Litigation Program

Brian Amero

Judge Amero was elected to the to the Superior Court bench in 2006. He presides over hundreds of criminal and civil cases each year. Prior to taking the bench, Judge Amero practiced in Atlanta with civil litigation firms Carter & Ansley and Webb, Carlock, Copeland, Semler & Stair for six years. He also worked for Meadows & Macie, a prominent Henry County firm, for two years. For four years, he worked as an Assistant District Attorney under the tutelage of Clayton County Distict Attorney Robert E. Keller. In 1994, he received his Jurisdiction Doctorate from the University of South Carolina School of Law in Columbia, South Carolina. In 1991, he earned a Master of Arts Degree in Political Science from Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, and, in 1988, he graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison receiving a Bachelor of Arts Degree with a double major in Political Science and International Relations and a minor in South African literature.

Tracey Barbaree

Tracey represents employers in all aspects of employment and civil rights litigation, with a focus on Rule 23 class actions and defending collective action claims under the Fair Labor Standards Act. Tracey particularly enjoys litigating individual employment discrimination claims in a cost-effective, summary judgment-focused manner that regularly results in dismissal of the claims before trial. She has been recognized as a Georgia "Super Lawyer" in Labor and Employment since 2008 and is listed in Chambers USA, America's Leading Lawyers for Business.

At The Ohio State University College of Law, Tracey was a managing editor of The Ohio State Law Review and a member of the Order of the Coif. Tracey also worked as a judicial clerk for the Hon. Richard C. Freeman, U.S. District Court Judge, Northern District of Georgia and continues to rely on insights from that experience in her practice today.

Tracey enjoys speaking to students and professional groups on employment law issues.

Jeffrey H. Brickman

Jeffrey H. Brickman is a partner at Ballard Spahr LLP, where he specializes in State and Federal Criminal Defense. Before entering private practice in 2005, Jeffrey served as an Assistant District Attorney in DeKalb County, Georgia, from 1989 to 1997, during which time he exclusively prosecuted major felonies, including high-profile homicide, rape, armed robbery, child sexual and physical abuse, and fraud cases. For two of those years, Jeffrey served as the Chief of the Crimes Against Children Unit. From 1997 to 2004, he served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia, where he investigated and prosecuted a wide range of federal crimes including fraud, drug trafficking, child pornography, and cyber-crime cases.

In 2004, Governor Sonny Perdue appointed Jeffrey as DeKalb County District Attorney. In this role, he was responsible for supervising the investigation and prosecution of over 6,000 felony cases. During his prosecutorial career, he was responsible for the preparation, investigation, and prosecution of more than 100 jury trials.

Over his 20 year career, Jeffrey has dedicated a substantial amount of his time to the training and teaching of law enforcement, prosecutors, and defense attorneys. For the past three years, he has served as an Adjunct Professor at Emory University School of Law, where he received an LLM in Litigation in 1989. He is a frequent lecturer for the Georgia Association of Defense Attorneys, the State Bar of Georgia and Emory University Law School’s annual NITA program.

Alison Burleson

Alison Burleson is currently the Assistant District Attorney in the Morgan County District Attorney's Office where she is responsible for the prosecution of all felonies and misdemeanors for the County. A career prosecutor, Ms. Burleson previously served as the Chief Assistant Solicitor-General of the DeKalb County Solicitor-General's Office, as well as an Assistant District Attorney in the DeKalb County District Attorney's Office.

In addition, Ms. Burleson assists with the law school's Student Trial Lawyers Association coaching mock trial competition teams throughout the year, and she has been a frequent instructor to law enforcement and to prosecutors throughout the State.

Ms. Burleson received her B.A. in History from Agnes Scott College in 1995 and her J.D. from Georgia State University College of Law in 2000.

Alfred Drake Dixon

Al Dixon is currently a practicing attorney in the Atlanta area specializing in criminal law. He is also a Municipal Court Judge for the City of College Park Georgia.

He retired from the Atlanta Judicial circuit after 27 years where he last served as the Deputy District Attorney over the trial division and the major felony/homicide unit. He has personally tried over 250 jury trials, including four death penalty cases. Prior to becoming a prosecutor he was a police officer and criminal investigator while attending college and law school.

George E. Duncan

George E. Duncan, Jr., has maintained an active litigation practice in Atlanta for thirty-five years. He has specialized in representing plaintiffs and defendants in casualty and professional liability litigation, including matters involving products liability, premises liability, trucking and insurance matters. Mr. Duncan graduated from Emory College and Emory University Law School and is a member of the firm of Duncan & Adair, P.C.

