After practicing law for more than 22 years specializing in insurance defense litigation, including personal injury and workers’ compensation, with an additional 16 years as an Administrative Law Judge for the Georgia State Board of Workers’ Compensation in Savannah, I am excited to retire from my law practice in December 2021 to become a full-time mediator for Miles Mediation in Savannah.

I received my mediation training while a judge in 1997 and began mediating other judge’s cases that year. I gained a wealth of experience hearing and mediating hundreds of cases for the state for 13 years. As a result, when I retired from the bench in 2010 to join Moore, Clarke, DuVall & Rodgers to help open the firm’s Savannah office, I began mediating cases in the private sector while defending clients in civil litigation for the firm. Over the past 11 years, I found a mixed practice of litigation and mediation to be very rewarding. However, my mediation experience has recently become more personally fulfilling than litigation – perhaps because it is rewarding and challenging to assist parties in working out a resolution for their issues instead of leaving it up to strangers. It has been my privilege to work with opposing parties toward a solution satisfactory to everyone involved without going into a courtroom. This realization led to my decision to give up the practice of law and focus solely on serving as a mediator in December 2021.

Miles’ Savannah office was the obvious choice for my full-time mediation practice. I practiced law with Danny Cohen before I became a judge and have known Sally Akins for many years. They are great mediators and friends. This is home to me.