Ken Shigley

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), and 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).

As Georgia Bar President, he spearheaded the movement for the creation of statewide electronic court filing, which was implemented over the following years. He also created the Next Generation Court Commission, which supported both electronic court filing and judicial video conference hearings. Those transformative changes helped to bring the Georgia court system into the 21st century.

Through his legal career, his work has included three decades as a plaintiffs’ trial lawyer after one decade as an insurance defense lawyer. Earlier, 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.

Honors & Awards:
“Best Lawyers in America” (2024)
Traditions of Excellence Award for Lifetime Achievement (2019)
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)

1994-present Georgia “Super Lawyers” and Georgia “Legal Elite”

Professional leadership:

President, State Bar of Georgia (2011-12). which includes all lawyers and judges in Georgia. He laid the foundations for the statewide system of electronic court filing.

Chair, Institute for Continuing Legal Education in Georgia (2012-13)

American Bar Association House of Delegates (2013-14)

Georgia Judicial Nominating Commission included him in a “short list” of nominees for appointment to the Georgia Court of Appeals (2012).

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.

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 2018, Mr. Shigley competed in the statewide nonpartisan judicial primary for a seat on the Court of Appeals of Georgia. Though he came in second in that election, he won more votes on that primary election day than did Brian Kemp, who went on to win a primary runoff and general election for Governor.

Highest peer ratings:

“AV” in Martindale-Hubbell

“Super Lawyer”

“Legal Elite”

Avvo 10.0

“Who’s Who in Law” listing in Atlanta Business Chronicle

Listed in the Bar Register of Preeminent Lawyers (since 1995)

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. Among other places outside Georgia, he has been a presenter, program chair or moderator at continuing legal education programs in his practice area in Montreal, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boca Raton, Las Vegas, and Nashville.

Education:

Harvard Law School, Certificates in Dispute Resolution and Negotiation, 2022.

Emory University Law School, J.D., 1977

Furman University, B.A., 1973

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

He has been admitted pro hac vice for individual cases in Florida, Alabama, and Nevada, and handles cases elsewhere in strict compliance with the applicable bar rules on multijurisdictional practice.

Case results:

Since the 1990s, Mr. Shigley has been included in the Multi-Million Dollars 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, 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 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 in 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 family members.

$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 for the interstate motor carrier. This was at the time 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 confidential seven-figure settlement against manufacturer of sports utility vehicle where the defective design of 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 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.

Often on the leading edge in new developments, he launched the first law firm website in the Southeast in 1996 and one of the first lawyer blogs in the Southeast in 2005.

Personal:
Ken and Sally Shigley were married 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.” His daughter is a hospice nurse in New Hampshire and runs several marathons per year. His son is a golf fitness trainer in Atlanta. He has served as a volunteer, board member or officer of numerous community and church organizations.

In his spare time, Mr. Shigley serves as a mediator at Miles Mediation & Arbitration Service, the largest alternative dispute resolution firm in the Southeast. He also travels extensively, having visited 24 countries, mostly independently, since 2017. He has served on church mission teams in Cuba, Guatemala and Malawi.

Counties served:

Mr. Shigley has successfully handled litigation of cases in 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.