Mr. Duncan is past President of the Georgia Defense Lawyers Association. He is past Chairman of the GDLA Trial Academy and has been an instructor at the Academy for twenty years. He is past State Representative to the Defense Research Institute. He has lectured frequently on subjects of trial practice, insurance coverage and professionalism.

Monica Emmons Ewing

Monica Ewing is a pro hac Judge for the State Court of Fulton County, and an Adjunct Professor for both the Georgia State University College of Law and School of Music. She has maintained a private law practice for the past sixteen years and specializes in multi-media law. As one of the top entertainment attorneys, prominent magazines such as People, Billboard and Newsweek have called on her for comments.

Monica received her B. A. degree from Georgia State University and her J. D. from Emory University School of Law. She is currently working on a Doctorate in Natural Health at Clayton College of Natural Health.

Richard W Hendrix

Richard Hendrix is a partner in the Atlanta firm of Finch McCranie, LLP. He graduated Davidson College, cum laude, 1974; Emory Law School, 1977.

Mr. Hendrix served as an Assistant District Attorney for the State of Georgia, Assistant Public Defender in South Carolina between 1977 and 1979, and as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia in Atlanta from 1980 - 1985. While with the United States Attorney's Office in Atlanta, Mr. Hendrix specialized in white collar prosecutions. Mr. Hendrix served as Associate Independent Counsel in the investigation of the Department of Housing and Urban Development in 1992-1993.

Mr. Hendrix concentrates his civil practice in the representation of victims of professional, personal, and corporate negligence. The current emphasis of his practice is wrongful death, whistleblower claims and serious personal injury litigation.

In addition to his civil practice, Mr. Hendrix represents and defends businesspersons accused of or under investigation for alleged violations of federal law. As a part of his white collar defense practice, Mr. Hendrix has represented numerous corporate and professional executives in federal courts throughout the United States.

G. Scott Hulsey

G. Scott Hulsey is an Assistant United States Attorney with the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Georgia, where he serves as Chief of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force and Narcotics Unit.

He recently returned from an 8-month detail to Bosnia & Herzegovina, where he served as an intermittent legal adviser, providing technical advice to local prosecutors handling complex prosecutions, including primarily terrorism cases.

Mr. Hulsey has served as a prosecutor for more than a decade. While working as a federal prosecutor, he has handled numerous complex prosecutions, including primarily Title III wire cases focused on the dismantling of Mexican cartels operating in the Atlanta area.

Most recently he served as the lead prosecutor in Atlanta in connection with the district's role in the La Familia "take-down," as part of which more than 1,200 persons were arrested nationwide during the course of a 2-year SOD coordinated investigation. Before that, Mr. Hulsey worked for 6 years as a state prosecutor, handling a variety of prosecutions, ranging from murder to drug cases.

Mr. Hulsey began his career working as an employment lawyer at the Washington, D.C. office of Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer and Feld, LLP.  Mr. Hulsey graduated in 1994 near the top of his class from the Georgetown University Law Center.

He received his undergraduate degree from Duke University in 1991, majoring in Political Science.

Carl Lietz

Carl Lietz is a partner with the Atlanta law firm of Kish & Lietz, P.C., where he devotes his practice to defending individuals facing federal criminal charges. After graduating from Vermont Law School in 1995, Carl clerked for the Honorable Sharon Lovelace Blackburn, Chief United States District Judge for the Northern District of Alabama, and the Honorable Orinda D. Evans, United States District Judge for the Northern District of Georgia.

Before forming Kish & Lietz, Carl worked as a trial attorney at the Federal Defender Office in Atlanta. During his five year tenure with that office, Carl tried a significant number of federal jury trials, litigated hundreds of evidentiary and sentencing hearings, and argued cases before the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. Since forming Kish and Lietz, Carl has continued to devote his career to the defense of individuals facing federal charges. Carl enjoys working with and learning from other lawyers, and he is a frequent lecturer at both national and regional seminars pertaining to federal criminal law.

Barbara Marschalk

Barbara A. Marschalk is a partner with the law firm of Drew, Eckl & Farnham where her practice is devoted to a wide range of defending corporations and individuals in civil litigation. Her practice areas include medical malpractice defense, wrongful death litigation, nursing home litigation, personal injury defense, premises liability defense and defense of other general litigation and products liability matters for nationally recognized insurers and their insureds. Ms. Marschalk received her B.A. degree, cum laude, from the University of South Carolina in 1995. She received her J.D. from Georgia State University College of Law in 1998.

