Experience

Representative Engagements

• Represented dietary-supplement manufacturer in seeking certiorari from U.S. Supreme Court in FTC enforcement action.
• Represented carpet manufacturer in seeking certiorari from U.S. Supreme Court in environmental tort case.
• Represented dietary-supplement manufacturer in affirming attorney fees in multi-million-dollar patent dispute.
• Represented plastics manufacturer in obtaining permanent injunction in trade-secrets dispute.
• Represented shareholder in $230 million fraud action relating to redemption of shares in an oil company.
• Represented health insurer in arbitrating dispute with nation's largest hospital company over payment rate for out-of-network emergency healthcare.
• Represented Tennessee's largest health insurer in $40 million lawsuit and appeal concerning reimbursement rate for out-of-network emergency healthcare.
• Represented banks in multi-million dollar appeals relating to loan defaults.

Representative Recent Decisions

• Holden v. Unum Life Insurance Company of America, No. 20-6318, --- F.App'x --- (July 6, 2021) (successfully represented insurer in ERISA lawsuit involving denial of long-term disability coverage for a former Williams & Connolly executive)
• Joshua David Mellberg, LLC v. Impact P'ship, LLC, 355 Ga. App. 691, 844 S.E.2d 223 (Ga. Ct. App. 2020) (successfully represented insurance marketing company in opposing application of anti-SLAPP statute in defamation case)
• Thermolife Int'l LLC v. GNC Corp., 922 F.3d 1347 (Fed. Cir. May 1, 2019) (successfully represented dietary-supplement seller in upholding award of attorneys’ fees for successful defense of patent-infringement claims) (briefed & argued)
• Jacobs Field Servs. N. Am., Inc. v. Wacker Polysilicon N. Am., LLC, 375 F. Supp. 3d 898 (E.D. Tenn. 2019) (successfully represented polysilicon manufacturer in defeating motion to remand and obtaining dismissal of lawsuit by design engineer based on agreement to arbitrate pass-through claim) (briefed)
• Hi-Tech Pharms., Inc. v. HBS Int’l Corp., 910 F.3d 1186 (11th Cir. 2018) (successfully represented appellant dietary-supplement manufacturer, obtaining reversal of dismissal of Lanham Act claims) (briefed & argued)
• Tenn. Clean Water Network v. Tenn. Valley Auth., 905 F.3d 436 (6th Cir. 2018) (successfully represented amicus curiae Tennessee Valley Public Power Association in advocating for reversal of order imposing $2 billion removal of coal ash impoundment under Clean Water Act) (briefed)
• Carolina Electrical Workers Retirement Plan, et al., v. Zenith American Solutions, Inc., et al., Case No. 16-731, 137 S.Ct. 1079, 2017 WL 670253 (U.S. Sup. Ct. Feb. 21, 2017) (successfully represented respondent ERISA plan administrator in opposing petition for certiorari) (briefed)
• Crew One Productions, Inc. v. N.L.R.B., 811 F.3d 1305 (11th Cir. 2016) (successfully represented appellant labor-referral service in reversing ruling by National Labor Relations Board that independently-contracting stagehands were employees and thus subject to unionization) (briefed)
• Brown v. BlueCross BlueShield of Tenn., Inc., 827 F.3d 543 (6th Cir. 2016) (successfully represented appellee plan administrator in affirming dismissal of action by healthcare provider challenging recoupments based on patients' assignments of ERISA benefits) (briefed)
• Crox v. Unum Grp., Corp., 655 F. App’x 490 (6th Cir. 2016) (successfully represented appellee plan administrator in affirming judgment on the record in ERISA disability case) (briefed & argued)

Selected Publications

• Author, Initial Civil Appeals: Tennessee, Practical Law (Thomson Reuters/Westlaw) (2016–present)
• Author, Additional Civil Appeals: Tennessee, Practical Law (Thomson Reuters/Westlaw) (2016–present)
• Co-author, Reforming Tennessee’s Rules of Appellate Procedure: Separate Notices of Appeal...or Not?, 1 Belmont Law Review 17 (2014) (resulted in promulgation of Tennessee Rule of Appellate Procedure 3(h))
• Author, “Litigating Waiver of Issues for Appeal and on Appeal in Federal Courts,” book chapter in Strategies for Appellate Litigation: Leading Lawyers Examine the Unique Differences Between Appellate and Trial Practice, 2013 WL 574524, *7–31 (Thomson Reuters/Aspatore 2013)

Selected Presentations

• Presenter, Building the Appellate Record and Preserving Issues for Appeal, Tenn. Bar Association Tort, Insurance & Appellate CLE (Nashville, TN Mar. 21, 2019).
• Presenter, Best Practices: Checklists, Decision Analysis, and Decision Trees as Tools for Litigation Management, Tennessee Valley Public Power Association Legal Conference (Murfreesboro, TN Feb. 10, 2017)
• Presenter, Litigating Waiver of Issues for Appeal and on Appeal in Federal Courts, Attorneys Insurance Mutual of the South, Annual Continuing Education Seminar (Birmingham, AL Dec. 5, 2014)
• Organizer, Presenter, and Judges Panel Moderator, Fundamentals of Federal Appellate Practice, Tennessee Bar Association TennBarU CLE (Nashville, TN Oct. 17, 2014)

Other

• Director, Miller & Martin Writing Academy (in-house training program for legal writing)

Education

• J.D., summa cum laude, University of Tennessee
  • Order of the Coif
  • Research Editor, Tennessee Law Review
• B.A., with highest distinction, University of Virginia
  • Phi Beta Kappa
  • Raven Society

Involvement