Mr. Michael J. Gorby, Founder / Partner Related Seminars and Products

Founder / Partner

Gorby Peters & Associates LLC

FOUNDER / PARTNER

Mike Gorby has tried hundreds of cases and handled thousands of matters for corporations and individuals across the United States throughout his three- decade legal career. Mike’s practice focuses on Insurance Coverage Disputes, Commercial Litigation and Liability for Owners and Managers of Property. He is also a certified mediator.

Mike is a passionate teacher. He’s chaired the Premises Liability Seminar for the Institute of Continuing Legal Education of Georgia (now a Division of the Georgia State Bar) for over twenty years. He is a frequent speaker for state and national legal education programs including ICLE, the National Business Institute and the Georgia Tech Procurement Assistance Center (GTPAC), which helps businesses identify, compete for, and win government contracts.

Mike is the author of Premises Liability in Georgia, which was originally published by Thomson-Reuters® in 1998 and which is now in its Second Edition. Mike is a graduate of the University of Georgia School of Law. Before attending law school, Mike served as an Artillery Officer with the U.S. Army.

Mike is rated AV-Preeminent ® (the highest level of professional excellence) by the Lexis-Nexis Peer Review Ratings™ system, and has been selected as a Super Lawyers® by the Thomson Reuters® peer review system.

Mr. Naveen Ramachandrappa Related Seminars and Products

Bondurant Mixson & Elmore LLP

Naveen’s practice focuses on Appeals, Class Actions, and other Complex Litigation.

As one of the leading appellate attorneys in Georgia, Naveen has been sought out by attorneys and clients, both defendants and plaintiffs, to assist trial lawyers with preservation and legal strategy during trial, and to serve as lead counsel for appeals and certiorari proceedings.

As a result, Naveen regularly appears and gives oral argument before the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, the Georgia Supreme Court, and the Georgia Court of Appeals – as well as assisting in jury trials across Georgia.

In addition, Naveen maintains an active class action practice and has been appointed as class counsel by courts in the Northern District of Georgia, Southern District of Florida, Western District of Tennessee, and Georgia state courts.

Ms. Kara Elizabeth Phillips Related Seminars and Products

Deitch & Rogers LLC

Kara Phillips is a trial attorney who exclusively represents crime victims. The first trial in which she presented the jury with plaintiff's opening statement resulted in a $60 million verdict against a behavioral health facility for the rape of a 15-year-old patient by a staff member.

Kara started her practice on the defense side and then joined Gil Deitch and Andy Rogers' plaintiff's premises liability practice. In 2021, she and Michael D'Antignac joined the partnership.

Kara firmly believes there is no better part of the practice of law than jury trials.

Mr. William Michael D'Antignac Related Seminars and Products

Deitch & Rogers, LLC

Michael D’Antignac is a partner at Deitch & Rogers, LLC, where his practice is devoted to representing crime victims who have been attacked due to a property owner’s failure to keep the premises safe. His mission is to help people in their greatest time of need. He has been successful in that mission by recovering millions of dollars for crime victims.   

Born and raised in Augusta, Georgia, Mr. D’Antignac graduated with honors from the University of Georgia School of Law, where he served an Editorial Board Member and Notes Editor for the Georgia Law Review. He began his legal career as a federal law clerk to United States District Court Judge William T. Moore, Jr. in Savannah, Georgia. After his clerkship, Mr. D’Antignac entered private practice in Atlanta with one the Southeast's largest and most prominent law firms, Alston & Bird LLP, where he successfully represented corporations and individuals in a variety of complex civil litigation matters.  In 2010, Mr. D’Antignac was invited to join the in-house legal team of a multi-national corporation, Doosan Infracore International, Inc., where he remained until returning to public service as a Staff Attorney in the State Court of Fulton County for four-and-a-half years.

Mr. D’Antignac’s unique and broad experience has proven to be a valuable asset to Deitch & Rogers and its clients. He has played in integral part recovering substantial compensation for numerous crime victims both through settlements and trial. In 2018, he served as trial counsel with Andy Rogers in the State Court of Gwinnett County and obtained a $46 million verdict for the starvation and wrongful death of a 15-month-old baby.    

Hon. Christopher J. McFadden Related Seminars and Products

Georgia Court of Appeals

Presiding Judge Christopher J. McFadden was elected in November 2010 for a term beginning January 1, 2011 and reelected in 2016. He is a son of the late Isabel McFadden and the late Judge Donald B. McFadden, who served for twenty years as a trial court judge in Akron, Ohio.

Presiding Judge McFadden graduated from Oglethorpe University in 1980 and from the University of Georgia School of Law in 1985. He opened his own law office in 1988 and remained a sole practitioner until he joined the Court of Appeals. For most of that time, he practiced in Decatur and focused on appellate litigation. Before joining the Court of Appeals as its 74th judge, he appeared as appellate counsel before 26 of the judges who preceded him.

In 1996, along with the late Professor Edward C. Brewer and attorney Charles R. Sheppard, he published Georgia Appellate Practice through the Harrison Company of Norcross, Georgia. With Mr. Sheppard and attorneys Charles M. Cork, III, David A. Webster, Kelly A Weathers, and formerly with the late attorney George W.K. Snyder, Jr., Judge McFadden continues to update it for West, which now publishes it in annual editions.

With attorney Laurie Webb Daniel, he is a founding past Chair of the Appellate Practice Section of the State Bar of Georgia. For twelve years, Judge McFadden served as an officer or director of the Atlanta Bar Association. He is a past chair of its Sole Practitioner/Small Firm and Judicial Sections and is a recipient of the its Distinguished Service and Charles E. Watkins, Jr. Awards.

Judge McFadden is a member of The American Law Institute. He presently serves as Vice-Chair  the Appellate Judges Conference of the American Bar Association and chaired its 2018 Appellate Judges Education Institute, which was held in Atlanta. He has served as a volunteer attorney for the Innocence Project and the Election Protection Project. In addition to the Atlanta Bar Association and American Bar Association, he is a member of the DeKalb Bar Association, Lawyers Club of Atlanta, Gate City Bar Association, Federalist Society, American Constitution Society, Saint Thomas More Society and of Oglethorpe University’s Stormy Petrel Bar Association. He served for more than six years on the State Bar of Georgia’s Committee on the Judiciary. He chaired a committee of the Judicial Council of Georgia that drafted the Superior and State Court Appellate Practice Act.

He is a parishioner at St. Thomas More Catholic Church in Decatur, Georgia and has served as a lector since 1988. Judge McFadden is married to Dr. Linda Hyde, Professor of Biology at Gordon State College in Barnesville, Georgia. They have a son.