Jeb Butler and Darren Tobin, the proprietors of personal injury firm Butler Tobin, have gone their separate ways.

Over almost five years as law partners, the two said, their practices evolved in different directions to the point where it had become two firms under one name. “That was not something we wanted to do,” Butler said, especially since both are only 36.

It was an amicable breakup, they said. Butler is now running the Butler Law Firm, and Tobin has formed Tobin Injury Law.

Butler said they sorted out all the big issues—dividing up cases, staff and deciding what to do with their office—in a two-hour meeting over broccoli-cheddar soup at a Panera Bread near their firm.

“It was the easiest breakup I could envision,” Tobin said. “We already knew how we wanted to divide the cases because Jeb was the lead on some and I was the lead on others.”

When they first started out, they said, that was not the case.

In 2014, both were working at established plaintiffs firms—Butler at what is now Butler, Wooten & Peak, where his father, Jim Butler, is a name partner, and Tobin at Childers, Schlueter & Smith. The two, who'd been law school classmates at the University of Georgia, each had an itch to go out on their own, and they decided over lunch to form Butler Tobin.

In the early days, they worked together on a broad range of personal injury cases. “We joked that we specialized in cat scratch cases because the dog bite market was totally full,” Butler said. “We've moved away from cat scratch cases, thankfully.”

They've won some big jury verdicts and settlements at Butler Tobin over the past five years, including a $3 million settlement last fall from Creekside Forest Apartments over a deadly shooting at the complex. Butler Tobin represented the family of Jaylon Henderson, who died, and Terrell Sellers, who survived with serious injuries.

Separately, Butler and his father, Jim Butler, won a $150 million verdict in 2015 against Fiat Chrysler Automobiles over a Jeep gas tank that caught fire after the car was rear-ended and killed 4-year-old Remi Walden. The child's parents accepted a $40 million judgment last year to close the case, and the Butlers subsequently filed a similar lawsuit in Ohio.

The Daily Report has recognized both Butler and Tobin with its On the Rise award for lawyers under 40.

These days Tobin is focusing on what he calls “wheels” cases involving car, truck and motorcycle accidents, while Butler said he's taking on “a small number of very significant cases that have big damages” in areas including product liability, motor carriers and sexual assault.

Butler said he has several product liability cases underway for Jeeps with exploding gas tanks and a defective fireworks case.

Tobin said he likes wheels cases because they're relatable. Every catastrophically injured plaintiff has a story, he said, and his job as their lawyer is to effectively communicate it to an insurance company and, potentially, a jury.

“Everyone gets on the roads every day. It's a relatable story,” Tobin said. “With a products case, you have to explain the product.”

Butler kept Butler Tobin's office in a complex at 10 Lenox Pointe, just off of Buford Highway. He bought out Tobin, who now owns an office in another complex at 267 West Wieuca Rd. N.E.

Butler Tobin associate Alyssa Baskam and paralegal Sarah Christy stayed with Butler, while another paralegal, Devin Ripley, works with Tobin. Each has hired an additional paralegal, and both said they are looking to hire a new associate.

BRIEFLY

Doug Henderson has joined King & Spalding as a partner on its toxic and environmental torts team from Troutman Sanders. Henderson has litigated cases involving chemical exposure, groundwater contamination, wastewater discharges, air emissions, endangered species, pipelines, power lines and personal injury. “Doug is well-respected for his experience in helping companies address and defeat claims that they were responsible for contaminating the environment,” said the head of King & Spalding's litigation practice, Andy Bayman, in a statement.

Bill Dillon has joined Taylor English Duma as a litigation partner from his own boutique, Dillon Law Group. Dillon focuses on white collar, antitrust and healthcare fraud defense. He is a former senior trial attorney for the Justice Department's antitrust division.

Litigation defense firm Drew Eckl & Farnham has added six lawyers since April, giving the firm about 120 lawyers. Robert Hardeman spent 17 years as staff counsel for Travelers Insurance, defending workers' compensation claims across Georgia before joining Drew Eckl. Neil Brunetz joined as of counsel from Miller & Martin with broad experience in civil defense litigation.

Drew Eckl also has recruited four new associates: Belinda Be from Ken David & Associates; Jasmine Saenz from Bovis, Kyle, Burch & Medlin; Alisha Dickie from Moore, Ingram, Johnson & Steele; and Layal Kaba from the Atlanta Judicial Circuit Public Defender's Office in Fulton County.

Rival Georgia litigation defense firm Swift, Currie, McGhee & Hiers added five associates in May, bringing its attorney head count to more than 150 lawyers. Alex Mikhalevsky returned to Swift Currie, where he'd worked from 2015 to 2018, after a stint as a claims manager for RLI Insurance Co. Jen Pfanzelt came from Taylor English, which she had joined as part of Brynda Insley's team after Insley & Race disbanded earlier this year.

Katy Robertson joined from Lokey Mobley & Doyle, and Riley Snider came from Cohan Law Group. Ken Wilson had been in-house counsel for Lynn Leonard & Associates-State Farm after serving as an assistant district attorney for Fulton County.

Family law firm Kessler & Solomiany has added four associates since April, for a total of 13 lawyers. Melissa Barber and Elizabeth Stein joined from Meriwether & Tharp, and Katie Ehrlich came from Hedgepeth, Heredia & Rieder. Molly Teplitzky, who clerked for Kessler & Solomiany during law school at Emory University, earned her J.D. in May.

Chamberlain Hrdlicka has hired Jennifer Garner as a real estate associate from Bowditch & Dewey in Boston. Chamberlain expanded its Atlanta real estate practice earlier this year with shareholder Stephanie Friese and senior counsel Christine Norstadt, who came from commercial real estate boutique Pursley Friese Torgrimson after that firm disbanded.

Atlanta-based labor and employment firm Fisher & Phillips has elected Christine Howard to a three-year term on its management committee—the first woman elected to that role for the national firm. Howard, the regional managing partner of the firm's Tampa office, has been with Fisher Phillips since 1990 and helped start its Women's Initiative and Leadership Council.