Litigation practice focuses on complex litigation in federal and state trial and appellate courts, including 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. Experience in mediation, arbitration, trademark and trade secrets, patent infringement, securities, insurance coverage, construction, and general civil litigation. Representative clients include consumer products distributor, waste and environmental services provider, chemical manufacturers, utilities, pharmaceutical companies, medical device manufacturers and software development companies.
Relevant Experience 
- Significant trial, motions and mediation experience in state and federal courts across the United States.
- Represented consumer products company in successfully defending claims of patent infringement, breach of confidentiality agreement, and misappropriation of trade secrets, including summary judgment on the trade secret and confidentiality agreement claims, and the majority of the claims for patent infringement, and directed verdict on the remaining claims at trial.
- Represented 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 pursuant to state and federal law, including summary judgment on the majority of the claims and post-trial judgment as a matter of law on the remaining claims.
- Represented major retailer in successfully defending claims for trademark infringement and false advertising brought by product manufacturer pursuant to state and federal law.
- 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 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.
- Represented private owner in connection with engineering and construction disputes involving construction defects and delays, design defects, payment and performance bonds and construction liens.
- Represented a leading provider of comprehensive waste management services in appeal of administrative order issued to municipal solid waste landfill.
- Active pro bono practice.
Background
- Research Associate and Teaching Fellow, Harvard Medical School, 1982-84
Membership
- Member, State Bar of Georgia Board of Governors 2008-present; Vice Chairperson, General Counsel Committee; Chairperson, Elections Committee
- Member, State Bar of Georgia; Administrative, Environmental, Family, General Practice & Trial, Intellectual Property, and Product Liability Sections
- Member, Virginia State Bar and State Bar of Georgia
- Member, American Bar Association; Litigation and Environment, Energy and Resources Sections; Mass Torts Litigation Committee
- Member, Federal Bar Association
- Secretary, Atlanta Bar Association, 2009-10; Executive Committee, 2005-06, 2007-present; Board of Directors, 2003-present; Chair, Celebrating Service Committee, 2008-present; Co-Chair, Pro Bono Committee, 2006-present; Co-Chair, One Child One Lawyer Pro Bono Program, 2005-2006; Reputation and the Public Trust Committee, 2007-09, Vice Chair 2008-present; Executive Transition Committee, 2007-present; Editorial Board, 2006-09; Litigation Section Chair, 2008-09; Litigation Section Board of Directors, 2002-present; Environmental and Toxic Tort Section; Women in the Profession Section; Intellectual Property Section; Family Law Section
- 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, and U.S. Supreme Court
- City of Atlanta/Fulton County Land Bank Authority, 2001-05
- President and Chair, Atlanta Victim Assistance, Inc., 2008-present
- Board of Trustees, Boys Speak Out, Inc., 2007-present
- Member, Lawyers Club of Atlanta
- Sandy Springs Conservancy Board of Directors, 2005-06
- Sandy Springs Council of Neighborhoods; Chair, Parks and Greenspace Committee, 2003; Vice President, 2000-02
- Past President, Overton Hills Homeowners Association
Awards and Professional Recognition
- 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
- Sustaining Fellow, Lawyers Foundation of Georgia
- Fellow, American Bar Foundation
- Leadership Atlanta Class of 2005
- Selected for inclusion in Georgia Super Lawyers, including Top 50 Women in March 2006-2009, Top 100 March 2007 and 2009, and General Litigation, as published in Georgia Super Lawyers Magazine®, March 2005-2009
- 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
- Hunton & Williams Pro Bono Publico Award 1996
- E. Randolph Williams Award for Outstanding Pro Bono Service, 1995-2009
- Recognition for Service to Fulton County Juvenile Court 2001, 2006, 2008
Pro Bono Work
- Member, Supreme Court of Georgia Equal Justice Commission Committee On Civil Justice; Chair, Resource Development Subcommittee
- Executive Committee, Atlanta Legal Aid Society, Inc., Past President 2005-2006
- Past President, Atlanta Volunteer Lawyers Foundation, Inc.
- Director, Hunton & Williams' Southside Legal Center, 1995-present
- Chair, Hunton & Williams' Atlanta Pro Bono Committee; member since 1992
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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