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G. Lee Welborn is a partner with Downey & Cleveland, LLP in Marietta, Georgia.
Lee’s primary practice areas include automobile liability, premises liability including claims arising from trip and falls and inadequate security, construction litigation, general tort liability and insurance coverage issues.
He offers clients more than 35 years of litigation experience.
Lee has served as lead counsel in more than 130 civil jury trials, primarily on the defense side but he has also successfully tried plaintiff’s cases on claims for wrongful death, intentional trespass, and business disputes.
He is trial counsel for a major property and casualty insurer in Georgia, and Lee is often called upon by clients to represent small businesses and individuals facing construction and premises related claims, along with personal injury claims involving serious injury and wrongful death.
As the founding member of Cole House Mediation Services, Lee serves as a mediator in addition to his full-time law practice. Attorneys seeking the help of a mediator with trial experience often engage his services to help their clients see the need to reach a settlement prior to trial.
Outside of the practice of law, Lee and his wife, Julie, have served in children’s ministry for many years. He has often been the keynote speaker at camps and retreats for teenagers and children in foster care, for families participating in international orphan hosting and adoption, and for men’s groups.
In addition to coaching youth sports, Lee has enjoyed many years as the announcer for his children’s high school football, soccer and track teams. His hobbies include hunting, fishing, triathlons, and obstacle course races.
Legal Assistant
Jo Ann Waddell
Representative Results
Trial Courts
- State Court of Clayton County
Defense verdict obtained for hotel owner whose guest tripped and fell on welcome mat, causing right foot fracture requiring surgery - Superior Court of Bartow County
Obtained summary judgment in favor of manufacturing company after UPS employee suffered severe hand injury when her glove became caught in a conveyor belt serviced weeks earlier and the client knew of no problems with the machine, triggering an award of attorney’s fees and expenses based upon plaintiff’s prior rejection of Offer of Settlement - State Court of Cherokee County
Representing plaintiff, obtained jury award of $250,000 in compensatory damages and $30,000 in punitive damages for elderly homeowner whose neighbor intentionally bulldozed part of her property to create access an road without permission - Superior Court of Fulton County
Obtained defense verdict in favor of property insurer accused of bad-faith refusal to pay for $135,000 in computer equipment and other electronics allegedly damaged in fire because evidence showed that damage was caused by electrical surge from fallen tree on a nearby power line, an occurrence clearly excluded under the policy - United States District Court, Northern District of Georgia
Obtained summary judgment for homeowner who rerouted stream on property against subsequent developer whose building flooded because of expert testimony that plaintiff’s building would have flooded regardless of whether stream flowed in original direction
Appellate Courts
- Georgia Court of Appeals
Reversing trial court’s entry of default judgment against driver because service of process was defective when the summons was not properly addressed to him [pdf – appellate opinion] - Supreme Court of Georgia
On writ of certiorari, determined that jury’s award of $54 million was improper and client who operated car rental company along with other defendants were not liable for an employee’s unforeseeable, criminal act of stealing car and striking pedestrian during high-speed chase with police [pdf – appellate opinion] - Georgia Court of Appeals
Summary judgment affirmed for property owner whose guest could not prevail on premises claim after suffering a hand injury when he attempted to dislodge fallen tree and fell into a garbage pile on property [pdf – appellate opinion] - Georgia Court of Appeals
On interlocutory review, reversed trial court and found that summary judgment was appropriate against employee injured by falling rocks from an excavator because he assumed the risk of his injury [pdf – appellate opinion]
Practice Areas
- Construction Litigation
- Personal Injury
- Property Damage
- Insurance Coverage
- Premises Liability
- Appellate
Credentials
Education
- Bachelor of Arts in History, cum laude, Georgia State University, 1985
- Juris Doctorate, University of Georgia, 1988
Court Admissions
- Georgia State and Superior Courts
- Georgia Court of Appeals
- Supreme Court of Georgia
- United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia
- United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
Professional & Community Memberships
- State Bar of Georgia
- Cobb County Bar Association
- Christian Legal Society
- Defense Research Institute
- Georgia Defense Lawyers Association
- Registered Neutral with Georgia Office of Dispute Resolution
- KidsCubed
