Fred Orr, Rip

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 was a passionate advocate for his clients and his political candidates. He had many wins, and like any trial lawyer, also came in second enough to keep him humble.

His greatest win was a public interest case. In the Presidential Parkway case a generation ago, Fred led the legal battle against construction of in which the an eight-lane freeway through much of the historic Druid Hills community. The highway would have destroyed numerous parks, churches, the Fernbank Science Center, a virgin forest. and hundreds of historic homes in DeKalb County. Fred was a David going up against Goliath, but won at trial and on appeal.

Fred, old friend, you will be sorely missed. I will even miss all the emails seeking contributions for your candidates!

Ken Shigley is treasurer of the State Bar of Georgia, of which he has been elected to become president-elect on 6/19/10 and president on 6/4/11.

Mr. Shigley is a truck and bus safety trial attorney representing seriously injured people and families of people killed in tractor trailer, big rig, semi, intermodal container freight, log truck, cement truck, dump truck, log truck and bus accidents statewide in Georgia.  He has extensive experience representing parties in interstate trucking collision cases, He served as chair of the Southeastern Motor Carrier Litigation Institute and is a national board member of the Interstate Trucking Litigation Group of the American Association for Justice.

A Certified Civil Trial Advocate of the National Board of Trial Advocacy, he has been listed as a “Super Lawyer” (Atlanta Magazine), among the “Legal Elite” (Georgia Trend Magazine), and in the Bar Register of Preeminent Lawyers (Martindale). In addition to trucking litigation, he has broad experience in products liability, catastrophic personal injury, wrongful death, spinal cord injury, brain injury and burn injury cases.

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