Ms. Marschalk has given presentations for local and national organizations on a variety of topics, including defense of nursing home litigation; informed consent; and risk management. She is a Committee Chair for the Young Lawyers Division of the Georgia State Bar and has been active as a coach for Georgia State University College of Law's mock trial program. In 2006, Ms. Marschalk was selected as a Georgia Super Lawyers Rising Star by Atlanta Magazine.

She is a member of the State Bar of Georgia, American Bar Association, Defense Research Institute, Georgia Defense Lawyers Association and Lawyers Club of Atlanta.

Stevan Miller

John Moss

John A. Moss is a partner with the firm of Steel & Moss, L.L.P., where his practice is devoted entirely to representing Plaintiffs injured in serious accidents. His practice areas include Federal Employers Liability Act (FELA), trucking, and premises liability. He has a regional practice in both state and federal courts, and he has handled complex civil cases throughout the United States.

Mr. Moss attended Furman University on an Army R.O.T.C. Scholarship and graduated in 1988 with a B.A. in history. He received his J.D. from Georgia State University College of Law in 1991. While in private practice, he also served in the Georgia Army National Guard as a Judge Advocate General (JAG).

Jason N. Poulos

Jason Poulos is an attorney with the law firm Weinberg, Wheeler, Hudgins, Gunn & Dial, where he focuses his practice in domestic and international commercial compliance and commercial litigation.  Prior to that, he spent over 10 years in-house at Georgia-Pacific LLC, where he focused his efforts in global anti-corruption law and compliance, internal investigations, and domestic and international commercial disputes.  He spent the first 5 years of his legal career at Alston + Bird, LLC, where his practice comprised commercial, securities, and ERISA fiduciary litigation.  

Jason is a Master in the Bleckley Inn of Court and a member of the Atlanta Bar Association (where he serves on the board of the Corporate Counsel Section) and the Lawyers' Club of Atlanta.  Jason also has performed pro bono work with the Atlanta Volunteer Lawyers' Foundation's One Child, One Lawyer program.  Jason graduated from Georgia State University College of Law in 1997, and during law school, he was an officer of the Moot Court Board and a competitor with the Student Trial Lawyers' Association.  In 1997, Jason's STLA mock trial team won the Southeastern regional tournament.  Jason received a degree in accounting from GSU in 1992, after having spent over a year in Germany with a U.S. Congressional scholarship program.  Jason is fluent in German.

Brandon Taylor

Brandon R. Taylor holds a bachelors degree in Business Management from Florida International University, as well as a Masters in Public Administration from the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies at Georgia State University and a Juris Doctorate from the Georgia State University College of Law. Brandon practices almost exclusively in the area of plaintiffs' medical malpractice and has handled hundreds of personal injury cases. He has tried many cases to verdict and has obtained multiple verdicts and settlements in excess of one million dollars.

In law school, Brandon was a member of the Bleckley Inn of Court, earned the CALI Award for Litigation and was National Champion of the William Daniel National Mock Trial competition in 2004.

Brandon is a partner at Webb, Wade & Taylor, LLC, in Peachtree City, Georgia.

Christopher W. Timmons

Chris Timmons is a senior assistant district attorney in the Public Integrity Unit of Dekalb County, Ga. He has tried more than 50 jury trials, many as sole or chief counsel, on charges ranging from speeding to murder. He has also argued before the Georgia Court of Appeals and the Georgia Supreme Court. Mr. Timmons has taught prosecutors across the state and supervises the Cobb D.A.’s Office trial internship program.

Prior to becoming a prosecutor, Mr. Timmons was an associate at King & Spalding in Atlanta and Taft, Stettinius & Hollister in Cincinnati. As a civil litigator, Mr. Timmons handled business litigation, securities, and products liability cases from the filing of complaints through appeals.

Mr. Timmons received his B.A. in Economics from Miami University in 1993 and his J.D. from Vanderbilt University Law School in 1996.

Larry David Wolfe

David Wolfe attended the University of Georgia where he graduated in 1976 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism. In 1979 he graduated from John Marshall Law School with a J.D. and began his practice of law with the firm of Hudson & Montgomery in Athens, Georgia. On April Fools' Day, 1982, he opened his own office in Atlanta and has continued that practice here to date.

David Wolfe specializes in criminal defense work and he has tried cases throughout the country in various state and federal courts. He has handled many high-profile cases in Georgia of national interest, including his challenge to Georgia's hate crime statute, which was struck down by the Georgia Supreme Court as unconstitutional. He is a founding member of the Georgia Innocence Project and represented Clarence Harrison, the first inmate exonerated and released after 18 years imprisonment by the Project based upon DNA evidence. He is a life member of the Georgia Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and a member of the board of directors of that organization.