Prominent attorney and CNN contributor dies after drowning in rip current
A prominent attorney and CNN contributor drowned in the ocean after being swept away by a rip current.
Page Pate, 55, a lawyer from Atlanta, died on Sunday while swimming with his son at Gould’s Inlet Beach on St Simon’s Island off the coast of Georgia.
Pate’s son managed to reach shore safely, according to Glynn County Fire Rescue.
Pate graduated from the University of Georgia Law School in 1994 and became a renowned criminal defense lawyer in the Atlanta area.
He was a senior trial lawyer at the Pate, Johnson & Church law firm in Atlanta.
‘Page Pate was many things to many people – a husband, a father, a son, a mentor, a colleague, a friend and, most prominently, a trial lawyer, one who poured himself into his practice and fought hard for his clients,’ the firm stated.
Pate was also known as a contributor for legal stories on local and national TV networks. He was a frequent guest on CNN, as well as local Atlanta stations 11Alive and WABE News.
Pate was also a founding member of the Georgia Innocence Project, an organization advocating for the rights of people wrongly convicted of crimes.
The organization stated that Pate was ‘a fierce advocate for the criminally accused & unjustly convicted’.
Pate joined the organization’s board of directors in 2018 and chaired its Public Relations Committee.
‘Media savvy and passionate about GIP’s mission, Page understood the transformative potential of the stories GIP had to tell, and he was determined to help us harness that power for meaningful reform,’ the organization stated.
State Senator Jen Jordan said she was ‘devastated’ to hear the news about Pate, whom she called her friend of over 30 years.
‘He was brilliant, kind, professional – and could cross examine the hell out of a witness,’ Jordan stated. ‘Such a loss to his family & everyone who loved him.’
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