Who Is the Former Georgia State Bar President Who Is a Nationally Board-Certified Trucking Trial Attorney?
An eighth-generation Georgian, Mr. Shigley is a past president of the State Bar of Georgia, former board chair of the Institute for Continuing Legal Education in Georgia, and recipient of the Tradition of Excellence Award for lifetime achievement. He was the lead author of eleven annual editions of Georgia Law of Torts: Trial Preparation and Practice (Thompson Reuters West, 2010-21), a practice guide for personal injury, brain injury, auto and truck accidents, and wrongful death cases. He was the first Georgia lawyer to earn three board certifications from the National Board of Trial Advocacy: Civil Trial Advocacy (1995), Civil Pretrial Advocacy (2012), and Truck Accident Law (2019).
Honors & Ratings:
- “Best Lawyers in America” (2024)
- Tradition of Excellence Award for Lifetime Achievement (State Bar of Georgia, 2019)
- “AV Preeminent” in Martindale-Hubbell Law Directory (since 1989)
- Listed in the Bar Register of Preeminent Lawyers (since 1995)
- Diplomate, National College of Advocacy (2017)
- National Board of Trial Advocacy, Board Certification in Truck Accident Law (2019)
- National Board of Trial Advocacy, Board Certification in Civil Pretrial Advocacy (2012)
- National Board of Trial Advocacy, Board Certification in Civil Trial Advocacy (1995)
- Georgia “Super Lawyers” (since 1994)
- Georgia Trend “Legal Elite”(since 1994)
- Avvo 10 / 10
- Justia 5 / 5
- “Who’s Who in Law” listing in Atlanta Business Chronicle
Cutting edge
Ken Shigley has often been inclined to “think outside the box” and explore new areas. That was reflected in his leadership to establish statewide electronic court filing in Georgia.
In 1995, he spoke to a ballroom full of lawyers at St. Simons Island on “Practical Uses of the Internet in Your Law Practice.” He had to explain to lawyers who had recently adapted to fax machines and pagers that they would soon use email, what the internet was, and that there were 40 law firms in the United States with websites. He joked that he might give that a shot too. In 1996, just before the Atlanta Olympics, he launched the first law firm website in the Southeast and in 2003, the first lawyer blog in Georgia.
In 2026, recognizing that artificial intelligence is the next wave of transformative technology, he completed a Massachusetts Institute of Technology executive education certification program on artificial intelligence in business.
Mr. Shigley’s career has included three decades as a plaintiffs’ trial lawyer after one decade as an insurance defense lawyer. Earlier, fresh out of law school, he began his career as an Assistant District Attorney prosecuting felony criminal cases in a four-county rural circuit and worked in a small-town general law practice. That setting enabled him to complete his first 50 jury trials in his first three years out of law school, a degree of courtroom experience unattainable for young lawyers in large corporate law firms. He has completed hundreds of jury trials and mediations.
For 30 years, Mr. Shigley served as mediator, first with Henning Mediation and Arbitration and later with Miles Mediation & Arbitration Service, both of which were, in turn, the largest alternative dispute resolution firms in Georgia. That experience, together with his negotiation and mediation training at Harvard, is useful in negotiating and mediating on clients’ behalf.
Professional leadership:
Mr. Shigley served as President of the State Bar of Georgia in 2011-12. The State Bar includes all lawyers and judges in Georgia.
As Georgia Bar President, he spearheaded the creation of a statewide electronic court filing system, which was implemented over the next several years. He recruited a future Chief Justice of the Georgia Supreme Court to that project and got the Governor and key legislators on board, assuring continuity of the effort after the conclusion of his one-year term.
With the then-Chief Justice of the Georgia Supreme Court, he also created the Next Generation Court Commission, chaired by Judge Lawton Stephens of Athens and including every category of stakeholders in the system except bail bondsmen. That commission supported both electronic court filing and judicial video conference hearings. While still not perfect, those transformative changes helped bring the Georgia court system into the 21st century and were crucial to its operations during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic.
