Law360 (September 2, 2020, 7:05 PM EDT) -- One of the moments that taught Southern Co. general counsel Jim Kerr the most about being a lawyer happened when he was about 5 years old, sitting across from an alleged  murderer in a jailhouse.

Kerr's father, a small-town lawyer in North Carolina, took him to a department store during the Christmas season to buy some shirts and underwear. His father said the gifts were for a client — a friend. They arrived at their local jail with the undergarments and sat at a table for a while with the client, an indigent man of color accused of murdering a small-town police chief.

That moment more than 50 years ago was one of a few that Kerr says profoundly shaped his view of what it means to be a lawyer, and the spirit of service and belief in human dignity that should be requisite for the job. Kerr, who comes from a long line of lawyers, served as an attorney and a public official before he took the helm of Southern Co.'s legal and compliance affairs.

"I can't remember ever not discussing [legal issues] around the dinner table," he said. "I was just part of a family that really came at life through a sort of legal, public-policy point of view."

Kerr's devotion to his clients and his public-policy expertise informed the changes and growth he led at Southern Co.'s legal department, landing him among 13 corporate counsel named Legends in Law by the Burton Awards this year.

He was nominated by Tye Darland, general counsel of Georgia-Pacific, who was himself a 2018 Legends in Law winner. Darland cited Kerr's outstanding performance at Southern Co., as well as his contributions to charity events in Atlanta.

Kerr was slated to be honored in-person at the Burton Awards' June ceremony at the Library of Congress, but the event was canceled because of the coronavirus. The next ceremony is scheduled for June 14, 2021. Law360 is a sponsor of the Burton Awards.

Kerr received his law degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1992 and then worked for nine years at Smith Anderson Blount Dorsett Mitchell & Jernigan LLP. He found that he preferred counseling and strategizing with clients to the competitive clash of litigation. He left private practice to take an appointment at the North Carolina Utilities Commission — a seven-year stint he said was among the most fun he has had professionally, but wasn't a good fit for his growing family.

He became a co-chair of McGuireWoods LLP's energy team and focused on consulting — a role that prepared him to take the legal reins at one of the largest U.S. energy companies.

When Kerr joined Southern Co. as general counsel in 2014, the company's legal department was outdated and wasn't the hub for legal, regulatory and compliance issues that it needed to be, he said.

Kerr transitioned the department to more of an in-house model and hired legal talent away from major firms in the region, he said. He credited the company's leadership with enabling him to make the changes and hire the right people.

"I've just been very fortunate to find really good talent," he said. "Once you do that, I think, it's easy to let go of some of these things."

Kerr also helped to handle the company's major acquisition of utility AGL Resources, which was completed in 2016, and has worked to foster diversity in his department.

"Atlanta is one of the great African American-led cities of the world," he said. "It's certainly a hub of minority leadership, commerce, art, music and movie production — a great, diverse city full of talented minority leadership."

He said he sees the role of lawyers as particularly important as nationwide protests against racial injustice wear on. He finds himself thinking often about that Christmastime trip to jail half a century ago.

--Editing by Kelly Duncan and Jill Coffey.

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