Ken Shigley is President of the 42,000 member State Bar of Georgia, and Governor Deal has appointed him to the 2011 Special Council on Criminal Justice Reform.
A trucking and product safety trial attorney with over three decades experience in trial and litigation work in Georgia, he is author of Georgia Law of Torts: Trial Preparation & Practice (Thomson Reuters West, 2010).
A former chair of the Southeastern Motor Carrier Liability Institute and the Georgia Insurance Law Institute, he is a board member of the the American Association for Justice Interstate Trucking Litigation Group, the Association of Plaintiffs Interstate Trucking Lawyers of America, and the Institute for Continuing Legal Education in Georgia.
Mr. Shigley’s professional peer ratings include:
• “AV” (Highest rating in Martindale-Hubbell Law Directory) since 1988
• "Super Lawyer” (Atlanta Magazine) since 2004
• “Legal Elite” (Georgia Trend) since 2004
• Certified Civil Trial Advocate (National Board of Trial Advocacy) since 1995
• Listed in the Bar Register of Preeminent Lawyers since 1995
Mr. Shigley 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, Mr. Shigley 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 he
defended lawsuits for insurance companies, corporations, and state and
local governments all over Georgia, eventually becoming a name partner
in that firm.
Since 1990, his practice has focused on
representing individuals and families in cases of serious injury and
wrongful death. That practice gradually came to focus primarily on
cases of catastrophic injury and wrongful death involving interstate
motor carriers.
Some other highlights include:
• Member, Georgia Courts Automation Commission, 2008 - .
• Faculty, Emory University Law School Trial Techniques Program, 1998 - 2008.
• Chair, Georgia Insurance Law Institute, 1994.
• Chair, Tort & Insurance Practice Section, State Bar of Georgia, 1994 - 1995.
• 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, Christian Trial Lawyers
Association, Atlanta Bar Association, Lawyers Club of Atlanta, Sandy
Springs Bar Association.
Raised in rural Georgia and Alabama,
Ken is married and has two children in college. He has served
as served as a church elder, Sunday School teacher, YMCA youth 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.
