Jesse Spikes is a corporate lawyer in Atlanta, Georgia

Georgia (U.S. state)

Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...

, who was a candidate in the 2009 Atlanta mayoral race.

Early life

Originally from McDonough, Georgia

McDonough, Georgia

McDonough is a city in Henry County, Georgia, United States. The population was 22084 at the 2010 census. Inclusion of the unincorporated neighborhoods surrounding McDonough, which are not part of a town/city, raises the population to approximately 30,000 from an estimate in 2008. The city is the...

, Spikes is the son of a sharecropper. He grew up on a farm in Henry County

Henry County, Georgia

Henry County is a growing suburban county located in the U.S. state of Georgia. As of the 2000 census, the population was 119,341. As of 2010, the county's population swelled to 203,922, up 70.9% from the previous census and becoming Georgia's 8th most populous county and the 10th fastest growing...

, the last of 13 children. In his sophomore year in high school, Spikes left Georgia to attend Hanover High School

Hanover High School (New Hampshire)

Hanover High School is the only public high school in the Dresden School District, in Hanover, New Hampshire, USA. In 1963 it became the first interstate high school in the country as part of a bill that was the last ever signed into action by John F. Kennedy. Today it accepts students from...

 in New Hampshire

New Hampshire

New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state was named after the southern English county of Hampshire. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the Canadian...

 in a special program called “A Better Chance”. That opportunity catapulted him to Dartmouth College

Dartmouth College

Dartmouth College is a private, Ivy League university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. The institution comprises a liberal arts college, Dartmouth Medical School, Thayer School of Engineering, and the Tuck School of Business, as well as 19 graduate programs in the arts and sciences...

, to Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar, and to Harvard Law School

Harvard Law School

Harvard Law School is one of the professional graduate schools of Harvard University. Located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, it is the oldest continually-operating law school in the United States and is home to the largest academic law library in the world. The school is routinely ranked by the U.S...

. While at Dartmouth, Spikes played freshman football and was a long jumper on the track team.

Education

Spikes received a bachelor of arts degree from Dartmouth College in 1972. Spikes was selected to receive the Rhodes Scholarship and attended Oxford from 1972–1974. Following Oxford, Spikes attended Harvard Law School where he received his law degree in 1977.

Professional career

Currently a senior partner at McKenna, Long & Aldridge, based in the firm’s Atlanta office, Jesse Spikes is a corporate lawyer who focuses his practice on corporate transactions, governance and compliance, internal investigations and audits, as well as special committee representations. He also works with businesses in the area of advertising and marketing law, including the negotiation of endorsements and the preparation of licensing agreements. He was a candidate in the 2009 City of Atlanta mayoral race.

External links

• Ivy League Black History: Jesse Spikes