The entry of an appearance or request for withdrawal by an attorney who is a member or an employee of a law firm or professional corporation shall relieve the other members or employees of the same law firm or professional corporation from the necessity of filing additional entries of appearance or requests for withdrawal in the same action.
Rule 4.5.Entries of Appearance and Withdrawals by Members or Employees of Law Firms or Professional Corporations
Rule 4. ATTORNEYS APPEARANCE, WITHDRAWAL AND DUTIES · Not amended since adoption on record · Last verified July 17, 2026
In one sentenceRule 4.5 relieves the other members or employees of a law firm or professional corporation from filing their own entry of appearance or withdrawal request once one lawyer at that firm has entered an appearance or asked to withdraw in a Georgia superior court case.
Full Text of Rule 4.5
Plain-English Summary
This is a housekeeping rule that saves paper. Once one attorney at a law firm or professional corporation enters an appearance in a case, nobody else at that firm needs to file a duplicate entry just because they might also touch the file. The same goes in reverse: when one lawyer at the firm files a withdrawal request, the rest of the firm doesn’t need to file matching paperwork to step back too.
The practical effect is that courts and opposing counsel can treat a firm-wide appearance as covered by a single filing, rather than expecting every associate or partner who works on a matter to show up separately in the court file. It keeps the docket clean without changing anything about who represents the client — that’s still governed by the entry of appearance requirements in Rule 4.2 and the withdrawal procedure in Rule 4.3.
Frequently Asked Questions
If one lawyer at a firm files an entry of appearance, must every other lawyer at the firm file one too?
No. The rule relieves the other members or employees of the same firm from filing additional entries of appearance.
Does the same relief apply to withdrawal requests?
Yes. A request for withdrawal filed by one member or employee of the firm relieves the others from filing separate withdrawal requests in the same action.
Does this rule cover professional corporations as well as traditional law firms?
Yes, the rule applies to members or employees of a law firm or a professional corporation.
Does this rule change who counts as attorney of record?
The rule does not address that directly — it only relieves other firm members from duplicate filings; the requirements for what an entry of appearance must contain are set out in Rule 4.2.
Why does Rule 4.5 exist?
It spares a law firm from having to file repetitive, identical appearance or withdrawal paperwork for every lawyer at the firm connected to the same case.
Source & verification. Rule text and amendment history are
reproduced verbatim from the Uniform Superior Court Rules, published by the
Council of Superior Court Judges of Georgia. Last verified July 17, 2026.
· Official source
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