Select Matters
- Company Breakups: Represented departing management of agricultural company against former employer in breach of common law duties of loyalty and confidentiality case. In separate case, represented insurance brokers against former employer that claimed termination of employment as in bad faith and precluded injunctive relief, that former employer was estopped from contesting professional status of departing brokers, that stand-along “no accept” clauses without solicitation, are not enforceable, etc.
- Municipal Liability: Represented municipality as amicus in arguing that common law barred imposition of lien on essential publicly-owned property.
- Business Liability: Represented hospital sued by COVID-19 patient, and argued for validity and application of law that immunized businesses from negligence actions related to COVID-19.
- State Liability: Represented state agency sued for constructing bridge near a private toll bridge.
- Banking: Served as amicus counsel arguing that Alabama’s statute of frauds for loans barred defaulting real estate developers' claims for fraud etc., Supreme Court reversed and rendered for bank.
- Environmental Liability: Represented electric utility in citizens suit regarding method of closure of coal ash impoundment.
- Products Liability: Served as amicus counsel in successfully arguing for more comprehensive protective order to limit plaintiffs' access to electronic control unit that governed airbag functions in wrongful death case.
- Administrative Law: Represented healthcare company, which had obtained certificate of need to finish vacant hospital building and relocate there, on mandamus proceeding leading to reversal of circuit court's order which had remanded case to state agency for re-trial.
Publications
News
Events & Speaking Engagements
Credentials
Education
- Washington & Lee University School of Law, J.D., 1993, magna cum laude
- The University of Alabama, Masters in Tax Accounting, 1986
- The University of Alabama, B.S., Accounting, 1985, summa cum laude (First in Class)
Courts
- Supreme Court of Alabama, 1993
- U.S. Supreme Court, 2002
- U.S. Court of Federal Claims, Washington D.C., 2003
- U.S. Tax Court, 1995
- U.S. Court of Appeals, Federal Claims, 2007
- U.S. Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit, 2003
- U.S. Court of Appeals, Second Circuit, 2005
- U.S. Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit, 2003
- U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit, 2003
- U.S. Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit, 2003
Bar Admissions
- Alabama, 1993
Professional Affiliations
- American Academy of Appellate Lawyers, Fellow
- Alabama Law Foundation, Fellow
- Alabama Bar Association, Appellate Practice Section
- Alabama Defense Lawyers Association, Amicus Committee
- DRI - Lawyers Representing Business, Appellate Advocacy
- Chair, Standing Committee on the Alabama Rules of Appellate Procedure
- Alabama State Advisory Committee of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, Former Member
Awards & Accolades
- Chambers USA, Litigation: Appellate (Band 1)
- The Best Lawyers in America®, Appellate Practice (Lawyer of the Year 2019 & 2025), Energy Law
- Mid-South Super Lawyers, 2014 - present
- Martindale Hubbell, AV Preeminent
- Birmingham Magazine, Top Attorney, 2018 & 2020
Clerkships
- U.S. Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit, Honorable E. Grady Jolly, 1993 - 1994
- Supreme Court of Alabama, Honorable Harold See, 1996 - 1998