Ted was born in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and raised in the gritty blue-collar city of Pittsburgh during the 70s. He was 13 when the family then made the trek to Atlanta and made it their home. He has traveled the world and thinks that Atlanta is the greatest city in the world.
Ted attended Furman “Paladins” University in Greenville, South Carolina. His father and grandfather went to Duke and wanted him to be a Blue Devil. However, Furman was a smaller school and he was able to focus on his studies. In his junior year he got an internship working on Capitol Hill with New York Senator Alfonse D’Amato. From that experience, he really fell in love with politics and the law. In his senior year wanted to go back to DC and work on the hill but the political science department said no…he had already done that. They had never in the life of the university sponsored one person twice. That wasn’t going to stop him. He went over to the Urban Studies department and asked them to sponsor him to work on the hill. They knew that he had already gone, but said if he wrote a prospectus of why he wanted to go and what he wanted to do and they get it approved he could go. He did just that, got back to the hill his senior year and worked on the other side of the isle with House of Representatives Congressman Richard Lehman of California. “With D’Amato it was 90 employees. With Lehman it was eight of us. It was a great experience to see how both machines work.”
When time came to pursue his law degree, he went to the University of Georgia from 1986-89. “I came straight to Atlanta after law school.” While his friends went to work for large firms, he joined a small law firm in Paulding County where he immediately starting trying cases in all spectrums (divorce, criminal, probate, real estate). “After about two and a half years there I moved into Buckhead and searched for a new job.” He landed one with personal injury lawyer Robert N. Susko. “Robert was looking for a litigator to try his cases. Robert said he was looking for someone young and hungry who had court experience under their belt. I told him I was his man.” Robert liked him right away. He continued doing divorce and criminal, building his clientele. About the fifth year of working with Robert he dropped the divorce and criminal, strictly focusing on personal injury, workers compensation.
In 1998 things began to change. Ted started his own practice and met his wife Kim who hails from Hampton, Virginia. After a three month courtship they were married and Kim became a partner in his professional and personal life.
“I’m very big on ethics,” Ted firmly states. He also explains that unethical lawyers promise people the world and either it doesn’t happen for them or over billing eats up the “big money” their clients do get. Ted does no TV or billboard advertising. He is not the snake-oil salesman that personal injury lawyers are made out to be through the few that have tarnished the profession. Previous clients refer him because of his work ethic and the sincere fight he puts up for them. “The average person doesn’t know the rules and regulations when it comes to personal injury and workers compensation. That’s what I’m here for,”
