BILL SMITH is a Partner who has enjoyed an extensive and diverse civil litigation practice of 34 years. He is admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court, the United States Courts of Appeal for the Second, Fifth, Eighth and Eleventh Circuits and all state and federal Courts in Mississippi. He practiced for 23 years with the Brunini Law Firm in Jackson, where he chaired one of the firm’s two litigation sections and its environmental group. In 1998, he left Brunini to become General Counsel of Mississippi Chemical Corp. (NYSE-GRO) and oversaw the implementation of Sarbanes-Oxley compliance. He left Mississippi Chemical in 2003 to re-enter private practice.

Bill served as National Counsel in EPA consent order negotiations for Transcontinental Gas Transmission's PCB problems. He served as Mississippi counsel for the remainder of the interstate Pipeline industry on their massive PCB contamination problems. In addition Bill defended Tennessee Gas Transmission and Texas Eastern Corporation in numerous civil cases growing out of the PCB issues.  Bill in the last three years alone has been lead Counsel in Mississippi on two new major pipeline projects, Midcontinent Express Pipeline and Fayetteville Express Pipeline

Bill has handled numerous litigation matters for such companies as Atmos Energy Corporation, Kinder Morgan Energy Partners, L.P., Boardwalk Pipeline Partners, AT&T, Pennzoil, Amerada Hess, Mississippi Chemical Corporation, Vicksburg Chemical, Southern Natural Gas Corporation, Texas Eastern, Tenneco, Koch Energy, Gulf South Pipeline and Texas Gas Transmission, LLC.

Representative Experience

• Bill represented the sales agents for Purdue Pharma over the drug oxycotin in numerous single plaintiff cases in Mississippi. None had a reported decision as we won at the trial level on summary judgment and no plaintiff appealed as they went forward against the corporate defendant. 
  
  He was lead counsel for the defendant in a $600,000,000 chemical explosion case in Sioux City, Iowa. The only reported decisions are jurisdictional in nature and come out of the 5th and 8th circuits in cases styled "Terra Industries v. Mississippi Chemical Corporation" and "Mississippi Chemical Corporation v. Terra Industries". In a unique twist the court appointed its own expert metallurgist at which point the parties settled. Defense verdict rendered in that manner.
   
  He has defended chemical exposure cases involving pesticides, solvents, asbestos, drilling fluids, and airborne particulates.
   
  Bill has handled over 100 regulatory enforcement actions before the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality and the EPA representing such companies as Pennzoil, Amerada Hess, Mississippi Chemical Corporation, Mississippi Phosphates, Vicksburg Chemical, Southern Natural Gas Corporation, Texas Eastern, Tenneco, Koch Energy, Mueller Brass, Ingalls Shipyard, First Mississippi Corporation, numerous poultry processors, etc. In addition he has handled numerous controversial environmental permit cases including the only permitted hazardous waste disposal facility in the state for Holnam’s Artesia, Mississippi Cement kiln.

PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES

• American Bar Association, Litigation and Environmental Law
• American Corporate Counsel Association
• Metro Jackson Chamber of Commerce, Board of Directors
• Country Club of Jackson, President
• St. Andrews Episcopal School, Executive Committee
• Jackson Touchdown Club, President
• Defense Research Institute (DRI)
• Mississippi Defense Lawyers Association
• Mississippi Memorial Stadium, Board of Directors
• Jackson Convention and Visitors Bureau, Board of Directors
• Listed in The Best Lawyers in America, 2010 - Present

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