Ken Shigley was recently elected  Secretary of the State Bar of Georgia, a volunteer leadership position that does not conflict with active law practice. He succeeds Bryan Cavan, who is moving up from Secretary to President-Elect.  Ken has served on the State Bar Executive Committee and Board of Governors, as chair of the Member Benefits Committee and Tort & Insurance Practice Section, and on a wide variety of State Bar committees.

With his practice focused primarily on truck and bus transportation litigation and trials, he has served as chair of the Southeastern Motor Carrier Liability Institute and on the national advisory board of the Association of Interstate Trucking Lawyers of America.  He is a frequent speaker on national continuing legal education programs regarding trucking and personal injury trial practice.

Mr. Shigley’s professional peer ratings include:
•    “AV” (Highest rating in Martindale-Hubbell Law Directory)
•    "Super Lawyer” (Atlanta Magazine)
•    “Legal Elite” (Georgia Trend)
•    Certified Civil Trial Advocate (National Board of Trial Advocacy
•    Listed in the Bar Register of Preeminent Lawyers

Mr. Shigley has more than three decades experience as a lawyer and has completed over 120 jury trials to verdict. He has represented clients in litigation of civil cases in 30 of Georgia's judicial circuits, the United States District Courts for the Northern, Middle and Southern Districts of Georgia and the Southern District of Florida, state courts in Alabama and Nevada, the United States Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, and the Supreme Court of the United States.

After graduating from Emory University Law School, he went home to begin his career as an Assistant District Attorney in the Tallapoosa Judicial Circuit, which then covered four mostly rural counties, prosecuting everything from misdemeanors to murder. When he left the DA’s office, he worked in a small town general law practice for a few years. Then he took a job with a law firm in Atlanta where for a decade he defended lawsuits for insurance companies, corporations, and state and local governments all over Georgia, eventually becoming a name partner in that firm.

For the past 17 years he has focused on representing individuals and families in cases of serious injury and wrongful death.  That practice has come to focus primarily on cases of catastrophic injury and wrongful death involving interstate motor carriers.

Some other highlights include:

•    Faculty, Emory University Law School Trial Techniques Program, 1998 - 2008.
•    Chair, Georgia Insurance Law Institute, 1994.
•    Advocate, National College of Advocacy. Completed Ultimate Trial Advocacy Institute at Harvard Law School, 1996.
•    Member of Million Dollar Advocates Forum, based on judgments and settlements in excess of one million dollars.
•    Chair, Georgia Personal Injury Practice seminar for Institute of Continuing Legal Education in Georgia, 2003 - 2007.
•    Master, Lamar Inn, American Inns of Court.
•    Member: American Association for Justice, Georgia Trial Lawyers Association, Christian Legal Society (since 1974), Christian Trial Lawyers Association, Atlanta Bar Association, Lawyers Club of Atlanta, Sandy Springs Bar Association.

Mr. Shigley is a graduate of Emory University Law School (J.D., 1977) and Furman University (B.A., 1973).

Raised in rural Georgia and Alabama, Ken has been married 25 years and has two children in college.  He as served as church elder, YMCA soccer coach, Assistant Scoutmaster, and as a member of National Advisory Council for the  NF Marathon Team, raising medical research funds for the Children's Tumor Foundation.