Balch & Bingham is proud to announce that six litigators across the firm’s footprint have been selected for inclusion in Benchmark Litigation’s 40 & Under Hot List for 2020.
Benchmark Litigation is the only attorney-ranking publication in the United States dedicated exclusively to litigation and dispute resolution. The annual 40 & Under Hot List recognizes the achievements of the nation’s most accomplished litigators under the age of 40. Honorees are selected through a multiphase process including in-depth research, client feedback and an assessment of recent casework.
With more than 90 active litigators firm wide, Balch represents clients in state, federal and appellate courts across the country, including the U.S. Supreme Court. Chambers USA recently recognized Balch’s Litigation Practice as a top tier practice in Alabama and Mississippi and commented that the firm is “well regarded for its deft handling of disputes in highly regulated industries, including healthcare, energy and financial services, and represents commercial clients in the manufacturing industry.”
The Balch attorneys recognized as 40 & Under Hot List honorees include:
- Conrad Anderson IV, partner in the firm’s Birmingham office and member of the Litigation Practice, is a tech-minded trial attorney who litigates all manner of business disputes. Much of his time is spent defending class action lawsuits, often on behalf of banks and others in the financial industry. He is currently representing several lenders in a number of nationwide class actions arising out of the PPP loan program. He also has significant experience and expertise representing contractors and subcontractors in a variety of construction matters, including contract drafting and negotiation, payment disputes, bid protests, and insurance coverage issues.
- Thomas DeBray, partner in the firm’s Birmingham office and member of the Litigation Practice, maintains a diverse civil litigation practice, providing counsel in cases concerning property damage or disputes, business disputes, and defending alleged violations of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. Thomas recently obtained a defense ruling in a business dispute arbitration where the plaintiffs requested roughly $50 million in damages.
- Adam Israel, partner in the firm’s Birmingham office and member of the Litigation Practice, focuses on complex business litigation, primarily in the areas of business torts and unfair competition and banking and financial services. A substantial portion of Adam’s practice is devoted to representing businesses and individuals in non-compete, non-solicitation, and theft of trade secrets cases in trial and appellate courts. Adam also regularly represents nuclear utilities in matters arising from the Department of Energy’s delay in disposing of the nation’s commercial spent nuclear fuel.
- Anne Kaufold-Wiggins, partner in the firm’s Atlanta office and member of the Litigation Practice, successfully defends her clients at every stage of litigation, including in trial, upon dispositive motions, and on appeal. For more than a decade, Anne has successfully defended her clients, many of which are electric utilities, in a wide variety of litigation, including high stakes personal injury and wrongful death cases, fire cause and origin claims, complex commercial litigation, class actions, and other energy-related litigation. She serves on Georgia’s Judicial Nominating Commission, the President for the Greater Atlanta Chapter of the Women’s Energy Network, a member of the State Bar’s Georgia Commission on Continuing Lawyer Competency, and past President of the Mercer Law School Alumni Board.
- Brant Pettis, partner in the firm’s Gulfport office and member of the Litigation Practice, routinely represents contractors, state agencies and utilities regarding contract, environmental and regulatory claims. Brant is currently representing a state agency in a +$40 million lawsuit against a terminated contractor.
- Jason Tompkins, partner in the firm’s Birmingham office and chair of the Appellate Practice, has served as lead counsel on hundreds of individual cases and more than forty class actions in numerous jurisdictions and at all levels of the federal court system. For example, in Midland Funding, LLC v. Johnson, Jason successfully represented one of the nation’s largest buyers of unpaid debt to advance an Eleventh Circuit class action to the Supreme Court, resulting in a key decision on the intersection of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) and the Bankruptcy Code.
