Prior to joining the firm in 1985, Mr. Levitas was a Representative from Dekalb County in the Georgia General Assembly from 1966 to 1975 and represented Georgia’s 4th Congressional District in the United States House of Representatives from 1975 to 1985.

Mr. Levitas spent five consecutive terms in the Georgia General Assembly and at the end of each term was named "One of the Ten Most Effective Members" by his colleagues. He was on the Judiciary, Education and Banking Committees and was Chairman of the Committee on State Planning and Community Affairs and of the Joint Committee on Mass Transit.

In March 1999, Mr. Levitas joined the plaintiffs’ litigation team in the historic class action of Cobell v. Norton. Throughout these years, he along with several colleagues represented more than 300,000 Native Americans suing the United States government for breach of trust and for an accounting in connection with the lands and billions of dollars of Indian trust funds held by the United States since the 1880’s.

In October 2007, it was determined that the Department of the Interior has not -- and cannot -- remedy the breach of its fiduciary duty to account for the IIM trust. Following the Court of Appeals remand of the case to the District Court, the District Court Judge Robertson ordered settlement negations between high level officials in the government and the plaintiffs. The negotiations resulted in a settlement signed in 2009 for $3.4 billion and the enabling legislation was enacted in 2010.

Mr. Levitas received the Thomas B. Murphy Lifetime Achievement Award from the Democratic Party of Georgia in 2008. Mr. Levitas is a 2012 recipient of the prestigious Emory Medal, the highest University honor presented exclusively to alumni by the Emory Alumni Association, “for his commitment to civic service and his unrelenting defense of justice for our nation's underserved populations.” He was recognized in The Best Lawyers in America^® for Government Relations Law in 2016 and the nine years immediately preceding and has been recognized as one of Georgia's "Legal Elite" for Governmental Affairs in Georgia Trend Magazine. Mr. Levitas is AV^® rated by Martindale-Hubbell.* He has received a lifetime achievement award from ADL.

*CV, BV, and AV are registered certification marks of Reed Elsevier Properties Inc., used in accordance with the Martindale-Hubbell certification procedure's standards and policies.