As of October 17, 2026. Times are Eastern.
From May 12 to May 15, 2026, William D. NeSmith III, Deputy General Counsel, State Bar of Georgia, sent this disabled dad six emails. Five went to me and no one else, though every email he was answering had copied the Bar’s leadership. Five of his six answered an email that had copied the State ADA Coordinator’s Office. The headers are below.
Mistakes do happen and thank you for promptly correcting the email.
William D. NeSmith III, May 13, 2026, 12:41 PM
He Cut Everyone Else Off the Email:
At 2:12 PM on May 12, 2026, William D. NeSmith III answered my May 11 email. Mine had gone to John J. Shiptenko, copied to General Counsel Russell D. Willard, to William D. NeSmith III himself, to Leigh Burgess, Andreea N. Morrison, Adrienne D. Nash, Bar President Christopher P. Twyman and the State ADA Coordinator’s Office. His answer, the one that says the Bar is “not a public entity,” went to me alone.
I had told them why the list mattered. My May 11 email said: “I am copying the same distribution you used on May 7, plus Ms. Nash, the State ADA Coordinator’s Office, and Bar President Twyman, so there is one shared record going forward.”
He did it again at 6:37 PM. Then at 7:34 AM. Then at 1:29 PM. Then on May 15. Five times out of six, as of October 17, 2026, is not a slip. It is a pattern.
The Headers, Email by Email:
Every row is from the message headers. “Me alone” means the To line names me and there is no Cc line.
| # | His email (Eastern) | Sent to | The email he was answering was copied to |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | May 12, 2026, 2:12 PM (“ADA response”) | Me alone | Willard, NeSmith, Burgess, Morrison, Nash, Twyman, State ADA Coordinator’s Office (my May 11, 5:00 PM email, sent to Shiptenko) |
| 2 | May 12, 2026, 6:37 PM (“I am available at 11.30 only.”) | Me alone | Willard, Twyman (two addresses), Shiptenko, Nash, Burgess, Morrison, State ADA Coordinator’s Office (my May 12, 3:40 PM email, sent to him) |
| 3 | May 13, 2026, 7:34 AM (withdrew the meeting) | Me alone | Willard, Twyman (two addresses), Shiptenko, Nash, Burgess, Morrison, State ADA Coordinator’s Office (my May 12, 8:54 PM email, sent to him) |
| 4 | May 13, 2026, 12:41 PM (“Mistakes do happen”) | Me, copied to Willard, Twyman (one address), Shiptenko, Nash, Burgess, Morrison | Willard, Twyman (two addresses), Shiptenko, Nash, Burgess, Morrison, State ADA Coordinator’s Office (my May 13, 12:05 PM email, sent to him) |
| 5 | May 13, 2026, 1:29 PM (“tomorrow”) | Me alone | Same list as row 4 (my May 13, 12:05 PM email) |
| 6 | May 15, 2026, 11:05 AM (the limit on correspondence) | Me alone | Burgess, Morrison, Nash, Shiptenko, NeSmith (my May 14, 6:26 PM email, sent to Willard and Twyman) |
The count, as of October 17, 2026:
| What | Count |
|---|---|
| Emails William D. NeSmith III sent me | 6 |
| Sent to me alone | 5 |
| Copied to anyone | 1 (May 13, 12:41 PM) |
| Of his 6, copied to the State ADA Coordinator’s Office | 0 |
| Of his 6, answering an email that had copied the State ADA Coordinator’s Office | 5 |
The One He Copied, and Who He Still Left Off:
At 12:41 PM on May 13, 2026, William D. NeSmith III did copy six people from the State Bar of Georgia: Russell D. Willard, Christopher P. Twyman, John J. Shiptenko, Adrienne D. Nash, Leigh Burgess and Andreea N. Morrison. He wrote: “Mistakes do happen and thank you for promptly correcting the email.”
The email he answered, mine of 12:05 PM, had eight addresses on its copy line. One, Christopher P. Twyman’s State Bar address, had already bounced back to me as undeliverable on May 12. Of the seven that worked, he kept every State Bar address and removed one: the State ADA Coordinator’s Office.
I Asked Him in Writing to Stop:
At 8:54 PM on May 12, 2026, I wrote: “I am restoring the institutional cc list to this reply.” And: “please do not transmit further correspondence in this matter to me alone.”
After that request he sent me four more emails. Three of them went to me alone: 7:34 AM and 1:29 PM on May 13, and 11:05 AM on May 15.
At 11:56 AM on May 13 I wrote it again: “No further one-recipient correspondence should be sent to me in this matter.” His 1:29 PM email that afternoon went to me alone.
What I Allege:
- He cut everyone else off the email. I allege that on May 12, 2026, at 2:12 PM, William D. NeSmith III, Deputy General Counsel, State Bar of Georgia, answered my May 11, 2026 email, which had copied the Bar’s General Counsel, its President, four other Bar lawyers and the State ADA Coordinator’s Office, by writing to me alone. Source: the headers of his 2:12 PM email and of my May 11, 5:00 PM email quoted inside it.
- He did it again, and again. I allege that he sent me five of his six emails with no one copied, on May 12 at 2:12 PM and 6:37 PM, on May 13 at 7:34 AM and 1:29 PM, and on May 15 at 11:05 AM, as of October 17, 2026. Source: the headers of each email.
- After I asked him in writing to stop. I allege that at 8:54 PM on May 12, 2026 I asked him in writing not to send me further correspondence alone, and that three of his next four emails went to me alone. Source: my 8:54 PM email; his 7:34 AM, 1:29 PM and May 15, 11:05 AM emails.
- The State ADA office never got his words from him. I allege that in five of his six emails, the email he was answering had copied the State ADA Coordinator’s Office, and that the office was copied on none of the six he sent. Upon information and belief, the State ADA Coordinator’s Office never received from him the sentence “we are not required to have a published ADA Coordinator.” It saw that sentence because I forwarded it, at 2:37 PM on May 12, 2026, with that office copied. Sources: the headers above; my May 12, 2:37 PM forward.
- Even the copied one cut the State ADA office. I allege that his only copied email, May 13 at 12:41 PM, kept every working State Bar address from the email he was answering and removed one recipient: the State ADA Coordinator’s Office. Sources: the headers of his 12:41 PM email and my 12:05 PM email; the May 12 undeliverable notice for Christopher P. Twyman’s State Bar address.
- A pattern. It appears to me that this was a pattern, not a slip. Five times in four days. Three of them came after a written request to stop. On May 15, 2026 he wrote that the State Bar “rejects your characterization of ordinary administrative communications, scheduling issues, and internal correspondence practices as evidence of misconduct”. Five solo emails out of six is the internal correspondence practice I saw. Source: his May 15, 2026, 11:05 AM email.
What This Cost a Disabled Dad:
Every time he answered me alone, I had to put the list back by hand: find each address, forward, rewrite. I do that with assistive technology I pay for. On May 13 I wrote: “Every solo email forces me to reconstruct the distribution, forward to every stripped recipient, and redraft on the restored list.”
Is this how they would treat their own family or friends that were disabled
What This Page Does Not Say:
This page does not say why William D. NeSmith III left people off. It shows who was on each email and who was not. Calling it cutting everyone else off is my opinion based on my experience. The headers are the facts.
I have invited the State Bar of Georgia to identify any inaccuracy on this page. As of October 17, 2026, it has identified none.