Atlanta attorney John Sherrill wins dispute resolution award

ATLANTA — The Supreme Court of Georgia Commission on Dispute Resolution and the Dispute Resolution Section of the State Bar of Georgia have awarded the 2021 Chief Justice Harold G. Clarke Award to John A. Sherrill in recognition of his outstanding contributions to the field of alternative dispute resolution in Georgia.

Sherrill accepted the award during a livestream of the 28th annual Alternative Dispute Resolution Institute and 2021 Neutrals’ Conference. Upon receiving the award, Sherrill said, “It is a tremendous honor to receive this award. The list of people I have to thank for being my mentors in this field is long, beginning with Abe Ordover from Emory, who introduced me to mediation back in the late ’70s; India Johnson, who recruited me for the AAA panels in the early ’80s; and all of the ADR practitioners and lawyers from whom I have learned over the years. In addition to my ADR practice, I was a trial lawyer in Georgia for over 45 years until I retired from my firm in 2014. Now, I am a full-time arbitrator and mediator. and I can honestly say that my time spent as a neutral helping other people resolve their disputes has been the most rewarding part of my professional career.”

Sherrill graduated as a Morehead Scholar from the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill in 1963. Before his career in ADR, he was a distinguished Naval aviator during his six years of military service – including 80 missions during the Vietnam War flown from the USS Intrepid, which earned him his first professional awards: eight air metals. After law school, Sherrill came to Atlanta to practice law in 1972 after graduating from Duke Law School as a member of the Duke Law Journal.

His law career accomplishments include serving as chair of State Bar’s Dispute Resolution Section, member of the Council of the American Bar Association’s Dispute Resolution Section, fellow and director of the College of Commercial Arbitrators, fellow and director of the American College of Civil Trial Mediators, member of the Board of Directors & Managing Council of the American Arbitration Association, founding member and president of Georgia Arbitrators Forum, founder and board member of the Atlanta International Arbitration Society, and member of several AAA arbitrator panels as well as ICDR and CPR panels. On four different occasions, he served as an Olympics arbitrator for AAA.

Past recipients of the Chief Justice Harold G. Clarke Award include:

♦ 2013 – Ansley B. Barton, Registered Neutral, Approved ADR Trainer, and founding director of GODR

♦ 2015 – Edith B. Primm, director of the Justice Center of Atlanta

♦ 2016 – Douglas H. Yarn, professor of Law at Georgia State University College of Law

♦ 2017 – R. Wayne Thorpe, ADR Neutral for JAMS

♦ 2018 – Raytheon Rawls, senior public service faculty at the J.W. Fanning Institute at UGA

♦ 2019 – Melissa C. Heard, registered neutral, Approved ADR Trainer, and FEMA Reservist

♦ 2020 – Herbert H. (Hal) Gray III, managing partner of Ragsdale, Beals, Seigler, Patterson & Gray, LLP