Gregory O’Neil Shenton | Cobb Circuit, Post 6

Candidate Statement

It is with the most sincere desire to serve the members of the State Bar of Georgia from the Cobb Judicial Circuit that I humbly ask for your vote for Post 6 to the Board of Governors.

For more than a decade, I have devoted significant time out of my practice to serve the lawyers of our circuit through the Cobb County Bar Association. While I currently serve as the Secretary of the Cobb Bar and have served numerous terms on the Cobb Bar’s Board of Trustees, I served for seven years as the Chair of the Law Day Golf Classic (one of the two major fundraisers for the Children’s Emergency Fund). Though the Golf Classic, we have raised more than $100,000 the past seven years to provide grants to Cobb County’s children in need. I have also served as Co-Chair of the Bench & Bar Committee for eight years and for three years as the President of the Business Law & Litigation Section.

Service has been a centerpiece of my life outside of our profession, as well. In addition to serving as the Chair of the Board of Trustees of my family’s local church and as a member of several civic organizations, I have coached youth sports for more than 20 years, and I currently serve as an assistant coach for the cross-country and track and field teams at The Walker School.

I now hope that you will allow me the honor to serve and represent the members of the Cobb Judicial Circuit through Post 6. Cobb has a proud history of strong leaders on the Board who have steadfastly acted in the best interest of all lawyers in our circuit, and I promise to keep that tenet at the heart of my service, if elected.

Education

• B.A., Transylvania University, 1997
• J.D., Emory University School of Law, 2000

Personal/Family

Greg Shenton has lived in Smyrna for nearly 20 years with his wife, who is an elementary school teacher, and their two school-aged children. Greg and his family are members of the Smyrna First United Methodist Church, where Greg recently completed his term as Chair of the Board of Trustees. Greg is an avid baseball fan and a Braves season ticket holder. While in college, Greg played baseball and ran cross-country, twice earning All-American Scholar-Athlete honors in cross-country. While at Emory Law, Greg served as the president of the Graduate Senate and was recognized with the Dean’s Public Service Award.

Professional Background, Bar Activities, Civic Activities

• Greg Shenton has enjoyed practicing at his own firm, Shenton Law in Marietta, since 2012. Greg’s practice includes business law and litigation, construction law and litigation, restrictive covenant disputes, and transactional matters for small businesses. Greg began his career in 2000 at Morris, Manning & Martin in Atlanta and then moved to Fields Howell in 2005, where he was named partner in 2007.
• Greg currently serves as Secretary of the Cobb County Bar Association, has served as Co-Chair of the Bench & Bar Committee since 2017, and was awarded the President’s Award in 2019. Greg served multiple terms as a Member-at-Large on the Cobb Bar Board of Trustees, multiple terms as President of the Business Law & Litigation Section, seven years as the Chair of the Law Day Golf Classic Benefitting the Children’s Emergency Fund, and past Chair of the Legal Food Frenzy.
• Greg has been recognized as a Super Lawyer from 2022 to 2024, was recognized as a Rising Star from 2010 to 2014, and has been named Best of Georgia as a Business Law Advisor by the Georgia Business Journal every year since 2022. Greg has also been recognized annually by the Marietta Daily Journal’s Best of Cobb since 2019.
• Greg serves as an assistant coach for the cross-country and track & field teams at The Walker School.
• Greg is a member of the Leadership Cobb Class of 2015. Greg is past President of the Greenwood Neighborhood Association, is a former member and director of the Kiwanis Club of Marietta, and has served as a coach with Smyrna Little League Baseball and Smyrna Soccer Club/NASA TopHat. Greg has also served as a marathon mentor for Team in Training benefitting the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

Main Issues Facing the State Bar/Position

• One of the most pressing issues facing the State Bar in the next few years will be the increase in the use of artificial intelligence. While AI can be a valuable asset to the efficient provision of legal services, AI also presents challenges such as privacy concerns, data security, ethical dilemmas over client confidentiality, the competence of counsel independent of AI, liability for errors in the use of AI, and the responsible and ethical use of AI in general. I wish that I could articulate in a paragraph the solutions for all these issues that we are going to face, but I believe that the State Bar needs to improve its understanding of the issues that AI presents and the challenges that attorneys are going to face with AI in the very near future before crafting the solutions to these new and complex dilemmas.
• A second issue facing the Bar is health—both physical and mental. As the need for quality law firm staff, the workload required for matters (particularly in litigation), and the corresponding cost to provide legal services continues to rise, the expectations imposed on attorneys and the stress placed upon attorneys has also increased. This greater stress can manifest itself in both physical ailments and mental health challenges. I once read, “Lawyers take on the stress of their clients, but no one takes on the stress of the lawyer.” Most of us know too many lawyers who passed away entirely too early from physical ailments, some of which may have been avoided with better self-care. While the State Bar can maintain valuable programs that include free counseling sessions, which are often times underutilized due to the stigma attached to seeking such help, the profession as a whole needs to maintain a culture of empathy, civility and understanding of lawyers as people. The State Bar needs to establish a tone for the practice of law that helps alleviate unnecessary stress and hostility.