Jack is a partner whose practice takes a multidisciplinary approach to clients’ needs. He focuses on D&O lawsuits, professional liability, white-collar criminal matters and toxic torts. Jack is also a lawyer in the firm’s electronic discovery practice, and he has worked extensively with clients to create a variety of alternative-fee arrangements.
In the current economic and political climate, the most sensational financial and legal headlines involve situations where directors, officers and professionals --- accountants, investment bankers, business consultants and lawyers -- are blamed for the decisions they make and the work they do for public and private companies. Beginning with his work in Washington, D.C. --- both in private practice and as counsel to a Congressional committee --- and continuing to the present, Jack handled all types of directors’ and officers’ and professional liability litigation, ranging from fiduciary duty lawsuits, malpractice claims and contract disputes to claims for securities fraud and tortious interference with contractual and business relations, as well as recovery actions brought by trustees of bankrupt publicly-traded companies.
On the white-collar side, Jack has experience in corporate internal investigations, grand jury investigations, gaming issues, defense of criminal environmental offenses, public-corruption enforcement, due diligence issues under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, Congressional investigations, election contests, defense of health-care entities in civil and criminal matters, including Medicare fraud and qui tam lawsuits under the False Claims Act, and investigations by military officials.
As a lawyer in the firm's Electronic Discovery and Digital Information practice, Jack has represented clients in a host of electronic-information issues pre-trial, at trial and on appeal. He is a frequent speaker on electronic discovery.
In the environmental and toxic-tort area, Jack has represented a variety of industries and businesses for more than eighteen years in state and federal courts in Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Pennsylvania, New York and the District of Columbia. He has extensive experience defending personal injury and property damage claims involving facilities in the chemical, petrochemical, nuclear, wood-treatment and pulp-and-paper industries. He has also served as counsel to plaintiffs and defendants in private, governmental and citizen suits under CERCLA, RCRA and other federal and state statutes, natural-gas disputes and in Superfund and RCRA negotiations and remediations.
A member of the bars of Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia and the District of Columbia, Jack holds an undergraduate degree from Washington & LeeUniversity; graduate degrees from the Institute for European Studies (Geneva, Switzerland) and WashingtonUniversity in St. Louis; and a law degree from HarvardUniversity. While at Harvard, he was Editor-in-Chief of the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy.
A former clerk to Judge David B. Sentelle, United States Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit, Jack was a lawyer at Covington & Burling in Washington, D.C. before becoming Special Counsel to the House Banking Committee. He was Special Counsel to the Committee for its Whitewater investigation, which culminated in four days of nationally-televised hearings in August 1995. He is also a former Adjunct Professor of Law at Washington & LeeUniversity and the University of Alabama. Jack has assisted with a course on Electronic Discovery at Cumberland School of Law.
In addition to being a member of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, Jack is a member of the White Collar Crime Committee of the ABA Section on Criminal Justice, and a member of the Committee on Criminal Litigation of the ABA Section of Litigation. He is a former associate of the Edward Bennett Williams American Inn of Court in Washington, D.C., an Inn devoted solely to white collar fraud matters, and is currently a Barrister of the Birmingham American Inn of Court. A member of the Alabama State Board of Bar Examiners, Jack is also a former Group Chairman of the Birmingham Bar Association 's Grievance Committee.
A former president of the Washington & LeeUniversity Alumni Association (1997-1998), Jack remains active in W&L projects. Married, and the father of two children, Jack has served in various lay capacities at his church, and he enjoys coaching youth lacrosse teams.
Seminars, Articles and Speeches
”Cost versus Value: Beyond Budgets, Towards Trust,” Network of Trial Law Firms, New York, New York (August 7, 2009)
"Electronic Discovery," Practitioner-In-Residence for seminar held by Judge John Carroll, Cumberland School of Law, Birmingham, Alabama (Fall 2008)
"Electronic Discovery," Pretrial Advocacy Seminar, University of Alabama Law School, Tuscaloosa, Alabama (October 7, 2008)
"Privilege and Ethics," The Basics of Electronic Discovery, Alabama Bar Institute on Continuing Legal Education, Birmingham, Alabama (October 31, 2008)
"Effect of the Subprime Disaster on the Legal Profession," Alabama Bar Institute on Continuing Legal Education, Birmingham, Alabama (October 17, 2008)
"Electronic Documents, But Real Money: Controlling E-Discovery Costs," Network of Trial Law Firms, New York, New York (August 1, 2008)
"New E-Discovery Rules: Emerging Legal Issues," panel member, District of Columbia Judicial Circuit Judicial Conference, Farmington, Pennsylvania (June 4, 2008)
"Public Corruption Cases," White-Collar Crime seminar held by Professor Pam Bucy, University of Alabama School of Law, Tuscaloosa, Alabama (January 30, 2008)
