Butler Wooten Cheeley & Peak Senior Partner wins first Georgia Verdicts Hall of Fame Lifetime Achievement Award

    ATLANTA, GA, December 09, 2014 /24-7PressRelease/ -- The Fulton County Daily Report and American Law Media have awarded their first Lifetime Achievement Award to BWCP Senior Partner James E. Butler, Jr.

An article in the Daily Report described why:

Over the last 37 years, Butler, a partner at Butler Wooten Cheeley & Peak, has become one of the most successful civil trial lawyers of his era, winning multiple verdicts over $100 million in high-profile cases against big business, most notably General Motors and the automotive industry. For his distinguished law career, Butler on Wednesday night will become the Daily Report's first Lifetime Achievement Award recipient.

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As a master of his craft in the courtroom, Butler has been the center of attention often in the more than 170 jury trials that he has tried to verdict. With his diligent preparation, booming oratorical style and command of an audience, Butler has won four verdicts over $100 million, 10 verdicts over $10 million, plus another 10 verdicts more than $1 million.

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Colleagues of Butler say the 1977 University of Georgia Law School graduate has always had a gift for speaking on his feet and controlling the courtroom. "I've known him since he started practicing," said William Tucker, 68, a business litigation attorney with Page Scrantom Sprouse Tucker Ford in Columbus. "Jim is one of the best and very close to the best lawyers that I've ever worked with and against. He is incredibly quick on his feet, and he truly has majesty about him when he is in the courtroom."

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Besides high-profile product liability cases, Butler has produced significant verdicts incases involving medical malpractice and business torts. The list of verdicts and settlements include: $454 million in Six Flags Over Georgia v. Time Warner Entertainment Co., (co-counsel) in favor of the original investors in the amusement park for a scheme by Time Warner to deliberately suppress the property's value; $161.7 million in cash settlements in U.S.A. v. J.P.Morgan Chase, in which six banks settled quitam cases; and $153 million in McBride v. Life Insurance Co. of Virginia, a class action settlement related to universal life insurance policies.

"Jim has a sixth sense knowing what's important and what's not," said defense lawyer Thomas S. Carlock of Carlock Copeland. Carlock has opposed Butler a handful of times in court with "mixed bag" results, he said.

"He's powerful in the courtroom," said Carlock. "He really knows how to represent his client and how to sell his case. He's a genius in his field, a standout wherever he goes."

At the awards dinner Wednesday night, December 3, Daily Report publisher Wayne Curtis noted that Butler has set the record for largest Georgia verdict on four separate occasions - in four different kinds of cases (medical malpractice, trucking wreck, auto products, and business torts). His last record still stands.

Butler's response to the award was to say he was not nearly finished practicing law. "To borrow a phrase from my good friend Eddie Garland, 'I plan to practice law as long as the phone rings and I can hear it.'

Butler is presently busy working on a variety of cases, including auto products liability, business torts, environmental torts, and tractor-trailer wrecks, and is researching some additional class action ideas.

Read more: http://www.dailyreportonline.com/id=1202677703865/Verdicts-Hall-of-Fame-Lifetime-Achievement-Award-James-E-Butler-Jr#ixzz3L2wHIFVk

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