Julie McGhee Howard

Julie Howard has had the pleasure of representing condominium and homeowner associations for most of her legal career. After law school, Julie completed a judicial clerkship and practiced general civil litigation before joining Weissman, Nowack, Curry & Wilco, PC in 1996. Julie was a shareholder and the managing partner of the community association practice at WNCW. In October 2016, after 20 years of working together, Julie and her law partner George Nowack founded NowackHoward, LLC, Community Association Attorneys.

Julie has extensive experience advising community associations through everyday issues, documenting amendments, reviewing and negotiating contracts, enforcing covenants, filing Fair Housing Act claims, as well as handling insurance defense, collections, and bankruptcy cases. Julie also regularly assists Boards of Directors with parliamentary procedure for annual and special meetings and enjoys keeping Boards up-to-date on hot topics and trends within community association law. Since 1998, Julie has been a licensed instructor for the Georgia Real Estate Commission, teaching the Community Association Managers' Pre-License Course as well as continuing education courses to Georgia's community association managers throughout the year.

An active member of the Community Associations Institute (CAI) since 1997, Julie has served CAI at every level. Based in Washington, DC, CAI has over 40,000 members and chapters throughout the country and is the nation's leading advocate for community associations. Julie is a past president, treasurer and secretary of the Georgia Chapter of CAI and served on the Chapter's Board of Directors for six years from 2002 to2007. Julie has served the Georgia Chapter through multiple committees and special projects and has been a featured speaker many times for CAI-Georgia homeowner programs. In 2003, Julie received CAI-Georgia's Rita Kennedy Award, the highest honor given by the Chapter. Julie received the Chapter’s Educator of the Year Award in 2017.

A passionate advocate for community associations, Julie is a long-time lobbyist for associations' legislative interests. Julie has been an active member of CAI-Georgia's Legislative Action Committee since 2007 and served as LAC Chair from 2011 to2013. In 2019, Julie became a charter member of CAI-Georgia’s Political Action Committee. Julie has helped draft every change to the Georgia Condominium Act and Georgia Property Owners' Association Act since 2007 and frequently testifies before Georgia Senate and House of Representatives Committees on proposed laws that could impact community associations.

Following her many years of Georgia Chapter leadership positions, Julie was elected to CAI's National Board of Trustees in 2009 and served as a National Trustee through 2015. During her tenure as Trustee, Julie also served on CAI's Audit Committee, Ethics Task Force and Nominating Committee. Julie also has regularly presented at CAI's Annual Conferences. Julie was honored to serve as CAI National President in 2014. As CAI President, Julie initiated a year-long national project to explore the future of community associations—Community Next: 2020 and Beyond –which brought together over 50 members and external stakeholders on four distinguished panels. The project culminated in a CAI special report published with Common Ground magazine in September 2016, which reported on what is to come for community associations. In May 2016, Julie received CAI National's Outstanding Volunteer Service Award for her many years of contributions to CAI and for her work on Community Next.

In 2008, in recognition of Julie's contributions to the practice of community association law and her high standards of professional and ethical conduct, Julie was elected to membership in the prestigious College of Community Association Lawyers. Julie was elected by her CCAL peers to the College’s Board of Governors in 2015 and was elected and served as the 2018 CCAL President. Julie completed her service on the CCAL Board of Governors as 2019 Immediate Past President. Julie previously served on the College's Membership Committee and continues to be an active member of the College’s Law Seminar Planning Committee, which she co-chaired from 2015 through 2018. Julie has also presented multiple times at the College's annual Law Seminar.

Julie and NowackHoward have both earned the AV Preeminent rating from Martindale-Hubbell, the legal profession’s most prestigious rating service. This top rating is shared by an elite group of just eight percent of all attorneys. Julie has also been designated a Super Lawyer by her peers.