Areas of Expertise
Aviation, Bad Faith, Insurance Coverage, Product Liability Defense
Courses
Negotiations
Biography
Michael Athans has extensive trial and litigation experience representing insurers in bad faith and insurance coverage lawsuits, business clients in commercial and transportation lawsuits, and manufacturers or users in product liability lawsuits. He has been lead trial and litigation counsel in complex insurance and commercial disputes for domestic and foreign insurer clients including Great American Insurance Company, CNA, American Safety Insurance, RSUI, Markel and London Market Insurers. He has also published articles and given speeches on product issues, insurance coverage and construction defect topics.Since 2003, Michael Athans has been adjunct professor of law at Emory University School of Law where he teaches Negotiations and Alternative Dispute Resolution to third-year law students, and trial techniques to second-year law students. Athans has judged mock trials through NITA-sponsored programs and the Frederick Douglas Moot Court Program. He also gives in-house training classes for clients, including negotiation skills training.
Athans is a certified mediator and arbitrator in Georgia who brings experience as both a trial attorney and negotiations instructor to the ADR matter. In 1982, he served as a law clerk to Judge Bailey Brown on the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.
Education: JD, University at Buffalo Law School; BA, State University of New York at Buffalo (cum laude)