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This month’s issue of the Georgia Bar Journal includes my swan song (“End of Year Report”) which I delivered June 1, 2012, at the plenary session of the State Bar annual meeting in Savannah. For those who need somnolent bedtime reading, here is the text as edited and published

End of Year Report
Kenneth L. Shigley

The bylaws of the State Bar of Georgia specify the duties of the president. One of the responsibilities is to “deliver a report at the Annual Meeting of the members of the activities of the State Bar during his or her term in office…

I am happy to congratulate three new members of the Georgia Supreme Court and Court of Appeals, who were recently appointed by Governor Nathan Deal.

  • Keith Blackwell was promoted from the Court of Appeals to the Supreme Court as an Associate Justice, taking the place of retiring Chief Justice George Carley. Justice Blackwell is brilliant and a good guy.

The promotion of Justice Blackwell to the Supreme Court and the retirement of Judge Charles Mikell created two vacancies on the Court of Appeals, for which Governor Deal made his selections today. They are:

  • Elizabeth “Lisa”  Branch, formerly an

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In the past 10 days this plaintiffs’ trial lawyer, in the capacity of State Bar of Georgia president, has co-presided over a joint meeting of the State Bar Executive Committee and the Georgia Supreme Court, had a joint press conference with the Attorney General of Georgia and spoke at a lunch meeting that included general counsels of some of Georgia’s leading corporations. In 75 days, I will complete my term as State Bar president and get back to practicing law full-time.

I do not expect any favoritism from anyone as cases must be decided on their merits.  But if a…

On a local news broadcast tonight, I heard a story about someone filing a “ten million dollar lawsuit.” Four points:

  • Good lawyers litigate their cases in the courts, not in the media.
  • Anyone can name a big number in a lawsuit. That is NOT the same as recovering that amount for a client. Generally when I see a news story about a Georgia lawyer filing suit for millions and millions, I am confident that the lawyer is not one to whom I would refer a family member or friend.
  • The American Association  for Justice (formerly Association of Trial Lawyers of

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The following article appeared in the February 2012 issue of the Georgia Bar Journal.

A third of a century trekking between Georgia courts, first in a single rural circuit and then more or less statewide, has made me a minor connoisseur of courthouses, the most visible physical infrastructure of the judicial system. I have tried cases in a courthouse across the street from a railroad track where cross-examination was frequently interrupted by passing freight trains. In courthouses where birds flew through open windows and found perches near the high courtroom ceiling and in courthouses that would have been a…

The State Bar of Georgia communications staff will distribute the following article to all Georgia newspapers this week:

Tough on Crime, Smart on Crime

By Kenneth L. Shigley

My first job after law school was as a prosecutor in a rural judicial circuit. Soon after joining the district attorney’s office, I assisted in a death penalty trial for the rape and murder of a young girl.  In such cases I looked into the heart of evil, prosecuting dangerous criminals from whom we needed to protect decent citizens.

In other cases, it also became apparent that perhaps 85 percent of those…

A year goes by awfully fast when you’re working two full-time jobs. With only 81 days remaining in my term as State Bar president, I look forward to the ability to just focus on my clients and my law practice.  For now, however, I find myself working late into the night to catch up on case files, juggling a very complicated schedule and returning calls from the road at odd hours and a little slowly.

I believe all the networking in the bar presidency will strengthen my work for clients after my term is finished.  While no one can or…

(The following President’s column appeared in the December 2011 issue of the Georgia Bar Journal.)

My first job after law school was as an assistant district attorney in the small town where I had graduated from high school. I was 26 but in blue jeans rather than a suit could have passed for a decade younger. We covered four mostly rural counties. Abe Lincoln might have recognized the circuit-riding aspect of that life, but for the fact that I traveled by ’73 Dodge Dart instead of by horse.

The veteran DA was in his last term. Once when…

Upon my arrival at our State Bar of Georgia Board of Governors meeting at Jekyll Island, a staff member handed me the traditional name tag with various colorful ribbons hanging off the bottom signifying offices, honors, etc. I’ve always felt those made me look like an admiral of the navy of a small, landlocked dictatorship.  Back in my room after dinner I removed all the ribbons.  My name and one word, “president,” is quite sufficient.

A few more figurative ribbons arrived in recent weeks. For whatever they may be worth, if anything:

  • “Super Lawyer” in Atlanta Magazine again for the

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The following article was published as my President’s Column in the October 2011 issue of the Georgia Bar Journal.

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Virtuous Lawyer is Not an Oxymoron

by Kenneth L. Shigley

President, State Bar of Georgia

James[1] had great unrealized potential. Son of a minister in another Southern state, he won admission to an Ivy League university but washed out during his first year and went home to complete college and law school. A marvelous storyteller, his closing arguments could hold juries spellbound. But his cleverness was so unrestrained by mere facts that judges and other lawyers learned to distrust…