Brian Tanner of Savage, Turner, Durham, Pinckney & Savage. (Courtesy photo)

Brian Tanner, one of the top prosecutors for the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Southern District of Georgia, has joined Savannah plaintiffs firm Savage, Turner, Durham, Pinckney & Savage.

The switch from a federal prosecutor to a plaintiffs attorney is somewhat rare, but Tanner was recruited by Jim Durham, who had been the first assistant U.S. attorney and then interim U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Georgia until he joined Savage Turner in September 2017.

“He's got one of the greatest legal minds of any attorney I've either litigated with or against,” Durham said. “He is that talented an attorney. But there are a lot of bright folks. He's also got judgment.”

Tanner, 42, who joined the firm at the end of last year, grew up in Savannah and Statesboro. After earning a law degree from Emory University, where he graduated second in his class, he clerked for Judge Myron H. Thompson of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama and Judge Stanley F. Birch of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. Tanner then spent three years at Latham & Watkins in Chicago before landing the job in 2006 as an assistant U.S. attorney in Savannah.

He became the appellate chief for the Southern District of Georgia in 2010, and then, after Durham joined Savage Turner, spent two months as interim U.S. attorney until Bobby Christine was confirmed as the office's U.S. attorney in November 2017.

“Jim is a big reason I'm over here,” Tanner said, noting that a lot of federal prosecutors who decide to return to private practice “go to big firms in Atlanta with white-collar criminal practices.”

“I had a lot of conversations with Jim,” he said, adding that Durham told him plaintiff's work can be as sophisticated and complex as federal prosecutors' cases. “It's something I enjoy about the practice of law.”

“It was an easy decision to follow him over here and have as much fun as he said he was having,” Tanner said.

He said he was also impressed with other firm attorneys. “Brent Savage has been the head of this firm a long time. I've known him from Savannah—he's a huge part of legal scene here—and he has an intensity and passion for his clients, more than most lawyers,” he said.

“Brian has advanced trial and appellate skills,” Savage said in an email. “Bringing another former prosecutor on board is a big win for our clients.”

“It feels good to be fighting for a little guy,” Tanner added. “A gratifying part of working for the U.S. attorney's office is helping people who are victims of crime. In the private sector, it's gratifying being able to help people who've been injured and victimized.”

Tanner expands Savage Turner's appellate capabilities, where he is working with its longtime appellate point person, Kathryn Pinckney.

“One of his great gifts is the ability to preserve verdicts,” Durham said.

Tanner said he's carrying his own caseload and jumping in on the appellate side. “It's never too early to get [appellate] people involved. Avoiding the unfixable errors in your trial is as important as having a talented appellate team to preserve any verdict you get,” he said.

Tanner and Durham prosecuted some high-profile cases together, notably that of former Savannah Police Chief Willie Lovett. As co-prosecutors, the two won convictions against Lovett in a 2014 trial for aiding and abetting a gambling operation, extortion and false statements. Lovett received a 7.5 year prison sentence.

They also prosecuted a group of gas station operators in a multiyear gas-shorting fraud at three truck stops owned by Fairley Cisco on Interstate 95 near the Georgia-Florida border. Cisco and four others were charged with cheating customers out of millions of dollars by rigging the fuel pumps so that customers were shorted by five percent on gasoline or received a lower-octane fuel than they paid for. Cisco died a month before his 2010 trial, scheduled after the other four defendants had pleaded guilty.

The case spawned a federal class-action on behalf of defrauded consumers, in which Savage Turner initially participated, but the class action was decertified in 2014 over the defendants' lack of assets. Cisco's heirs and other defendants had earlier settled a separate state forfeiture suit for $2.75 million.