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Co-founder, Advocate & Instructor
Judson was profiled in The National Law Journal’s annual feature “Winning,” as one of “10 top trial lawyers in the United States.”
A Fellow of The American College of Trial Lawyers, he has tried over 100 jury trials to verdict, winning almost 90% of those trials.
EDUCATION
Emory University School of Law, J.D., 1975 Graduated with distinction Order of the Coif Emory Law Journal, Assistant Articles Editor
Dartmouth College, B.A., Psychology, 1969 President, Phi Delta Alpha fraternity Varsity swim team (1965-69)
EMPLOYMENT
United States Navy, 1969-72 Lieutenant Weapons Officer on the destroyer USS McCaffery, multiple international deployments
Alston & Bird, LLP, (previously Jones, Bird & Howell) 1975-2013
International law firm with over 800 Lawyers in 11 offices
Partner 1980-2013 Tried over 100 civil cases to verdict Primary practice areas: medical malpractice defense; personal injury defense; products liability; First Amendment defamation
Served as: Chair of Medical Products & Services Practice Group
Co-Chair of all litigation practice groups, firm-wide
HONORS & RECOGNITION
Named as one of “Ten Top Trial Lawyers” in the United States by The National Law Journal, 2000
Tradition of Excellence and Service to the Public and the Bar Award from the General Practice and Trial Section of the State Bar of Georgia, 2014
Out-of-State Practitioner Division’s “Special Recognition for Outstanding Pro Bono Service Award” by The Florida Bar, 2004
Sidney Register “Outstanding and Distinguished Alumnus Award,” the Bolles School, Jacksonville, Florida; 2011
Defense verdicts selected among “Top Defense Wins” of the year in the United States by the National Law Journal in 1998, 1999 and 2005
Chambers USA – Named in Band 1, nine leading individuals among litigation attorneys in Georgia, 2013, 2014
Listed by Best Lawyers in six separate litigation practice areas in 2016: medical malpractice; personal injury; First Amendment; securities; products liability; bet-the-company
Named as one of three “Lawyers of the Year” in Georgia in Best Lawyers, 2009
“Judson Graves Prize for Excellence in Trial Practice” at the Emory University School of Law – Established as a student award upon retirement in 2013 by Alston & Bird, LLP
Alston & Bird, LLP
Chair of Pro Bono Committee
Chair of Associate Committee
Member of Merger Committee for Jones, Bird & Howell in its historic merger with Alston, Miller & Gaines
Emory University School of Law Adjunct Faculty (2011-2015; 2017)
Advanced Trial Practice course-lead adjunct
Alston & Bird, LLP Led the design and implementation of formal training program for litigation associates firmwide in civil trial practice and tactics (2014-present)
Troutman Pepper, LLP Consultant in the creation and implementation of a training program for litigation associates firmwide in civil trial practice and tactics (2016)
Copeland Stair Valz & Lovell, LLP Consultant in the creation and implementation of a training program for litigation associates firmwide in civil trial practice and tactics (2021)
NITA Faculty for Trial Techniques Program
Emory University School of Law (multiple years)
Organizer and speaker for dozens of educational programs and seminars for the members of the bar, the judiciary and the public on topics such as jury trial tactics and strategy; legal ethics; litigation management for judges; handling catastrophic injury cases; medical malpractice; jury selection; deposition taking; basics of healthcare law; all aspects of discovery; First Amendment; and juror persuasion.
MEMBERSHIPS
State Bar of Georgia
The Florida Bar (inactive)
The American College of Trial Lawyers
Fellow, (1998-present)
Georgia State Committee Chair (2008-2010)
COMMUNITY ACTIVITIES
The Bolles School, Jacksonville, Florida, Board of Trustees (six-year term).
Training and Counseling Center at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, Former Chair and Board Member of a non-profit, church-based, sliding-scale, accept-all-comers counselling center located in Downtown Atlanta.
St.Luke’s Episcopal Church, Vestry
Camp Sunshine, a camp for children with cancer, counselor, 11 years.
PUBLICATIONS
New Strategies and Interventions to Curtail Discovery Abuses, Verdict: J. Ga. Trial Law. Ass’n (2015).
Preparing for Deposition: Quality Doesn’t Cost, It Pays, Atlanta Med.: J. Med. Ass’n Ga. (1993).
Coaches in the Courtroom, 12 J.C. & U.L. 545 (1986).
Note, Georgia Criminal Procedure – Waiver of Accused’s Statutory Right to Withdraw Plea of Guilty Before Judgment is Pronounced May Not Be Solicited Through Questioning of Accused by the Court, Feb. 1974, at 469.
Co-founder, Advocate & Instructor
Jason Sheffield’s criminal cases have been covered by the international media. As a screen writer and former actor, he is acclaimed for his creativity and powerful visual performances in court.
