation Medal, and other awards. She has also been named as part of the Top 50 Women Lawyers in Georgia by Super Lawyers for multiple years.
 
Josh McLaurin is a litigation associate who focuses his practice on commercial litigation and appeals. Josh has designed appellate strategies in several multi-million-dollar federal cases presenting a diverse range of issues.  He regularly consults for and participates in trial teams starting at the very beginning of litigation, approaching every legal theory or argument with an eye toward how it would hold up on appeal.  Josh has participated in litigation involving securities, RICO, Qui Tam, contracts, partnership disputes and real estate litigation.

While in law school, Josh successfully litigated an appeal pro se in the Court of Appeals of Georgia concerning the public’s right to video-record courtroom proceedings in Georgia. The resulting opinion expanded the public’s right of access and was celebrated as a victory for openness and freedom of information in government.  Since graduating from Yale Law School, Josh clerked for Judges Jill Pryor and Robin S. Rosenbaum of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, practiced business litigation in the general litigation group of an Am Law 100 firm, and learned trial practice at an Atlanta-based personal injury firm.