A week after losing three partners to Squire Patton Boggs, Dentons' Atlanta office has landed a high-profile trial lawyer, Mark Trigg, from Greenberg Traurig.

Trigg, who will join Dentons on Monday, said he was attracted to the international megafirm's larger platform. What's more, he has known several lawyers in the Atlanta office (the headquarters for McKenna, Long & Aldridge until acquired by Dentons in July 2015) from early in his career, he said.

“If you look at Dentons' global footprint, it's really unparalleled,” Trigg said.

“I've had a very gratifying 15-year tenure at Greenberg Traurig,” he added. “It's a firm full of many talented lawyers, and I've established lifetime friendships. But an opportunity like this—I couldn't pass it by.”

Trigg co-chaired Greenberg's Atlanta business litigation practice with Mike King, who with Ernest Greer (now Greenberg's co-president) recruited Trigg to the firm in 2002 from litigation boutique Meadows, Ichter & Trigg. Trigg similarly told the Daily Report at the time that he was attracted by the possibilities of a larger platform.

Trigg had started Meadows, Ichter & Trigg in 1992 with James “Dart” Meadows and Cary Ichter. It subsequently became the Atlanta office of Balch & Bingham.

“On behalf of Greenberg Traurig's Atlanta office, we want to wish Mark well and thank him for his contributions to the firm,” said Ted Blum, Greenberg's Atlanta managing shareholder. “Mark is an excellent lawyer and a good friend to all of us.”

A Range of Cases

Trigg primarily handles high-stakes business disputes, but he's taken on a wide variety of cases over his 32 years in practice. Clients have included the City of Atlanta, big companies like Walmart, Waste Pro and Snapchat, as well as high-profile individuals such as Whitney Houston and NFL football players.

“We don't have anybody like him in Atlanta or maybe nationally, who has tried such a broad range and depth of cases,” said Sharon Gay, Dentons' Atlanta managing partner.

“It's a great opportunity for our associates to be able to learn from him,” she added.

Dentons has more than 30 litigators and about 90 lawyers and government affairs professionals in its Atlanta office.

Trigg said his own mentor was Jerry Blackstock, who headed the litigation practice at Powell Goldstein (now Bryan Cave), which Trigg joined after graduating from Emory University Law School in 1986.

Trigg said Blackstock gave him “tremendous opportunities” as a young lawyer, including giving a closing argument as a second-year associate for Delta Air Lines in a multimillion-dollar personal injury case.

“His approach to law was, be a trial lawyer,” Trigg said. “You can learn the subject matter, but trying the case is a transferable skill set. That was a sermon he preached to me repeatedly, and I've tried to follow that advice ever since.”

Trigg first met Gay on a case more than 20 years ago. She served as a witness for his client in a defamation case against The Atlanta Journal-Constitution before the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta.

The newspaper had reported that Trigg's client, Raymond Sales, a former bond counsel for the city, along with an investment banker colleague, Bill Clement, had botched a city bond referendum to raise funds for infrastructure improvements before the Olympics.

Trigg recalled the AJC headline: “Rookie Mistakes Doomed Measure,” which ran above photos of Sales and Clement.

At the time, Gay was the deputy chief of staff and executive counsel to Atlanta Mayor Bill Campbell. “I saw him in action and was exceedingly impressed,” Gay said, adding that she's referred clients to Trigg over the years.

The case survived summary judgment and went to trial. A jury found the article to be false, but ultimately sided with the AJC in determining that the newspaper had not been negligent—and was therefore not liable for any damages.

“In a teaching moment for me, I told the jury the case was not about money, but just about restoring my clients' reputation,” Trigg said. “I have not used that argument since,” he added.

In another early case, Trigg represented a group of pro-tree citizens who in 2001 tried to stop the State Bar of Georgia from cutting down nine willow oaks to expand the parking deck adjacent to its new Marietta Street headquarters. The bar won that one.

“Unfortunately, every time as I drive past the State Bar headquarters, I am reminded that we did not prevail,” Trigg said.

Big Clients

He's more likely to represent large companies these days.

Trigg won a motion to dismiss for Snapchat last year from a Spalding County judge after a victim left brain-damaged from a car wreck sued the company and the driver, claiming the driver was using the app's “speed filter” to record herself driving at more than 100 mph.

Trigg said that, even if the driver had been using the Snapchat app, the cause of action was barred by the federal Communications Decency Act of 1996. (The ruling is on appeal.)

Trigg and Greer at Greenberg, with additional lawyers from Alston & Bird and Paul Hastings, successfully fended off suits against their client, the City of Atlanta, brought by frustrated airport concession contractors in 2012. The plaintiffs challenged the city's procurement process after it voided a first round of contracts—valued at about $3 billion—for the newly built international terminal at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport and put them out for rebid.

In another procurement challenge, Trigg and his partner King at Greenberg successfully represented a plaintiff, Waste Pro USA, that in 2009 sued Gwinnett County over a move to change how it hired garbage collection services. Waste Pro and another vendor were trying to break into the Gwinnett trash collection market, while two established waste haulers, represented by former Gov. Roy E. Barnes, were trying to keep them out.

Trigg also represents some high-profile individuals. He served as singer Whitney Houston's lawyer for the last few years of her life and continues to represent her estate. “We just resolved a matter with the IRS in the last month on very successful terms,” he said.

Trigg is currently representing Philadelphia Eagles football player Fletcher Cox, who's been sued in North Carolina for “alienation of affection” by the husband, Josh Jeffords, of a woman with whom Cox had a relationship.

He added that Jeffords has just filed an additional suit against his wife, Catherine Jeffords, claiming emotional distress as a result of the public reaction to the suit against his client.

Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly reported the outcome of a defamation case that Mark Trigg tried against The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. It has been updated to reflect the jury's finding in favor of the AJC.