Shelby GrubbsAttorney Shelby Grubbs has returned to Miller & Martin as managing member in the firm's Atlanta office after he completed a stint as executive director of the Atlanta Center for International Arbitration and Mediation (ACIAM) at the Georgia State College of Law.
The center's managing director, Magaly Cobian, will assume Grubbs' responsibilities at Georgia State and Grubb will return to the Atlanta office of Chattanooga's biggest law firm to focus on international arbitration and dispute resolution.
Grubbs, who began his association with Miller & Martin in Chattanooga in 1994 and helped start the firm's office in Atlanta four years later, helped to develop the arbitration center at GSU over the past four years.
Grubbs has overseen all aspects of the center's activity since 2014, including organizing more than 50 events and training sessions at the college.
"I came to do a job, not have a job," Grubbs said, regarding his role in launching the arbitration center, which is part of a larger effort to make Atlanta a hub for international arbitration. "Magaly is the best person to take the center forward from here and will ensure that it continues to provide superb service."
While he is stepping aside as ACAIM executive director, Grubbs remains an adjunct professor teaching international commercial arbitration and advocacy and continues to serve on the college's Board of Visitors. He will also continue to coach the college's "Vis Moot" team and will chair the ACIAM Arbitrators Council.
"Through his dogged and indefatigable determination and boundless energy, Shelby has taken the center from a germ of an idea to an internationally recognized institution in just a few short years," said Doug Yarn, GSU law professor and director of the Consortium for Negotiation and Dispute Resolution.
During his tenure at GSU, Grubbs maintained an "of counsel" relationship at Miller & Martin. He was reinstated as a member of the firm on Jan. 1 and took over as head of the Atlanta office, a position previously occupied by Chris Parker. Firm chairman Jim Haley said Parker will remain a member of the firm's policy committee, but "the transition will allow Chris to spend more time on client matters."