Articles Posted in Legal Profession

While my “day job” involves representing individuals and families in serious injury and wrongful death cases across Georgia, part-time public service is also important.  This doesn’t hurt clients, as the time devoted to public service is counterbalanced over time by the exposure and insights gained.  The following article appears in today’s Fulton County Daily Report:…

In the past week I’ve run across an unexpected convergence between my roles as a trial lawyer handling brain injury cases and as president-elect of the State Bar of Georgia. Last Friday, I attended a program on criminal justice reform at the American Bar Association office in Washington, along with state government representatives. Among the dizzying…

For the first time in Georgia, a trial judge has allowed web video conference trial testimony from an out of state witness via Skype. Douglas County Superior Court Judge David Emerson allowed Skype testimony of a defense witness in the criminal prosecution of a tractor trailer driver from Texas who was caught in Douglas County…

This morning I had the privilege of speaking to the mass swearing in of new lawyers in Atlanta. Here’s a link to the video and, slightly different, what I had planned to say: Bar Admission Ceremony Fulton County Courthouse December 3, 2010 Good morning. I’m Ken Shigley, president-elect of the State Bar of Georgia. On behalf of…

The primary runoff election yesterday produced a muddled outcome and likely runoff for Governor, but one unambiguously clear and positive winner. Sam Olens, who until recently was chair of the Cobb County Commission and the Atlanta Regional Council, won his party’s nomination for Attorney General in a landslide. I have known Sam as a professional colleague,…

A great trial lawyer passed from the scene last week after a valiant battle with cancer. Fred Orr has served as president of the Georgia Trial Lawyers Association just last year. He was a trial lawyer for 46 years and practiced the last 35 years in the same building near the courthouse in Decatur. Fred…

Recently a Texas law firm has begun aggressively advertising for Georgia trucking accident cases through Google and Youtube, directly soliciting for Georgia cases even though that firm has no Georgia attorney and no Georgia office. To a consumer looking at the Texas firm’s web content, without reading the fine print, it looks like the firm…

Today’s Wall Street Journal includes a good piece by Peggy Noonan, who was a speechwriter for President Reagan.  In  “Look Ahead With Stoicism – and Optimism,”  she makes the point that while many institutions of society have failed in the first decade of this century, we can rebuild them by taking personal responsibility and focusing…

  Too often I hear of injury victims who were directly solicited by phone or in a hospital by “runners” working for lawyers in Atlanta or elsewhere in Georgia. If you or a loved on is solicited after suffering an injury, you should know that any lawyer who participates in that sort of solicitation is subject…

Having practiced law in Georgia for 32 years, and having been somewhat involved in the Bar, I now find that a lot of my old friends and classmates have become judges. A lot of them were friends long before they put on a black robe and will be friends after they retire from the bench.…