J. Robert Persons

J. Robert Persons has experience as a trial lawyer spanning 40 years and covering a wide range of litigation. He has represented defendants in transportation, construction, product, professional liability cases, directors and officers liability cases and both insurers and policyholders in complex insurance coverage litigation.

His experience includes the representation of both domestic and London market liability insurers, reinsureds and excess liability insurers.

Bob has published extensively on matters related to insurance coverage. He has appeared at seminars for the National Business Institute, the Georgia Insurance Law Institute, Lloyd’s of London and the CPCU Society’s annual program, among others, lecturing on a wide range of insurance topics.

He is the co-author of the two-volume text, Excess Liability (Thomson Reuters Publ., published annually, 1998-2018). He has served as a mediator in insurance coverage disputes and has been qualified as an expert witness in insurance coverage and bad faith claims handling cases.

Bob was a partner at Smith Moore Leatherwood, LLP, which merged with Fox Rothschild in 2018. Prior to that, he was a partner in a national, AmLaw 100 law firm.

Bob served on the Board of Governors of the State Bar of Georgia for 15 years and and served on the State Bar’s Disciplinary Review Panel from 2011 through 2017. He has also served three terms on the Board of Directors of the Atlanta Bar Association and on its Judicial Selection and Tenure Committee.

He is a Foundation Fellow of the State Bar of Georgia. He belongs to the Georgia Defense Lawyers Association, Defense Research Institute and International Association of Defense Counsel.

In 2007 Bob was elected as a Master in the Lumpkin Inn of Court. In 2008 he was appointed Adjunct Professor of Insurance Law at the University of Georgia School of Law, and continued in that teaching capacity through 2011. He has been selected to the Georgia “Super Lawyers” list in the field of insurance law since 2011.

EDUCATION :

• University of Virginia (B.A., with distinction, 1969)
• University of Georgia School of Law (J.D., 1972)

MEMBERSHIPS :

• American Bar Association
• Lawyers Club of Atlanta
• Georgia Defense Lawyers Association
• Defense Research Institute
• International Association of Defense Counsel

COURT ADMISSIONS :

• U.S. Supreme Court
• U.S. District Court, Southern District of Georgia
• Georgia Supreme Court
• U.S. District Court, Middle District of Georgia
• U.S. District Court, Northern District of Georgia

BAR ADMISSIONS : Georgia