John Michael McGarity

Mike McGarity's practice focuses primarily in the areas of personal injury, wrongful death, civil litigation, family law, intellectual property, malpractice litigation, criminal law and general business litigation. McGarity was named a "Georgia Super Lawyer" in 2005, 2006 and again for 2008 by Atlanta Magazine and Law & Politics in the practice area of General Litigation. Since 1987 he has been given an AV rating by the Martindale-Hubbell National Legal Directory, the highest such designation given for both lawyer competence and integrity.

McGarity graduated from Georgia Institute of Technology in 1976, receiving a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Management. Upon receiving his Juris Doctor from the University of Georgia School Of Law in 1979, McGarity joined the Gwinnett County District Attorneys Office as Assistant District Attorney.

In 1997, McGarity was appointed by Attorney General Thurbert Baker as Special Assistant Attorney General and for four years represented the Gwinnett County Child Support Enforcement Division. He was appointed by the Supreme Court of Georgia as Special Master in several disciplinary matters and has tried well over a hundred jury trials and hundreds of bench trials.

McGarity shifted into private practice, joining the Lawrenceville firm of Webb, Fowler and Tanner as an associate. He became partner in that firm after trying a large number of complex litigation cases, including wrongful death claims, medical malpractice, personal injury, multi-party claims, felony criminal trials and real estate litigation matters. McGarity was later named partner at Anderson, Tate, Mahaffey and McGarity, where he spent four and a half years before opening The McGarity Group in September of 2006.

McGarity is admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of Georgia, the Georgia Court of Appeals, The United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia and the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.

McGarity is a member of the State Bar of Georgia, the Georgia Trial Lawyers Association, the Lawyers Club of Atlanta, the Old War Horse Lawyer's Club and the Atlanta Bar Association and has was Past President of the Gwinnett County Bar Association. He currently serves as a Vice President for the Georgia Trial Lawyers Association.

McGarity is an active community leader as well. He formerly served as president of the Northeast Georgia Council for the Boy Scouts (covering 26 Georgia counties) and is a trustee for the Georgia Gwinnett College. He is a 1986 graduate of Leadership Gwinnett and a member of the Gwinnett Rotary Club, as well as the Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce Chairman's Club, former member of the Gwinnett County Board for the Department of Family and Children's Services and former member of the J.M. Tull YMCA Board of Directors (honored with Gwinnett's YMCA Volunteer of the Year Award). He and his wife, Caryn, live in the Braselton area of Gwinnett County.