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Attorneys.
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BILLY J. STOKES practices in the areas of personal injury, tort claims,
products liability, employment issues, environmental, and governmental
relations/administrative law. He represents individuals, insurance
companies, self-insureds, employers, manufacturers, and service providers.
Mr. Stokes has tried both jury and non-jury cases throughout the region.
Mr. Stokes is a former member of Governor Don Sundquist's cabinet,
having initially been appointed Commissioner, Tennessee Department of
Employment Security. He was later promoted to the Governor's Senior Staff
as Special Assistant to the Governor handling special projects. Mr. Stokes
played a key role in shaping the Workers' Compensation Reform Act of 1996.
He coordinated the state's involvement in the 1996 Olympic Games,
overseeing the canoe/kayak events on the Ocoee
River, the only "Gold
Medal" venue outside the State of Georgia. Mr. Stokes was
involved in environmental issues as well, including the Duck River Project,
establishing beneficial end use for discarded tires, and several other
projects. He later served as the Governor's appointee to the Juvenile
Justice Reform Commission, charged with rewriting the juvenile code. Mr.
Stokes is co-author of Unemployment Compensation, Survey and Update, Labor
Law Journal, 47 (9) at 602-612, Sept. 1996.
Mr. Stokes is a 1975 graduate of the University of Tennessee.
Following graduation, he served as a Juvenile Counselor for the Knoxville
Police Department,where he was fully bonded and exercised all law
enforcement and arrest authority. He worked a full time job as shift supervisor
at the Knox County Juvenile
Detention Center
throughout law school. Upon graduating from the University of Tennessee
School of Law in 1979, Mr. Stokes was commissioned as a Captain in the
Judge Advocate General's Corps,
United States
Army, where he served from 1979-1982, when he received his honorable
discharge. From 1982 until 1989, Mr. Stokes practiced with the Knoxville firm of
Carpenter & O'Connor, becoming a partner there in 1985. In 1989, Mr.
Stokes and Daryl Fansler left that firm to form Stokes & Fansler, where
Mr. Stokes practiced until Mr. Fansler's ascent to the bench of the Knox
County Chancery Court in 1998.
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SAMUEL W. RUTHERFORD has practiced law for over 20 years,
primarily in personal injury, tort claims, transportation industry, product
liability, workers' compensation, civil rights, professional negligence and
coverage matters. He represents major manufacturers, trucking companies,
distributors, county and city governments, insureds, self-insureds and
insurance companies. Mr. Rutherford has completed tractor-trailer driver
training programs and actively attends transportation industry seminars.
Product liability work has ranged from industrial machinery and commercial
vehicles to food poisoning.
Over two decades of trials and jury verdicts include defense of
industrial equipment related deaths, closed head injuries, single and
multiple vehicle accidents involving fatalities and multiple severe
injuries, and use of numerous documents and experts in various fields.
Successful defense of catastrophic injury, multiple fatality accidents, and
multi-million dollar damage claims has been achieved through cross-examination
of expert witnesses, use of videotape surveillance, application of federal
ERISA statutes and through mediation.
He has co-chaired the Judicial Committee for the Knoxville Bar
Association and holds memberships in the Insurance Section of the Tennessee
Bar Association, the Defense Research Institute and the Tennessee Lawyers
Association. He is a seminar speaker on workers' compensation and
employer-employee topics, including the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Mr. Rutherford served in the United States Air Force in medical air
evacuation and emergency-room patient care before beginning his law
practice.
Mr. Rutherford is a former 10 year shareholder with the firm Lewis,
King, Krieg, Waldrop & Catron, P.C. He received his B.S. degree in 1975
from East Tennessee
State University
and his law degree in 1978 from the University of Tennessee,
where he served as the president of Phi Delta Phi legal fraternity.
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HERBERT B. WILLIAMS received his B.A. from the University of Tennessee
in 1977 with High Honors. He received his Doctor of Jurisprudence Degree
from Memphis State
University (now University of Memphis)
School of Law in 1981. Mr. Williams represents
individuals, insurance companies, employers and governmental entities in
several areas. He is a seminar speaker on workers' compensation and has
handled compensation claims for over 20 years for employers, insurance
carriers and employees. He is experienced in litigating black lung claims
in both state and federal forums, products liability, municipal, automobile
and general liability cases. He has litigated and arbitrated construction
contract disputes on behalf of both owners and contractors. In addition, he
has experience in oil and gas contract, production and distribution
litigation. Mr. Williams has served as a municipal attorney since 1984 and
is currently city attorney for the Town of Englewood. He has served as general
counsel for the Powell-Clinch Utility District, a natural gas and propane
distributor, since 1992.
Mr. Williams was a former partner with the Honorable Federal Judge
Thomas W. Philips in the firm of Philips & Williams before joining
Stokes, Fansler & Williams which evolved into Stokes, Rutherford,
Williams, Sharp & Davies, LLC. He is a member of the American, Tennessee and
Knoxville Bar Associations and is certified to practice in the U.S.D.C. and
the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. He is a Rule 31 Certified Mediator in
the field of Civil Mediation.
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ELLIS A. SHARP (Sandy)
has practiced law since 1976. He has extensive experience in the area of
insurance defense practice including commercial litigation, workers'
compensation, personal injury, tort claims, employment law, premises
liability, product liability and transportation industry claims and
construction law. Mr. Sharp has given numerous seminars and teaching
sessions to his clients regarding commercial issues, workers' compensation,
ADA claims
and employment issues. Mr. Sharp has extensive trial experience,
successfully defending numerous catastrophic injury and wrongful death
cases. Mr. Sharp's practice includes business law and contract
negotiations. His areas of expertise also include the investigation and
litigation of directors' and officers' claims, financial institution
fidelity bond claims, accountants liability claims, and agency malpractice
claims. Mr. Sharp was lead co-counsel on behalf of the FDIC in a series of
fidelity bond claims. For the first time in a Tennessee federal district court forum,
Mr. Sharp convinced the court and jury, that a federal common law bad faith
claim was viable, and the jury awarded $3.5 million on that claim. The
remaining bond claims were negotiated and settled for approximately $26
million. Mr. Sharp also represented the FDIC in several directors' and
officers' lawsuits that yielded the FDIC in excess of $12 million. Mr.
