Alabama

Firm overview

Lightfoot, Franklin & White is dedicated to solving its clients’ problems. From complex, “bet the company” litigation to internal and government investigations, risk management, and compliance, Lightfoot works hard to identify challenges and develop solutions for its clients, so they can, in turn, focus on their mission.

Lightfoot attorneys spend each and every moment on a matter pursuing the best possible resolution for clients. While disputes are a part of doing business, they are always a distraction for clients. The core goal at Lightfoot is to handle litigation in a way that lets clients get back to what they do best – running successful companies.


Leadership
Lightfoot continues to advance its reputation as a formidable defense litigation firm. In 2019 Benchmark Litigation recognized Lightfoot as a “Top 20 Trial Law Firm” in the nation. The firm elected its first female managing partner in 2018. Additionally, six partners at Lightfoot are fellows of the American College of Trial Lawyers. Two of the firm’s founding partners are past presidents of the college.  


Efficient Litigation Strategy Focused on the Client
The lawyers at Lightfoot develop litigation strategies that deal with disputes in the most efficient way possible while also meeting a client’s exact goals. Whether it’s shutting down a lawsuit with a well-crafted motion to dismiss, defending a client’s rights by securing a favorable settlement or taking a matter all the way through a trial to a verdict or ruling, they find the solution that fits every unique situation. The firm focuses on the litigation, clients tend to their business and both are partners in building a promising future.


Talent Honed by Decades of Tackling Challenging Cases
For nearly 30 years, Lightfoot’s lawyers have tried cases in virtually every jurisdiction in the country. The firm was founded during a time when Alabama was home to jurisdictions that were openly hostile to corporations, and plaintiffs’ lawyers were pursuing new avenues of attack not attempted anywhere else. Our lawyers gained invaluable experience handling high-stakes cases in tough venues. They take that hard-earned institutional knowledge into every case they handle — to the benefit of clients — no matter the jurisdiction. This approach followed the firm to its location in Houston, Texas.


Trusted Counsel to Well-Known Companies
Lightfoot represents industry-leading American and multinational companies across a broad range of sectors. Lightfoot’s lawyers regularly handle cases involving commercial disputes, product liability, catastrophic injury, healthcare, energy, white collar crime, internal investigations, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, collegiate athletics and the media.

Firm overview

Christian & Small is a multi-disciplinary law firm celebrating 20 years serving individuals and regional, national, and international companies, as well as emerging businesses. The firm represents clients throughout the Southeast and members of the firm serve as national coordinating counsel, regional counsel, and statewide counsel for clients in various enterprises. Christian & Small is a proven leader among Alabama-based firms offering the high-quality legal representation expected from larger firms and the client-focused attention that distinguishes the best boutiques. Leveraging technology allows the firm to provide the exceptional service and results that its clients have come to expect, while keeping costs low. The firm’s corporate responsibility program is focused on education and diversity in one of the firm’s core values.

Main Areas of Practice:

Appellate

• Achieved a complete victory for a major pharmaceutical company in the first of 73 ‘Average Wholesale Pricing’ cases filed by Alabama’s Attorney General. The Alabama Supreme Court reversed a multi-million dollar jury verdict for the State and rendered judgment in our client’s favor.
• Won an appeal in which an insured sought recognition of a new bad faith cause of action against a liability insurer where the insurer offered its policy limits before suit and defended the insured without reservation.
• Successfully prosecuted mandamus in order to obtain dismissal for lack of personal jurisdiction on behalf of manufacturer accused of polluting water

Bankruptcy and Restructuring

• Lead counsel for the largest unsecured creditor of a shipyard in the commencement of a contested involuntary bankruptcy. The firm forced a sale of corporate assets, obtained an allowed claim in excess of $40 million, and negotiated favorable concessions that resulted in the confirmation of a consensual plan.
• Served as part of the litigation team that represented the bankruptcy trustee of Just for Feet in the aggressive pursuit of accounting malpractice and corporate government claims.
• Counsel for the unsecured creditors’ committee of Walter Energy, which at the time was the largest bankruptcy of a coal company in the US.

Business Services & Commercial Litigation

• Defended a software company against claims for theft of trade secrets and for inducing a competitor’s chief information officer to breach a covenant not to compete. Following an adverse verdict, the firm obtained a reversal and ultimately a complete dismissal for the client.

Class Action & Toxic Torts

• Nationwide representation of defendants in over 250 lawsuits filed throughout the US arising from injuries allegedly sustained by consumers of a nutritional supplement recalled by the FDA.
• Defended leading investment bank in rate payer class action arising from bond defaults and payer class action arising from bond defaults and bankruptcy of Jefferson County, Alabama.
• Represented a major financial service provider in a series of litigation and regulatory matters relating to a state retirement plan. Negotiated settlements of the class action, regulatory proceedings and all related civil litigation, and obtained dismissal oof a related derivative suit and punitive class action.
• Achieved a total victory for the domestic affiliates of one of the world’s largest banks, in a nationwide class action certified in the only multidistrict litigation case ever taken to trial in Alabama. The firm tried the case and won in the 11^th Circuit Court of Appeals while all other defendants in the financial lending business paid very large sums to settle the claims.

