On the Internet, but Deeply Rooted in a Web of Relationships

When you find a lawyer on the Internet, there may be an inclination to think of him or her as some sort of free floating, rootless organism, taking all nutrition from cyberspace. This week, however, I have had several reminders of how intertwined professional relationships can be.

First came an inquiry about a potential trucking wrongful death case from a lawyer in my hometown who I have known since we entered ninth grade together in 1965, and for whom I have the greatest personal and professional esteem. 

The next day came a call from a lawyer in Louisiana, who got my name from a prominent New Orleans attorney, originally from a tiny town in south Georgia, who I met at Georgia’s Governor’s Honors Program in Macon in 1968. In conversation about the caller’s largely Cajun hometown, it turns out we had both gone out some with the same girl from that town, who was in his high school class, when we were teenagers.  

The same day came a call from a lawyer in a small town near the Florida line, whose law partner was in the office next to me at an Atlanta law firm starting in 1981, to talk about a potential case.

Then I went downtown to a meeting of the State Bar Disciplinary Rules and Procedures Committee. Looking around the table, I realized that I had known each participant in a wide variety of contexts for periods ranging from ten to twenty-five years.

These days, about half of my legal work comes from new contacts who find me through the Internet and the “newcomer” referral sources that are common in modern metro Atlanta, and about half come through a traditional network of relationships spanning decades and even generations that weave through Georgia and across the South.  It’s a fascinating mixture to which only a talented novelist could do justice.

The Shigley Law Firm  represents plaintiffs in wrongful death and catastrophic injury cases statewide in Georgia, and in other states subject to the multijurisdictional practice and pro hac vice rules in each state. Ken Shigley was designated as a “SuperLawyer” in Atlanta Magazine and one of the “Legal Elite” in Georgia Trend Magazine. He is a Certified Civil Trial Advocate of the National Board of Trial Advocacy, Chair of the Southeastern Motor Carrier Liability Institute and former chair of the Georgia Insurance Law Institute. He particularly focuses on cases arising from truck wrecks and accidents (tractor trailers truck wrecks, semi truck wrecks,18 wheeler truck wrecks, big rig truck wrecks, log truck wrecks, dump truck wrecks.