Sharp was lead counsel in an investigation of professional liability claims
involving a large multi-bank holding company in Texas. Mr. Sharp, as lead counsel, settled
a $100 million lender liability action pending in Charleston, South Carolina.
Mr. Sharp is currently lead defense counsel in East
Tennessee for a major insurance carrier that primarily
underwrites commercial and personal lines. He is also lead defense counsel
for a major product manufacturer in a nationwide class action lawsuit
currently pending in the State of Tennessee.
Mr. Sharp represents clients on administrative law issues, taxation, and
licensing issues, particularly liquor license acquisitions. From 1977 to
1979 Mr. Sharp served as City Attorney for the City of Knoxville,
from 1979 to 1980 as deputy general counsel for the Department of Revenue
and from 1980 to 1983 as director of the Miscellaneous Tax Division for the
Department of Revenue for the State of Tennessee.
Mr. Sharp is a former 13 year shareholder with the firm of Lewis, King,
Krieg, Waldrop & Catron, P.C. He attended the University
of Florida on a basketball
scholarship and received his law degree in 1976 from the University of Tennessee.
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ROBERT R. DAVIES, was born in Akron, Ohio
in 1965. He attended Vanderbilt
University where he received
his B.E. in Civil Engineering in 1987. He is a member of the American
Society of Civil Engineers and Chi Epsilon Engineering Honor Society. He
was also a member of the varsity basketball team at Vanderbilt. Mr. Davies
received his Juris Doctor degree from the University
of Tennessee at Knoxville in 1990. Prior to entering
private practice in 1993, Mr. Davies was a Deputy Law Director for Knox County, Tennessee,
primarily in litigation.
Mr. Davies is an experienced trial lawyer in jury and non-jury cases of
most types, with an emphasis on civil rights, Governmental Tort Liability
Act, inverse condemnations, workers’ compensation and labor law, personal
injury, automobile accidents, products liability, civil rights,
construction and real estate and government law. He is a member of the Knoxville, Tennessee
and American Bar Associations. He was previously a partner with the law
firm of Stokes, Fansler & Williams of Knoxville.
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JON M. COPE attended the University of Tennessee
where he received a B.S. in Business/Marketing (with Honors) in 1995. Mr.
Cope received his Doctor of Jurisprudence from the University of Tennessee
College of Law (Cum Laude) in 1999. Mr. Cope graduated with an emphasis in
business transactional law and litigation. Mr. Cope’s practice mainly
includes insurance defense and products liability. He represents
individuals, insurance companies, self-insureds, employers, manufacturers,
and service providers.
Mr. Cope has tried both jury and non-jury cases throughout the state of Tennessee. He is
currently involved in the defense of several class action lawsuits pending
in Tennessee.
Mr. Cope’s practice also includes workers' compensation, landlord/tenant,
general civil litigation, corporate, contract, domestic and commercial law.
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MARY JO MANN has practiced law since 1986. She practices
primarily in the areas of casualty defense, construction, employment, and
commercial law. Ms. Mann has tried numerous jury and non-jury cases
throughout East Tennessee and has become a
seasoned trial lawyer.
In the casualty defense area, Ms. Mann has had a significant amount of
litigation and trial experience involving insurance issues, premises
liability and automobile accidents. In a number of such cases, Ms. Mann
achieved defense verdicts or trial judgments substantially lower than the
amounts initially offered by her client’s insurers. Ms. Mann regularly
represents clients in the arbitration and litigation of construction
disputes, the resolution of lien claims, and other construction contract matters.
In the employment law area, Ms. Mann has represented clients in
administrative proceedings before the EEOC and THRC. She has also presented
seminars and training for educators and business managers on preventing and
handling sexual harassment claims as well as assisting clients in dealing
with those issues. She authored an article entitled, Sexual Harassment in
Schools, published in Tennessee School Boards Association Journal.
Ms. Mann served as the Tax Attorney for the City of Sevierville,
Tennessee
from 1994 through 2002. She also administered major projects to acquire 146
parcels of property for the City of Sevierville
as part of two highway expansion projects and prosecuted condemnation cases
on behalf of the City. Ms. Mann has represented bank clients in complex
commercial transaction and prepared loan documents for such transactions.
She has prepared articles and presented continuing legal education seminars
on construction liens, title insurance and ethics in real estate and
commercial transactions.
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WILLIAM D. HOOD attended Birmingham-Southern College
where he received a B.A in Political Science/History (cum laude) in 1996.
Mr. Hood received his Doctor of Jurisprudence from the University of
Tennessee College of Law in 2000. Following Law School,
Mr. Hood was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant with the United States
Marine Corps. Stationed at Camp
Pendleton, California,
Mr. Hood’s military practice included Environmental Law, Labor and
Employment Law, Ethics, Criminal Law, and Legal Assistance. Mr. Hood was
promoted to the rank of Captain in March 2004 and left Active Duty in March
2005.
Mr. Hood was a research clerk for Stokes & Rutherford while
attending law school at the University
of Tennessee and
briefly practiced with the firm before accepting his commission in the
USMC. Mr. Hood’s primary responsibilities include tort, products liability
and workers compensation defense.
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