Business Litigation

Mr. James Cullen Evans Related Seminars and Products

Greenberg Traurig LLP

An experienced first-chair litigator, Jake Evans has litigated complex, high-stakes cases across practice areas in federal and state courts throughout the United States. Clients trust Jake with their most challenging matters and depend on Jake’s creative approaches and precise execution to pursue positive outcomes in the face of daunting circumstances.

Jake Evans’ litigation practice focuses on class actions, disputes involving breach of contract and fiduciary duties, residential and commercial real estate (including wrongful foreclosures, partitions, quiet title actions, and commercial leases), restrictive covenants involving non-compete, non-solicitation, and confidentiality provisions, business dissolutions, derivative corporate claims, note defaults and workouts and intellectual property, including patents, copyrights and trademarks. Thriving under pressure, Jake has served as lead counsel in numerous high-profile cases, including those appearing before the Supreme Court of the United States, entailing national media coverage and making Georgia history.

Having led Georgia’s State Ethics Commission and being intimately involved with government at all levels, Jake has a flourishing government practice. Jake represents companies and individuals responding to government investigations by state Attorney General Offices, U.S. Attorney’s Offices, the DOJ and other state and federal agencies, including the Federal Trade Commission and Securities and Exchange Commission. He also represents companies and individuals before Georgia state and local government agencies, including licensing boards, state commissions and procurement agencies, and has considerable experience with bid protests. Jake oversees campaign finance matters, including candidate and independent expenditure committee/PAC filings and responds to campaign finance complaints at the state and federal level.

A strategist at his core, Jake also serves as outside general counsel to numerous companies, large and small, helping them navigate thorny legal problems. Jake has overseen large mergers and acquisitions, agreement drafting and negotiations, economic development transactions, international trade investigations and varying regulatory compliance matters.

Mr. Philip James George III Related Seminars and Products

GreenbergTraurig LLP

Philip George is an experienced litigator with a focus on complex commercial litigation. Mr. George concentrates his practice in matters involving business litigation, disputes involving breach of contract, fiduciary duties, and other business torts, restrictive covenants, maritime law, real estate, and litigation involving government-adjacent entities.

Mr. George has deep experience at all stages of litigation in federal and state courts. He routinely defends companies in high-stakes litigation, including at trial, throughout discovery, and on appeal. He has served as lead counsel at trial, defended and taken numerous depositions, has oral argument experience, and routinely drafts complex motions. He has a wealth of experience working on appeals, including in Georgia appellate courts and the Eleventh Circuit, and has served as appellate counsel at trials in several high-profile cases. Mr. George has experience ranging from bet-the-company litigation to smaller cases involving thorny legal issues.

Mr. George is actively involved in the Atlanta Bar Association’s Litigation Section, where he serves as Chair of the Publications Committee and is the editor of the Litigation Section’s quarterly publication, The Litigator.

Hon. Kelly Lee Ellerbe Related Seminars and Products

Fulton County Superior Court

Judge Ellerbe was born and raised in Hinesville, Liberty County, Georgia.  She began service as a Fulton County Superior Court Judge, Atlanta Judicial Circuit, January 1, 2011, after winning an election for an open seat in 2010.  Since then, she has won re-election three times.  The two most recent elections were in 2018 and 2022, and she was unopposed. 

The Fulton County Superior Court is a general jurisdiction trial court which handles felony criminal cases (e.g. murder, gang, aggravated child molestation, armed robbery, drug possession), complex civil cases (e.g. medical malpractice, business disputes, breach of contract, personal injury, tax appeals, administrative agency appeals), and family disputes (e.g. child custody, child support, divorce, legitimation, adoption).  

This Court is divided into two main divisions: (1) the family division (divorce, child custody, child support cases) and (2) the complex criminal/civil division (all other non-family cases).  Judge Ellerbe served 11 ½ years on the complex criminal/civil division before rotating onto the family division July 1, 2022.  She is currently the Chief Judge of the Family Division.

The Fulton Superior Court includes the Metro Atlanta Business Case Division (MABCD), which handles complex commercial litigation cases.  Judge Ellerbe is the Presiding (or Chief) Judge of the MABCD and carries a docket of complex business litigation cases for this division of Court.   Her MABCD docket is in addition to her regular Superior Court docket.

For five years she also served as a Presiding Judge for the Fulton County Adult Felony Drug Court Program (Drug Court), which is the largest of three Accountability Court Programs in the Fulton County Superior Court.  Her Drug Court docket was in addition to her regular Superior Court docket.

Judge Ellerbe’s work on the Superior Court has included service on or leading various Court committees, such as the Executive Committee, Workload Assessment Committee, Juvenile Court Committee, Accountability Court Committee, and Business Court Committee.

She regularly presents to other judges and lawyers on legal issues most recently concerning presiding over complex business litigation and family law cases.

Prior to winning her 2010 judicial election, Judge Ellerbe practiced civil litigation, including complex business litigation, in Atlanta for over 17 years.  Judge Ellerbe received her BBA in MIS from the University of Georgia (UGA) Terry College of Business (1990) and her Juris Doctorate degree from the UGA School of Law (1993). 

Ms. Jordana Rachel Sternberg Related Seminars and Products

Greenberg Traurig LLP