For more than twenty years, Bates has focused his practice on business and commercial litigation, including complex commercial disputes, real estate and environmental matters including condemnation and eminent domain, business torts, toxic torts, wrongful death and personal injury claims, and government related litigation. His experience also includes breaches of commercial lease agreements, logistics and transportation related litigation, and disputes involving business operations and contract performance.

In addition to litigation, Bates regularly advises business owners and management teams on practical legal strategy and day to day decision making. This counseling work often addresses corporate governance, contract and risk management, dispute avoidance, and operational issues that can trigger litigation if not handled early. Bates also assists clients with corporate dissolution matters, including both voluntary and involuntary dissolutions, and related business separation issues.

A significant component of Bates’ practice is devoted to representing investors and property owners in complex ad valorem property tax disputes. He has extensive experience appealing assessments for multifamily housing, including market rate properties and properties financed through Low Income Housing Tax Credits, USDA programs, and HUD funding. He also has a track record of successful appeals for warehouses, car dealerships, shopping centers, farmland, fast food restaurants, convenience stores, marinas, and other commercial properties throughout Georgia and South Carolina. In total, Bates has handled property tax appeals involving more than $2 billion in assessed value.

Bates also serves as the appointed City Attorney for the City of Savannah. In that role, he advises the Mayor and Aldermen, the City Manager, and city staff to ensure that municipal policies, ordinances, and administrative actions are legally sound. He supervises city litigation, oversees the drafting of ordinances and legal documents, reviews and consults on city services and contracts, and provides ongoing legal counsel to city leadership and staff.

Before entering private practice, Bates began his legal career as an assistant district attorney. He tried more than fifty cases to jury verdict and served in the Cobb County Crimes Against Women and Children Unit, prosecuting serious felony offenses including murder, rape, child molestation, cruelty to children, and aggravated stalking. He also served as an assistant district attorney in Rockdale County, where he was the Domestic Violence Prosecutor.

Bates earned his Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the University of Georgia, cum laude, and his Juris Doctor from the University of Georgia School of Law, cum laude. While in law school, he received the Bryant T. Castellano Academic Scholarship, competed on the Moot Court Team, and served on the editorial board of the Georgia Journal of International and Comparative Law. He is married and has two sons.