Litigation practice with emphasis on environmental, toxic tort, product liability, trademark infringement, and patent infringement litigation. Environmental litigation experience includes RCRA, CERCLA (Superfund), Clean Air Act, and Clean Water Act issues. Trial experience in federal and state courts, with experience in mediation and arbitration (as counsel and as an arbitrator), trade secrets, securities, insurance coverage, construction, and general civil litigation.
Relevant Experience 
- Lead trial counsel representing consumer products company in successfully defending claims of patent infringement, breach of confidentiality agreement, and misappropriation of trade secrets, including partial summary judgment and directed verdict on all remaining claims at trial.
- Trial counsel representing consumer products company in successfully defending claims for trademark infringement, breach of confidential relationship, breach of fiduciary duty, fraud, fraudulent concealment, negligent misrepresentation, trade dress infringement, unfair competition and deceptive trade practices brought by product manufacturer, including partial summary judgment, and post-trial judgment as a matter of law on all remaining claims.
- Represented major retailer in successfully defending claims for trademark infringement and false advertising brought by product manufacturer.
- Represented Fortune 500 companies in successfully prosecuting and defending claims under state and federal law for environmental contamination of property including manufacturing facilities.
- Represented a chemical manufacturer in both state and federal courts successfully defending environmental claims brought by a customer pursuant to CERCLA and state law for spills allegedly occurring during delivery of liquid chemical product by an independent transporter.
- Represented a medical device manufacturer in successfully defending numerous products liability claims, including challenges to Plaintiffs' experts on Daubert grounds.
- Represented several major corporations at trial and in mediation in successfully defending toxic tort claims.
- Represented one of the nation's largest oil pipelines in defending federal enforcement action under the Clean Water Act.
- Represented one of the nation's largest oil pipelines in defending riparian landowners' individual and class action claims for property damage resulting from spill of fuel oil from pipeline; obtained favorable settlement for company.
- Represented software development company in successfully pursuing license agreement claims in federal district court and the ICC International Court of Arbitration.
- Represented electric utility company in defending a prevention of significant deterioration applicability determination.
- Served as neutral third arbitrator in a private dispute between a law firm and a departing partner.
Background
- Postdoctoral Research Associate and Teaching Fellow, Harvard Medical School, 1982-84
Membership
- Member, Virginia State Bar and State Bar of Georgia
- Member, State Bar of Georgia Board of Governors; Vice Chairperson, General Counsel Overview Committee; Chairperson, Elections Committee; Member, Commission on Continuing Lawyer Competency
- Secretary, Atlanta Bar Association, Chair, Celebrating Service Pro Bono Committee; Vice-Chair, Reputation and the Public Trust Committee, Immediate Past Chair, Litigation Section; Member, Environmental and Toxic Tort, Women in the Profession, Intellectual Property, and Family Law Sections
- Member, American Bar Association; Litigation and Environment, Energy and Resources Sections; Mass Torts Litigation Committee
- Member, Federal Bar Association
- Master, Lamar American Inn of Court (Emory School of Law)
- Member, Gate City Bar Association
- Member, Defense Research Institute
- Member, Georgia Association of Defense Lawyers
- Admitted to practice: U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Fourth, Eleventh and Federal Circuits, U.S. Supreme Court
- President and Chair, Atlanta Victim Assistance, Inc.
- Member, Lawyers Club of Atlanta
Awards and Professional Recognition
- Unsung Devotion to Those Most In Need Award, 2010, presented by the Emory University School of Law Public Interest Committee
- Rachel Champagne Leadership Award, 2009, presented by Atlanta Victim Assistance, Inc.
- Outstanding Woman in the Profession Achievement Award, 2005, presented by the Atlanta Bar Association Women in the Profession Section
- State Bar of Georgia H. Sol Clark Pro Bono Award, 2004
- Fellow, Atlanta Bar Foundation and American Bar Foundation; Sustaining Fellow, Lawyers Foundation of Georgia
- Leadership Atlanta Class of 2005
- Selected for inclusion in Georgia Super Lawyers, including Top 50 Women in March 2006-2009, Top 100 March 2007, 2009, and 2010, and General Litigation, as published in Georgia Super Lawyers Magazine®, March 2005-2010
- Selected for inclusion in "Georgia's Legal Elite," a listing of the state's "most effective lawyers," selected by Georgia attorneys and published in Georgia Trend Magazine, December 2003-2007
Pro Bono Work
- Member, Supreme Court of Georgia Committee On Civil Justice
- Executive Committee, Atlanta Legal Aid Society, Inc., President 2005-2006
- Past President, Atlanta Volunteer Lawyers Foundation, Inc.
- Hunton & Williams' Southside Legal Center Director, 1995-present; Atlanta Pro Bono Committee Chair
Education - J.D., Boston College Law School, cum laude, Production Editor, Boston College Environmental Affairs Law Review, 1987
- Ph.D., Duke University, Chemistry, 1982
- B.A., University of Virginia, Chemistry, 1978
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