Emerging Technology and E-Discovery

• Representing four hospitals and two practice groups in a class action alleging a data breach of patient information and acting as local counsel for all other hospital defendants with related cases consolidated through an MDL proceeding.

Health Care

• Representing hospitals, academic, medical centers, physician practice groups and individual physicians in a variety of health care matters – from physician/hospital employment relationships to Certificate of Need proceedings to Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement, fraud and abuse issues, and false claims actions.

Labor & Employment

• Represented a general contractor managing construction of an electrical power steam plant to a specially negotiated collective bargaining agreement with 13 trade unions This representation included enjoining of wildcat strikes, defending unfair labor practice charges arising from union jurisdictional disputes, and defending grievances and arbitrations.
• Managed representation of five employers in separate FLSA collective actions with potential class size ranging from 100 to 600 members. Through the firm’s efforts, one case receiving initial certification and involving 60 opt-ins was pared down to fewer than 25 members. The case then settled for $10,000, as a whole, with most of the last-standing claimants receiving $50. In the remaining matters, the firm’s efforts convinced the plaintiff’s counsel not to seek certification, and each was settled for under $10,000.

Professional Liability & Medical Malpractice

• Obtained a defense verdict in a medical malpractice case after a six-day trial where the defense conceded that the plaintiff was injured by the procedure but contested that there was a breach of the standard of care and the extent of the injury.
• Obtained a unanimous jury verdict in favor of a general surgeon in a case where the plaintiff claimed in excess of $400,000 in past medical expenses and $350,000 in lost wages due to permanent disability.

Product Liability

• Defended the manufacturer of a zero-turn riding mower in a wrongful death suit. The case was tried for three weeks to a defense verdict, which was affirmed on appeal.
• Obtained summary judgment in federal court in favor of an international manufacturer of a steel fabricating system on multi-million dollar property damage claim arising out of a massive molten steel spill.

Obtained a defense verdict in a state court wrongful death case involving design defect and failure to warn claims against foreign agricultural tractor manufacturer.

Firm overview

Bradley is a national law firm with a reputation for skilled legal work, exceptional client service, and impeccable integrity. Our ten offices are located in Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and the District of Columbia, giving us an extensive geographic base to represent clients on a regional, national, and international basis. Although we are a large law firm with nearly 550 lawyers, our clients still enjoy the personal attention, responsiveness, and deep relationships they would expect from a boutique firm. Our attorneys and staff combine legal experience and knowledge with a sophisticated understanding of industries to come up with practical, strategic solutions specifically tailored to clients’ business operations. 

Bradley frequently serves as national coordinating, regional, and statewide counsel for business clients around the world, offering a full suite of legal services in dozens of industries and practice areas, including:

Affordable Housing and Community Development |
Antitrust and Competition | Appellate

Banking & Financial Services

• Anti-Money Laundering
• Auto Finance
• Broker-Dealer and Investment Adviser
• Commercial Lending
• Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB)
• Payments
• Examinations and CIDs under Litigation
• Financial Services Litigation
• Small Dollar and Unsecured Consumer Lending
• Licensing and Examinations
• Privacy, Security and Innovation
• Regulatory Compliance
• Reverse Mortgages
• Title Insurance Claims and Title Defect Curative
• Vendor Management

Blockchain and Digital Assets | Cannabis | Construction

Corporate and Securities

• Capital Markets and Corporate Finance
• Emerging Growth Companies
• Mergers and Acquisitions
• Private Companies
• Private Equity
• Public Companies
• Public Finance
• Securities Regulation and Corporate Governance
• Venture Capital

Cybersecurity and Privacy | Economic Development | Emerging Growth Companies | 
Employee Benefits and Executive Compensation | Energy | Environmental Law

Food, Beverage and Hospitality | Franchise and Distribution | Government Contracts | 
Government Enforcement and Investigations | Governmental Affairs 

Healthcare

• ACOs, Value-Based Payments, and Managed Care
• Ambulatory Surgery, Outpatient Imaging and Other Outpatient Services
• Certificate of Need
• Clinical Research
• Healthcare Mergers, Acquisitions, and Joint Ventures
• Home Health and Hospice
• Hospitals and Health Systems
• Medical Staff Issues
• Nonprofit and Tax-exempt Issues
• Post-Acute and Long Term Care
• Regulatory Compliance
• Rehabilitation Services and Hospitals
  
  

Insurance

• ERISA Litigation
• Life, Health and Disability Litigation
• Policyholder Insurance Coverage
• Regulatory/Corporate/Government Relations
  
  

Intellectual Property

• Copyrights
• International and Cross Border
• Patents and Patent Litigation
• Technology Transactions
  
  

Labor and Employment | Life Sciences

Litigation

• Class Action and Complex Litigation
• Electronic Data and Discovery
• Environmental & Toxic Tort Litigation
• Food and Agriculture Litigation and Regulatory
• Healthcare Litigation
• Life Sciences Litigation
• Managed Care Litigation
• Medical Malpractice
• Product Liability
  
  

Media and Entertainment | Retail | State Attorneys General and Regulators 

Real Estate

• Commercial Leasing
• Foreign Investment in U.S. Real Property
• Institutional Investment
• Real Estate Acquisitions and Dispositions
• Real Estate Finance and Development
• Zoning and Land Use

Tax | Telecommunications and Utilities | Trusts and Estates