Plaintiffs lawyers Brett Turnbull and Clayton Cain have partnered with defense litigator Alan Holcomb to launch Turnbull, Cain & Holcomb. They are focusing on catastrophic injury and wrongful death cases, primarily in Georgia but also nationally.

Turnbull, 40, and Cain, 32, have spent their entire careers on the plaintiffs side, while Holcomb, 35, made the switch after nine years at defense litigation firm Weinberg Wheeler Hudgins Gunn & Dial, where he was a partner.

The firm concentrates on high-stakes brain injury, auto products liability, trucking and auto accidents and premises liability cases.

While their focus is the Southeast, particularly Georgia and Alabama, the three want to build a national practice, said Cain, the new firm’s managing partner. Holcomb had a national practice at Weinberg, and Turnbull has tried cases nationally, including several in California.

Cain and Turnbull, who had worked together earlier in their careers at Birmingham’s Farris, Riley & Pitt, started a plaintiffs firm together in June; Holcomb joined them in late July from Weinberg to form Turnbull, Cain & Holcomb.

After starting out at Farris, Riley & Pitt, Cain moved to Atlanta to work for Shiver Hamilton, then started his own shop three years ago. Turnbull, who is in Birmingham, opened his own plaintiffs shop in May after 2.5 years at Birmingham’s Cory Watson Attorneys and 11 years at Farris, Riley & Pitt. Cain said they’d always wanted to work together and in June decided to become law partners.

Holcomb, who has known Cain since they were in high school together in Snellville, said plaintiffs law was “something I’d wanted to do for a long time, but the timing was never right.” He said he shares Turnbull and Cain’s goal of working on high-stakes, catastrophic cases locally and nationally and that working with people he knew had experience trying big cases was a big draw.

“I got tired of representing big companies and insurance companies. I wanted more of a human touch,” Holcomb said, adding that he left Weinberg on good terms. “I was really happy at Weinberg. It was the hardest decision I’ve ever made.”

Holcomb handled products liability, chemical exposure and catastrophic vehicle injury cases at Weinberg, where he was national trial and coordinating counsel for International Flavors and Fragrances, a chemical manufacturer. At Weinberg, he said, about 85% of his cases were outside of Georgia.

Holcomb said Turnbull’s “no-frills, straight to the point” approach to trying cases is similar to his own from Weinberg. “I grew up trying cases with Billy Gunn—he’s got the same style. And Brett shows the same attention to detail as Dave Dial,” Holcomb said, referring to name partners at his former firm.

Holcomb added that it was appealing to join a firm that already had a foundation of cases, so he isn’t “coming in cold” to build the infrastructure.

Collectively the three new partners are licensed in Georgia, Alabama, California, Mississippi and Ohio. Turnbull, Cain & Holcomb is handling cases outside Georgia in those states.

BRIEFLY

In other plaintiffs firm news, Shiver Hamilton has hired Darrell Hinson as a senior attorney from his own firm, Hinson Law, and promoted Daniel Beer to partner. In addition to personal injury cases, Hinson handles insurance coverage and bad faith cases for plaintiffs. Before starting his own firm, Hinson worked for Florida-based Swope Rodante.

David Rohwedder has left Butler Wooten to join Steve Litner and Arman Deganian as of counsel at Litner + Deganian, an Atlanta-based personal injury firm with seven lawyers. Rohwedder said in an email that he met Litner when both were chosen for the Georgia Trial Lawyers Association’s 2016 LEAD (Leadership Education & Advanced Direction) class, and they hit it off. “Litner’s vision and dedication to helping others have been an inspiration and are the reasons I came on board,” Rohwedder said. He is splitting his time between Atlanta and Columbus with the plan of opening a Columbus office for Litner + Deganian in the future.

The Butler Law Firm, which Jeb Butler left Butler Tobin in June to start, has hired Morgan Lyndall from defense litigation firm Goodman McGuffey as an associate. That follows Butler’s hire of another associate, Matt Kahn, from Fried & Bonder in July. Lyndall is working on product liability, medical fraud and institutional sex abuse cases. “She’s smart, pleasant to be around, a good writer, and I think she’s going to be a secret weapon in witness work,” Butler said in an email.

Outside the plaintiffs bar, three experienced lawyers have started their own shops.

Trusts and estates practitioner Mark Brandenburg has left Abrams Davis Mason Long, where he was a partner, to start The Brandenburg Estate Planning Law Firm. Brandenburg’s focus is estate planning and administration, adult guardianship and probate law. He also advises clients on IRS tax controversies with the IRS and represents family businesses and their owners on corporate issues.

Eugene “Pete” Chambers III, who has practiced family law for more than 30 years, has opened Chambers Family Law in Midtown at One Atlantic Center after spending the last five years as of counsel at Buckhead firm McLain & Merritt. Before that, he was a partner in McGinnis & Chambers for 12 years.

Labor and employment veteran Charles “Chuck” Dalziel Jr. has left Gregory, Doyle, Calhoun & Rogers, where he was a partner, to open the Dalziel Law Firm in Marietta. Dalziel, who represents both employers and employees, has litigated and arbitrated employee restrictive covenant cases in 20 states over his 37 years in practice. He also represents insurers in insurance coverage matters and policyholders in bad faith claims with their insurers. Dalziel chairs the State Bar of Georgia’s audit committee and also chairs the Atlanta Bar Association’s alternative dispute resolution section.