Premises Liability

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

Founder / Partner

Gorby Peters & Associates LLC

Mike Gorby has tried hundreds of cases and handled thousands of matters for corporations and individuals across the United States throughout his 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 the ICLE.

Mike is the author of Premises Liability in Georgia, which was originally published by Thomson-Reuters® in 1998 and which is updated annually. Mike is a graduate of the University of Georgia School of Law.

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 Lawyer® by the Thomson Reuters® peer review system.

Mr. Andrew Timothy Rogers Related Seminars and Products

Deitch & Rogers LLC

Andy Rogers has worked almost exclusively for crime victims since 1988 and has conducted more than 100 jury trials as lead counsel. After beginning his career as a criminal prosecutor for DeKalb County, Andy has concentrated exclusively on representing survivors and their families in negligent security cases for more than 30 years. During that time, he has obtained substantial compensation for numerous victims of crime by securing some of the highest verdicts and settlements in the State of Georgia.

Mr. Troy R. Covington Related Seminars and Products

Bloom Parham LLP

Troy Covington is a partner at Bloom Parham. He has over 20 years of legal experience and has been assisting clients at the firm for almost 14 years.  Troy counsels and represents clients in business matters involving trademark and trade secret claims, contract disputes, corporate governance disputes, partnership disputes, business torts, property tax appeals, church governance disputes, and real estate disputes of all kinds, including eminent domain and property condemnation, trespass and nuisance cases, and boundary disputes. He is broadly experienced in all facets of litigation, having represented clients at every level of the state and federal courts in Georgia, including several victories at the appellate level.  Troy also has deep experience in commercial arbitration and has successfully handled both domestic and international disputes.

Troy graduated summa cum laude with a B.A. in History and Political Science from Birmingham-Southern College before earning his J.D. from Vanderbilt University Law School. There he served as an Articles Editor for the Vanderbilt Law Review. He then embarked on his career with a clerkship for the Honorable Julie E. Carnes on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia. Following this role, Troy worked for a well-respected international law firm as an associate, where he focused on intellectual property disputes.  He then moved to a smaller regional firm and transitioned his focus to business litigation. Troy was recognized as a Georgia Super Lawyer Rising Star for six consecutive years and has been named a Georgia Super Lawyer the last seven years. Troy coordinates continuing legal education for the firm and frequently presents at CLE seminars on various litigation topics.  He also supervises the firm’s social media accounts and works on other online marketing.

Outside the firm, Troy is also passionate about helping people and is involved with community outreach through Peachtree Road United Methodist Church.  He served on the board of directors of the International Community School, a public charter elementary school focused on immigrant and refugee students located in Decatur, Georgia, for four years. 

Ms. Mary Donne Peters Related Seminars and Products

Founder/Partner

Gorby Peters & Associates LLC

Mary Donne Peters’ background includes extensive commercial and tort litigation experience across over thirty states. Mary Donne holds licenses to practice law in South Carolina, Georgia and Alabama and has received the peer-reviewed rating of AV-Preeminent® (the highest available) by Martindale-Hubbell and has been honored as a Georgia Super Lawyer®.

Mary Donne is the author of The Admissibility of Expert Testimony in Georgia, published by Thomson-Reuters, the world’s largest legal publishing company. Her book has been updated annually since 2005.

Beyond her legal expertise, Mary Donne is an active member of various civic and business organizations, including the Women President’s Organization, an international business organization open to second-stage companies that are owned and operated by women. Mary Donne also has a strong commitment to philanthropy, notably having served on the Boards of the Red Cross (Metropolitan Atlanta) and Girls Inc. of Greater Atlanta.

A passionate educator, Mary Donne is also the co-founder of Land of Opportunity Training, LLC, an online, on demand training platform that helps businesses achieve growth through government contracting.

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 and 2022. 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.

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, as well as its Judicial Section’s Romae Turner Powell Judicial Service Award.

Judge McFadden is an elected member of The American Law Institute. He presently serves as Chair-elect of  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.

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 violent crime victims who have been harmed due to a property owner’s failure to protect them and maintain a safe premises. He specializes in representing child victims and their families. Michael has pursued claims against church, school, camp, and daycare facilities that failed to protect children in their care. His mission is to help injured and abused children get the justice they deserve and the support they need to recover from their injuries. Michael has recovered millions of dollars for crime victims, including a $46 million jury verdict for the starvation death of a 15-month-old baby at an extended stay hotel. Michael is a graduate of the Trial Lawyers College. 

Ms. Kara Elizabeth Phillips Related Seminars and Products

Deitch & Rogers LLC

Kara Phillips is a civil trial attorney who exclusively represents crime victims and survivors. Her clients are people who were vulnerable or marginalized and seriously injured at a place where they were supposed to be safe, protected, or even helped.

The first trial in which Kara 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 civil defense side before moving to the plaintiff’s side to represent crime victims and survivors. She firmly believes there is no better part of the practice of law than jury trials.

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.

Sarah Howard Related Seminars and Products

Sarah Howard, LMSW is the Director of the Sexual Assault Center at The Cottage, Sexual Assault Center and Children's Advocacy Center in Athens, GA. Sarah received her Bachelor Degree in Psychology and her Master of Social Work degree at the University of Georgia. Sarah previously worked as a Clinical Research Coordinator at Emory University, working with individuals diagnosed with severe mental illness. Sarah is passionate about teaching trauma informed care and helping survivors and communities heal from sexual violence.