TEACHING
U.S. Embassy Republic of Georgia, International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Agency “Rule of Law” Trial Advocacy Program: Georgia to Georgia Criminal Defense College: Founding Instructor, 2015 – Present
Emory University School of Law: Adjunct Professor: Expert Testimony in Criminal and Civil Trials: 2012 to Present
Georgia Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers Bill Daniel Trial Advocacy Program: Instructor: 2010 to Present
Continuing Education Lecturing: I.C.L.E. Georgia; GACDL; NACDL, 2010 – Present
HONORS & RECOGNITION
President, Georgia Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, 2022
Super Lawyers, 2019-2024
US News World Report: Best Lawyer, Criminal Defense 2024
Marquis Who’s Who, Criminal Defense 2021-2022
US News World Report Best Law Firms, 2018
President’s Award, GACDL, 2014;
Super Lawyers Rising Star, 2011, 2013, 2015
PUBLICATIONS
Winning Despite DNA: The Truth You Must Reveal, The Champion Magazine, National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (Apr. 2020).
From From Chatroom to Court Room: Experts, The Harper Challenge, and Entrapment, The Champion Magazine, National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (Aug. 2015).
EDUCATION
Georgia State University College of Law, J.D. 2005
Law Review, Associate Editor
Cali Award Winner
NACDL Mock Trial
Clemson University, B.S. 1995
President’s List
Dean’s List
National Criminal Defense College, 2010
Bill Daniel Trial Advocacy Program, 2007
EMPLOYMENT
PETERS, RUBIN, SHEFFIELD, & HODGES, P.A. Partner, 2008 – Present
Major felony state / federal trial and appellate practice;
Physical abuse / sexual assault / Shaken Baby-Abusive Head Trauma;
Complicated psychological / mental health cases;
Justification-based defense cases;
White-collar corporate and medical fraud;
Special learned counsel: Alabama, Connecticut, Florida, New Jersey,
North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Puerto Rico.
DWIGHT L. THOMAS, P.C., ASSOCIATE 2004-2007
Intensive caseload of state and federal trial and appellate misdemeanor and felony cases.
EMORY UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF LAW
Adjunct Faculty 2015 – Present
Expert Testimony in Civil and Criminal Cases
Co-founder, Advocate & Instructor
Judson was successful in the extraordinary competitive world of film and television acting because he created an entirely new way to act. He invented a “System of Persuasive Communication” that enabled him to walk into a room to audition for a movie, and make the director and producer feel and think exactly what he wanted them to feel and think – before Judson even said a word. The foundation of this System of Persuasive Communication are The Six Elements of Instinctual Trust.
Within Judson Squared’s foundational course, TRUST: Information & Application, you will learn that those Six Elements are the key to making people think and feel what you want them to think and feel. And Jud Graves will demonstrate exactly how to apply those skills during a jury trial.
THIS SCENE WAS WITH: 1. Jim Carrey in The Truman Show, 2. Brad Pitt in Kalifornia, 3. Gabriel Byrne in A Simple Twist of Fate, 4. Kevin Costner in The War, 5. Will Patton in Midnight Edition, 6. James Black in Unshackled, 7. Lea Thompson in Stolen Babies, 8. Ally Walker in Profiler, 9. Herbie Braha in The Beach Girls (Judson’s very first movie), 10. Joe Morton in Miss Evers’ Boys, 11. Nancy Allen and John Castle in RoboCop 3 (just before Judson and John kill Nancy). Judson gets what he deserves in the final climatic scene. He’s driving an armored assault vehicle toward a bunch of good guys and just in the nick of time, RoboCop fires a rocket and blows him up.
During his acting days, Judson also worked in films and television shows with Veronica Cartwright, Harry Connick Jr., Faye Dunaway, John Glover, Walton Goggins, Barbara Hershey, Stacy Keach, Kevin Kline, Juliette Lewis, Laura Linney, E.G. Marshall, Steve Martin, Tim Matheson, Mary Tyler Moore, Joe Morton, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Ray McKinnon, Carroll O’Connor, CCH Pounder, Howard Rollins, Stephen Root, Ricky Schroder, Craig Sheffer, Jean Smart, Rip Torn, Blair Underwood, and Richard Widmark.
And for those of you out there who were (or are) big fans of the show Law & Order, Judson worked with Sam Waterston on a wonderful, but short-lived series called I’ll Fly Away. You might be happy to hear that Sam is truly a delightful person and the consummate professional.
