Jim Myers of Pratt & Clay (Courtesy photo)
After 16 years on the defense side—the last eight at Insley & Race—Jim Myers has joined plaintiffs firm Pratt Clay.
“I was ready to stop representing corporations and start helping people—the typical reason,” he said, adding that it’s rare for people to go in the other direction, from the plaintiffs to defense side.
“I like being on offense versus on defense,” he added.
Myers spent the first eight years of his career at Cleveland firm Roetzel & Andress and then eight more as a partner at Insley and Race. “It was a good opportunity to learn, and I gained exposure to a lot of issues and sophisticated cases, with good mentors,” he said.
In one premises win at Insley and Race, the Georgia Court of Appeals upheld summary judgment for Myers’ apartment manager client Hercules Real Estate Services, against a plaintiff, Derrick George, who sued for negligence. George opened his apartment door, saw two strange men, fired a shot and tried to close the door and deadbolt it, but not before the men shot him four times.
Like Myers, who joined Pratt Clay as of counsel, firm founders Chuck Clay and Bradley Pratt came from defense backgrounds. Clay opened his own plaintiffs shop in 2013 after 14 years as a defense litigator at Weinberg, Wheeler, Hudgins, Gunn & Dial, while Pratt, formerly at King & Spalding, joined forces with Clay in 2017 to form the plaintiffs firm.
Myers said he knew Clay from a premises liability case in which Clay was opposing counsel.
“It’s been a great personality fit with Chuck and Bradley, because we all come from the defense side,” Myers said. “We work up cases the same way—they are very detailed and thorough.
Myers, who joined Pratt Clay on Feb. 1, said that so far he’s handling a lot of premises liability and negligent security cases, plus medical malpractice claims, as he did on the defense side, and will broaden his scope as he gets acclimated.
“I’m using muscles I did not use on the defense side, doing case assessment from the ground up and dealing with the personalities and damages issues,” Myers said.
“I have enjoyed personal contact with plaintiffs and the opportunity to get more in-depth on my cases, in terms of facts and legal issues,” he said, now that he’s building the case instead of defending against it.
Pratt Clay handles a broad mix of plaintiffs cases, including wrongful death, truck accidents and other catastrophic injury claims, class actions and whistleblower claims.
Since plaintiffs attorneys get paid on contingency, that can be a barrier to defense lawyers seeking to make the leap. “That’s a challenge, but it’s something you consider and plan for,” Myers said. “It can be a big barrier. There is a lot of safety and security on the defense side.”
BRIEFLY
Employment law boutique Mays & Kerr’s three lawyers have joined plaintiffs firm Parks, Chesin & Walbert. John Mays joined as a partner and Dustin Crawford and William Cleveland joined as associates. The trio will focus on plaintiffs employment and wage & hour claims. (Jeff Kerr, the firm’s other partner, left in 2015 to startCaseFleet, which makes litigation management software.)