Other professional leadership roles have included:
- Chair, Institute for Continuing Legal Education in Georgia (2012-13)
- American Bar Association House of Delegates (2013-14)
- Chair, American Association for Justice (AAJ) Motor Vehicle Collision, Highway & Premises Liability Section (2015-16), which included over 2,500 trial lawyers in all 50 states and specialized litigation groups on
- Trucking Litigation
- Bus Litigation
- Traumatic Brain Injury,
- Spinal Cord Injury,
- Motorcycle Litigation,
- Bicycle Litigation,
- Resort Torts Litigation and
- Inadequate Security Litigation.
- Georgia Criminal Justice Reform Council, appointed by Governor Nathan Deal (2011-13).
- Commission on Continuing Lawyer Competency (2012-13)
- Chief Justice’s Commission on Professionalism (2011-12).
- Georgia Commission on Dispute Resolution (2011-12).
- Georgia Courts Automation Commission (2008-10)
- Judicial Council of Georgia Standing Committee on Technology(2015-20).
- National Conference of Bar Presidents (2010-13).
- Southern Conference of Bar Presidents (2010-13).
- Chair, State Bar of Georgia Tort & Insurance Practice Section (1994-95).
- Chair, Georgia Insurance Law Institute (1994)
- Board of Regents, Academy of Truck Accident Attorneys (2015-21)
In 2012, at the end of his term as State Bar President, the Georgia Judicial Nominating Commission included him in a “short list” of nominees for appointment to the Georgia Court of Appeals. In 2018, Mr. Shigley competed in the statewide nonpartisan judicial primary for a seat on that appellate court. Though he came in second in that election, he won more votes on the primary election day than did Brian Kemp, who went on to win two terms as Governor.
Author & Teacher
Lead author – Georgia Law of Torts: Trial Preparation & Practice (Thompson Reuters West, 2010-21)
Chapter author – Handling Motor Vehicle Accident Cases (Thompson Reuters West)
Mr. Shigley has published numerous articles in legal journals and made scores of continuing legal education presentations at both state and national levels. In addition to many continuing legal education (CLE) presentations in Georgia, he has been a presenter, program chair, or moderator at CLE programs in his practice area in Montreal, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, New Orleans, Boca Raton, Las Vegas, and Nashville.
Bar Admissions:
Mr. Shigley has been admitted to practice in:
- Georgia (all trial and appellate courts)
- U.S. District Court, Northern District of Georgia
- U.S. District Court, Middle District of Georgia
- U.S. District Court, Southern District of Georgia
- U.S. Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals
- Supreme Court of the United States
- Admitted pro hac vice for individual cases in Florida, Alabama, and Nevada.
Education:
Mr. Shigley is a graduate of Furman University and Emory University Law School. As part of his continuing education, Mr. Shigley completed certificate programs at Harvard Law School in negotiation and mediation, and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in artificial intelligence for business.
Case results:
Mr. Shigley’s practice has included handling thousands of cases involving serious injury, death, and insurance. This includes many cases of wrongful death, auto accidents, trucking accidents, brain injury, spinal cord injuries, neck and back injuries, premises liability, burn injuries, and other serious injuries.
Since the 1990s, Mr. Shigley has been included in the Multi-Million Dollar Advocates Forum based upon case recoveries in multiples of a million dollars. He has successfully handled many cases involving injuries arising from auto, truck and bus accidents, dangerous premises, and defective products, including wrongful death, brain injury, paralysis from spinal cord injury, burn injury, back and neck injury, fractured arms, legs, hips, and ankles, amputations, injuries to children, and a wide variety of other bodily injuries.
All cases are different, and past performance does not guarantee future results, but here are a few representative cases.
In 2025, in a log truck crash with only $100,000 insurance coverage on the truck, he recovered $1,600,000 without filing suit.
In 2024, Mr. Shigley’s team had a $5.5 million recovery in a medical malpractice case.
In 2019, before the pandemic interruption, he was lead or co-counsel in cases in which plaintiffs recovered a gross amount of $25.8 million.
$20 million recovery for occupants of a college baseball team bus that crashed in Georgia. Mr. Shigley led the organization of a joint prosecution group and represented 10 of 20 team members on the bus, whose individual recoveries were determined by an agreed formula.
$11 million confidential settlement for two family members who lost limbs in a car crash. Mr. Shigley organized the joint prosecution team and individually represented one of the amputees, recovering $8 million.
