Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner

Class Actions and Mass Torts

Partner - Litigation and Investigations

Bill represents corporate clients in a wide range of complex commercial litigation including disputes involving banking, insurance, and a variety of corporate transactions. He serves as co-leader of the firm's Toxic Tort Class Action and Mass Tort Team. Bill, whose practice includes first chair trial experience, has been ranked by his peers in one widely published poll as one of the top 100 lawyers in Georgia.

Commercial and Fiduciary Litigation

As a result of the firm's considerable base of banking clients, Bill represents regional, national and international banks in cases involving such matters as lender liability, RICO, Truth in Lending, the False Claims Act, the Fair Housing Act, participation agreements, and fiduciary liability. In particular, Bill has extensive experience litigating trusts and estates. He represents both fiduciaries and beneficiaries in many different and complex litigation matters including will caveats, petitions for equitable direction, disputes over the appointment of fiduciaries, disputes over the interpretation of instruments, and the defense of suits alleging breach of fiduciary duty.

Product Liability and National Litigation Management

Bill’s practice has also involved the management and coordination of multi-district litigation (MDL) and national product liability litigation. By way of example, he has acted as national class action counsel for one corporate client, national discovery counsel for one of the country's largest retail companies, national coordinating counsel (NCC) for product liability claims against a Fortune 500 manufacturing company, national Daubert counsel for another Fortune 500 manufacturing corporation.

Appeals

Bill routinely appears in the appellate courts and is called upon frequently to express the views of the business and banking communities on important legal issues pending in the appellate courts through amicus curiae briefs. The cases in which Bill has authored briefs on behalf of either the Georgia Chamber of Commerce or the Georgia Banking Association in recent years are as follows:

Cavalier Convenience, Inc. v. Sarvis, 305 Ga. App. 141 (2010); Smith v. Baptiste, 287 Ga. 23 (2010); State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co. v. Hernandez Auto Painting and Body Work, Inc., 312 Ga. App. 756 (2011); Nat'l Federation of Indep. Bus. v. Sebelius, 132 S. Ct. 2566, 183 L. Ed. 2d 450 (2012); Synovus Bank v. Griner, 321 Ga. App. 359 (2013); Scapa Dryer Fabrics, Inc., v. Roy Knight, 299 GA. 286 (2016); Certainteed Corporation v. Marcella Fletcher, S15G1903 (2016); Amusement Martin v. Six Flags Over Georgia II, L.P., 301 Ga. 323, 801 S.E.2d 24 (2017); and, First Acceptance Ins. Co. of Georgia, Inc. v. Hughes, 305 Ga. 489, 489, 826 S.E.2d 71, 73 (2019).

Professional Activities

Throughout his career, Bill has been active in the State Bar of Georgia.   He served as a director of and member of the Executive Council of the Younger Lawyers Section in the early years of his practice, then as a member of the Board of Governors from 1998 through 2016. In addition to his membership of various other committees within the State Bar of Georgia, Bill most recently chaired the Products Liability Law Section and served as a special master in lawyer disciplinary proceedings.

Bill is a frequent speaker on legal issues and has given seminars on an array of topics as developments in Georgia evidence law, cybersecurity, social media evidence, the attorney-client privilege, e-discovery, and the art of negotiation.

Bill is also a consulting author of the LexisNexis Guide: Georgia Personal Injury (2015).

Pro Bono Activities

Bill has participated as counsel in a number of high profile pro bono matters before the Georgia and federal courts. His recent pro bono work includes:

Garner v. Jones, 529 U.S. 244, 120 S. Ct. 1362, 146 L. Ed. 2d 236 (2000), which challenged changes in state parole procedures as a violation of the ex post facto clause; Henderson v. Hames, 287 Ga. 534, 697 S.E.2d 798, 800 (2010), a successful habeas corpus action overturning murder conviction; Inniss v. Aderhold, 80 F. Supp. 3d 1335 (N.D. Ga. 2015), a successful challenge of state prohibition on same sex marriages; and, Georgia State Conference of NAACP v. Hancock Cty. Bd. of Elections & Registration, No. 5:15-CV-00414 (CAR), 2018 WL 1583160 (M.D. Ga. Mar. 30, 2018), a successful challenge to voter purge.

Pro bono teams led by Bill have received awards from the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights and the Stonewall Bar Association for their outstanding service.