More than Just a Different Way to Act
Imagine walking along the beach looking for shark’s teeth… and stumbling over the Cullinan Diamond. At 3,106.75 carats, roughly 1.4 pounds, it was large enough to stumble on. It is also invaluable. Well, during his search to discover – to invent – a more efficient system of acting, Judson discovered something far more valuable…
The #9 photo in the previous section above (the screen grab of Judson in The Beach Girls), was where his search for a more efficient system of acting began. After years of classical acting training, Judson learned various techniques (that all actors are taught) to conjure real and honest emotions during his performances in plays. He was quite successful during his days as a theater actor, garnering many glowing reviews, which supported his belief that emotionally-based acting techniques akin to “Method Acting” were the keys to delivering great performances. However, on his first day on The Beach Girls set, in the fall of 1981, on a Coast Guard Cutter in Long Beach Harbor, Judson discovered that the idea of conjuring real and honest emotions during performances in a movie, was simply absurd. The problem is that during a movie’s production, actors are required to say the same lines and perform the same physical movements dozens and dozens of times for various camera angles and numerous “takes.” Conjuring real and honest emotions dozens of takes is simply a physical impossibility, and it is a myth that actors are actually able to do that.
So following that first day on the set of his first movie – after realizing that the “acting skills” he’d been taught, were worthless on a movie set, Judson set out to create an entirely new way to act. His goal was to create a system of acting in which he could make audiences feel the emotions he wanted them to feel, without Judson having to feel any emotions at all. This would allow him to create a persuasive performance on each and every take. As the next few years passed and Judson began making progress on developing what he would eventually call his “System of Persuasive Communication,” he stumbled into solving mankind’s biggest conundrum regarding personal and business relationships: He figured out exactly and precisely how and why trust is secured or denied when strangers see each other for the first time. Decades later, research in the field of cognitive neuroscientific would confirm the things Judson discovered in the mid-1980s.
Judson’s discoveries about the nature of trust were no instantaneous epiphanies, but rather the result of his experimentation (as an actor) during hundreds of auditions for movie and television roles. As the years passed and his experimentations continued, he discovered that there are specific nonverbal behaviors (communication skills), that when executed properly, will lead strangers to trust anyone who is executing those skills – in fractions of a second. And eventually he also discovered that there are specific nonverbal behaviors that many – if not most – people unconsciously, but frequently display, that cause strangers to distrust them – in fractions of a second.
The Wall Street Journal’s award-winning columnist Sue Shellenbarger thought her readers would find Judson’s discoveries about trust and first impressions fascinating – and valuable, so after numerous conversations with him, she wrote the article above which was published on January 30, 2018.
Sue was right. Her readers did find her article fascinating. In fact, it was the was the “Most Popular Article” in The Journal for over a week, and portions have been reprinted in dozens of business publications internationally, with links to the article on hundreds of websites.
Noted Entrepreneurship Professor Heidi M. Neck uses Judson’s direct quotes from the article in the newest edition of her book Entrepreneurship: The Practice and Mindset.
Three years later, on January 20, 2021, Judson was featured in another Wall Street Journal article, which was written by Rachel Feintzeig.
HOLLYWOOD TO Y’ALLYWOOD
After leaving LA, in April of 1993 Judson launched a script and film development company in Atlanta called WHAT Films, where he taught his profound, but radical system of persuasive communication to actors, writers, producers and directors. “WHAT” quickly became the premier training facility for film professionals in Georgia and within a year, more film professionals worked and studied at WHAT than any company in the country except for a few located in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. Judson saw Georgia as a fresh and fertile market for film production, and the first feature film ever produced in Georgia with an all-union and all Georgia cast and crew, that was also fully financed in Georgia, was produced and directed by Judson. As the closing gala film of The Peachtree International Film Festival, The Real Reason premiered before a crowd of over 4,000 at the legendary Fox Theater.
Judson (in the houndstooth jacket) on the set, directing The Real Reason.
The New York Times published an article about the marketing of The Real Reason – or rather the mismarketing of the movie. The article was written by Lawrie Mifflin, a senior editor of The Times. The mismarketing of the film was a disaster, but “the real reason” The Real Reason was never distributed, was far more sinister. But that’s a story for another time.
However, Judson’s prophetic vision of Atlanta as a mecca for film production has been realized. As of this writing (2022), Georgia is now the number one film production location in the world for movies.
HOME & FAMILY
In 2011, Judson and his wife Kate moved from the 14th floor of The Healey Building (the primary location where the movie Baby Driver was shot) in downtown Atlanta, to the mountains of north Georgia near the southern entrance of the Appalachian Trail. With a creek horseshoeing around their house, a waterfall with a natural rock-slide that dumps you into the creek’s freezing water, and loads of wild animals, they joke that they’re now living in a Disney movie. Surrounded by thick forest with the nearest house a half-mile away, they live with deer, rabbits, woodchucks, dozens of bird species, possums, nearly tame raccoons (they regularly feed on their deck), black bears (as many as five at a time in their yard and on their deck), and rafters with as many as fifty at a time. A flock of wild turkeys is called a “rafter.” They love where they live but also love travel, hosting big dinner parties, great wine, and Judson still surfs whenever he can get to the ocean. Their two adult children, Ashleigh and Alex, live in Atlanta, an hour south. Jenny and Lula are their shelter cats, and their new big brother is a Labrabull named Mickey – who gives the deer a pretty impressive chase every day.