Kristen Wigh Goodman has represented businesses and individuals for almost three decades in employment and business law matters. Her unique practice includes both litigation and transactional experience, including discrimination, harassment, wage and hour, unfair business practices, trade secrets and restrictive covenant litigation and internal investigation and risk assessment. She has advised businesses and executives on contract, compensation, and policy matters, and represented them before the EEOC, OSHA, the NLRB, the Georgia Insurance Commission, and the Georgia Office of Consumer Affairs.

Kristen has an active business law practice in which she frequently assists clients with the formation, dissolution, and sale and acquisition of businesses. She also routinely represents clients in business litigation matters, including business divorce and contract litigation. Practicing in the high growth Georgia Port region has given Kristen particular expertise in issues affecting the logistics industry, including transportation, warehousing, owner/operator matters, classification of workers, joint employment, and contractual allocation of risks in a multi-employer setting.

Kristen also works frequently with health care entities and physicians on matters related to practice structure and corporate documents, payor disputes, audits, employment matters, and in defense and prosecution of False Claims Act litigation.

In addition, Kristen has extensive experience representing clients in the highly regulated cannabis law space, including counsel to those seeking state licenses, representation in the procurement, administrative and appeals processes, and representation of those seeking to invest in such companies.

Kristen’s appellate experience, both as a law clerk for the former Chief Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit and as the lead Assistant United States appellate attorney for the Southern District of Georgia, has allowed her to develop a successful appellate practice as well. She has appeared numerous times before the Eleventh Circuit and is often asked to handle federal and state appeals of unsuccessful trial matters.

At Georgia law, Kristen participated in moot court and was the winner of numerous academic awards and honors. She was a member of the Georgia Law Review, Phi Kappa Phi and she was inducted into Order of the Coif. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa and Magna Cum Laude from Emory University in 1989.

Following law school, Kristen was an employment and appellate associate at an AmLaw 100 firm in Houston, Texas. After moving back to Georgia in 1997, she worked as an associate at Hunter Maclean law firm and as the lead appellate AUSA at the U.S. Department of Justice in Savannah. A native of Atlanta, she currently splits her time between HGRS’s Atlanta and Savannah offices.

Kristen was recognized by Georgia Trend Magazine as one of the State’s Legal Elite in Employment Law and in Business Law and General Practice in 2013, 2015, and 2017. She was named a Georgia Super Lawyer in 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024 and to Best Lawyers in America (Employment–Management) in 2022, 2023, and 2024.