Coffee Connections Spotlight with Gwinnett County District Attorney Patsy Austin-Gatson
Join us for another Spotlight!
Gwinnett County District Attorney Patsy Austin-Gatson will be with us today. Expect to learn about how the DA'S office works and how the office is composed. You'll also learn about the challenges we're up against as a community and criminal prosecution. Lastly, learn about the hope the DA has in our bright future.
District Attorney Patsy Austin-Gatson is committed to the excellence of Gwinnett County, and her core values for prosecution are justice, fairness, and equity. Raised in New York, D.A. Austin-Gatson has practiced law for thirty-four years in both criminal and civil matters. D.A. Austin-Gatson graduated from Emory University, School of Law, and received a Bachelor of Science from Syracuse University, School of Human Development. She started her legal career with the Attorney General’s Office of Georgia, then became a law firm associate. She continued in private practice in 1992, when she opened her law firm, Austin & Associates, and handled criminal, family, and civil rights employment cases. Prior to her election, she was a Supervising Attorney in the Gwinnett County Solicitor’s Office. In the 2020 general election DA Austin-Gatson become the first woman and first African American to be elected to this Position in the history of Gwinnett County. She took office on January 1, 2021.
In her tenure, DA Austin-Gatson has hired over 80% of her 155-person staff, bringing in Investigators, Assistant District Attorneys, and staff from the community. Under her administration, she secured the first murder conviction in the State against drug dealers who sold fentanyl laced drugs unbeknownst to victims. She has worked at clearing the COVID felony case backlog, along with the cases left by the previous administration.
The conviction rates in 2023 are at 90% as she worked to expand training, tools, and the resources, to keep our communities safe. She brought in initiatives like RIZER for our Juvenile Courts, RED (Rehabilitation Enables Dreams) for 17–28-year-olds, along with the Jr DA and Investigator Mentorship program for our high school students. These programs never existed before in the office’s history.
She has been a Gwinnett County resident for twenty-five years where she and her husband, Travis Gatson, raised three children and have four grandchildren.
