After a week-long trial in Fulton County Superior Court, CCED litigators Rob Carlson, Chris Wilkerson and Lauren Miller achieved a $7 million jury verdict on behalf of their client, a minority shareholder in an Atlanta waste management company, for breach of fiduciary duty.  The verdict rendered against the company’s majority shareholder ended a five-year battle that began as a Shareholder Inspection Demand proceeding brought in Gwinnett County Superior Court and ultimately led to the filing of the breach of fiduciary duty claims in Fulton County. The notable jury verdict awarded $5 million in punitive damages and over $1.9 million in compensatory damages, including more than $683,000 in attorney’s fees, marking the firm’s first in-person jury trial since the start of the pandemic with an extraordinary victory for CCED’s client.

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Rob Carlson and Lauren Miller obtained a ruling from the Georgia Court of Appeals affirming summary judgment in favor of their clients in a will contest filed by the testator’s two sons in May 2017. The Probate Court of DeKalb County granted summary judgment in favor of Rob and Lauren’s clients—two of the testator’s friends who received significant bequests under her will—that the evidence was insufficient to sustain an objection to the Will on grounds of undue influence, monomania, and lack of testamentary capacity.  Writing for the Court of Appeals, Chief Judge Brian M. Rickman rendered a detailed but unpublished opinion affirming the ruling obtained by Rob and Lauren in the trial court, with a special concurrence by Judge Christopher McFadden on the issue of monomania.  In re Estate of Valerie Adams Fleming, Georgia Court of Appeals, Case No. A21A1563.

Rob Carlson and Lauren Miller obtained a ruling denying summary judgment in the long-running case of Savoy v. Bowen et al. in the Superior Court of Coweta County, Georgia. On behalf of their client, Rob and Lauren filed suit in 2016 against their client’s sisters for breach of fiduciary duty, an accounting, compensatory and punitive damages, and attorney’s fees, along with various claims for equitable relief. In 2017, the trial court granted default judgment to Rob and Lauren’s client, a ruling affirmed by the Georgia Court of Appeals. Bowen v. Savoy, Case No. A18A1001. That ruling was later reversed by the Georgia Supreme Court on certiorari, which overturned the previously established precedent governing the standards for setting aside of default relied on by the trial court and Court of Appeals in their rulings. Bowen v. Savoy, 308 Ga. 204 (2020). Following the Supreme Court’s reversal, Rob and Lauren obtained the denial of the Defendants’ motion for summary judgment, which preserved all of their claims for adjudication by the jury.

On behalf of a high-profile client, Harry MacDougald and Christine Buckler obtained dismissal of a defamation case under Georgia’s Anti-SLAPP statute in the Superior Court of Fulton County. The case is presently on appeal. If the dismissal is upheld, the firm’s client will be entitled to an award of its attorney’s fees in defense of the claims brought against it. 

We are pleased to announce that five of the firm’s attorneys have been included in the 2022 Super Lawyers list for Georgia, and three have been recognized as 2022 Rising Stars.  Only 5 percent of lawyers in the State are named as Super Lawyers, and 2.5 percent are honored as Rising Stars (i.e., attorneys under 40 years old and/or have practiced less than 10 years). 

Our 2022 Georgia Super Lawyers are: 

• Robert S. Carlson- Estate and Trust Litigation
• Donald B. DeLoach- Estate Planning and Probate
• Christopher H. Elliott- Family Law
• Jeremy M. Moeser- Estate and Trust Litigation
• Cullen C. Wilkerson- Estate and Trust Litigation

Our 2022 Georgia Rising Stars are:

• Christine Dial Buckler- Estate and Trust Litigation
• Lauren J. Miller- Estate and Trust Litigation
• Peter Rivner- Family Law