$9.3 million recovery apportioned among 13 plaintiffs on an agreed formula, for a van load of cheerleaders in a crash caused by tire failure. Mr. Shigley led the organization of the joint prosecution group and represented one of the families with a wrongful death claim.
$6 million confidential settlement in a legally complex truck crash case. Mr. Shigley organized the joint prosecution group and was lead counsel for two wrongful death cases and one head injury case.
$5.7 million confidential settlement of a medical malpractice case. Mr. Shigley was co-counsel for the decedent’s family.
$3 million confidential settlement of a truck crash case in Southwest Georgia.
$2.3 million jury for a client who suffered a complex leg fracture in a head-on collision with a truck operated by an interstate motor carrier. This was the largest jury verdict in the history of Gordon County, GA.
$1.25 million policy limits settlement for a young man who was t-boned in an intersection in Cobb County, suffering a brain injury, despite evidence that he was talking on the phone with his gay partner while turning left in an intersection.
$1.3 million settlement in Rome, Georgia – $300,000 above insurance policy limits — for a family of a young man killed when rear-ended by a tractor-trailer on the interstate at night.
$1.2 million jury verdict in Fulton County for a woman with head and neck injuries who had consumed cocaine and tequila with the driver of a sports car in which she was a passenger.
Confidential settlement of logging truck wrongful death case for 12 times the amount of insurance coverage on the truck itself after litigating insurance coverage, bankruptcy, and wrongful death issues in three separate courts.
Obtained confidential multi-million dollar settlement against auto manufacturer where defective design of anti-lock brake system led to crash of minivan, resulting in quadriplegia and death.
Obtained a confidential seven-figure settlement against the manufacturer of a sports utility vehicle where the defective design of the passenger restraint system and roof led to quadriplegia.
Served as co-counsel in an automotive products liability case resulting in $6 million jury verdict for a defect that led to passenger ejection in a rollover.
Secured confidential settlement for 6 1/2 times the amount of insurance coverage on the car in a car-motorcycle collision in South Georgia.
$1 million policy limit in wrongful death case against a small trucking company for a Georgia family for the death of a wife and mother killed in a crash in Tennessee.
$850,000 settlement during jury deliberation at end of a trial in Macon for neck fusion injury for man struck by a dump truck.
$750,000 for an airline passenger who suffered a severe ankle fracture when struck by a motorized cart in an airport terminal concourse.
A “lawyer’s lawyer” and “judge’s lawyer,” he has long represented lawyers and judges in sensitive personal and professional matters. He has been chosen by opposing lawyers to serve as a neutral mediator in hundreds of cases.
Personal:
Ken and Sally Shigley were married for almost 34 years before her death due to a brain tumor in 2017. Their adult children are both “grown and flown with houses and spouses.” He has served as a volunteer, board member, or officer of numerous community and church organizations. He also travels extensively. Since being widowed, he has visited 30 countries, mostly independently, and served on church mission teams in Cuba, Guatemala, and Malawi.
Counties served:
Mr. Shigley has successfully handled litigation of cases in all three of the federal court districts in Georgia and the following 93 of Georgia’s 159 counties, stretching from the mountains to the sea: Bacon, Baldwin, Banks, Barrow, Bartow, Berrien, Bibb, Bulloch, Burke, Butts, Camden, Carroll, Catoosa, Chatham, Chattooga, Cherokee, Clarke, Clayton, Clinch, Cobb, Coffee, Columbia, Coweta, Crisp, Dade, DeKalb, Dodge, Dougherty, Douglas, Elbert, Fannin, Fayette, Floyd, Forsyth, Franklin, Fulton, Gilmer, Glynn, Grady, Greene, Gwinnett, Habersham, Hall, Haralson, Hart, Heard, Henry, Houston, Jackson, Jeff Davis, Lamar, Laurens, Liberty, Lowndes, Lumpkin, McIntosh, Meriwether, Monroe, Morgan, Murray, Newton, Oconee, Paulding, Pickens, Polk, Pulaski, Rabun, Richmond, Rockdale, Schley, Spalding, Stephens, Sumter, Tattnall, Telfair, Terrell, Thomas, Tift, Towns, Treutlen, Toombs, Troup, Turner, Union, Upson, Walker, Walton, Ware, Washington, Wayne, White, Whitfield, Wilkinson, Worth.