City of Savannah City Attorney Brooks Stillwell announced his retirement at the City Council workshop. Stillwell has served as the City Attorney since November 2012. He will retire from the City on December 1, 2018.

Stillwell was elected to City Council in 1974, and served in that position until 1991. He served as the Mayor Pro Tem from 1990 to 1991. In his remarks to Council, Stillwell said that he had attended approximately 600 council meetings over his 23 years of service as a council member and city attorney.

Stillwell said, “I am honored to have had the privilege to serve the City of Savannah and to work with six Mayors, five City Managers and many council members, state and federal elected officials, staff members and citizens over the years. I have great memories of the many battles won and sometimes lost over that time, and I know that the City is in a much better economic and physical state today than it was when I started as an alderman at age 28. I look forward to working with my many friends in the city and the private sector in my new capacity as a private citizen going forward.”

Mayor Eddie DeLoach praised Stillwell for his decades of public service.  “I cannot begin to thank him enough for his dedicated service and the love he has shown for the city he calls home,” he said. 

The City will conduct a nationwide executive search for a new city attorney.

Stillwell practiced law as a partner at Hunter Maclean, the largest firm in Georgia outside of Atlanta, from 1971 until 2012. He graduated cum laude in 1968 from Wake Forest University and from the University of Georgia School of Law in 1971.  Once he retires from the City, Stillwell will continue a limited private law practice in Savannah.

Stillwell’s past professional and community involvement includes:

• Past Chair, Real Property Law Section, State Bar of Georgia

• Past President, Savannah Bar Association

• Fellow, American College of Real Estate Lawyers

• World Trade Center Savannah: Director

• 200 Club of the Coastal Empire: Secretary; Director

• Chatham County Board of Elections: Chairman, 2000-2003

• Savannah Economic Development Authority: Director 2007-2012

• Savannah Business Hall of Fame

• Leadership Savannah and Leadership Georgia