King & Spalding has brought on tort trial lawyer Adam Spicer as a partner in Atlanta from Mississippi-based Butler Snow.

Spicer is a notable addition because his focus—pharmaceutical and medical device defense litigation—is a key part of King & Spalding's extensive tort trial practice.

"Adam has an incredibly strong background in pharma and medical device product liability litigation, which makes him an important strategic addition to our team," said Andy Bayman, who heads King & Spalding's trial & global disputes practice, in an announcement.

"He is an impressive trial lawyer who has tried and won some very challenging, high stakes cases in difficult jurisdictions," Bayman added.

Spicer, 41, said he was not looking to leave Butler Snow, where he spent the first 11 years of his legal career, but could not pass up the opportunity that King & Spalding offered. "Their national and international platform is virtually unlimited in opportunities for any lawyer–and especially for a trial lawyer," he said. "Many firms of this size do not have the trial practice King & Spalding has—or the trial lawyers they have."

Spicer, who joined King & Spalding last week, said he's worked with several of the firm's partners as co-counsel on cases nationally for almost a decade, including Bayman and Chilton Varner, one of its top trial lawyers.

"Knowing who Andy and Chilton are as lawyers and people was a big part of my decision," he said, adding that having mutual clients, such as Merck and Johnson & Johnson, was also a draw, since it would take significant time to transition to a firm with separate clients.

Spicer said he went to law school because he wanted to be a trial lawyer. "If I couldn't try cases I wouldn't be a lawyer," he said. "I want to continue and grow as a trial lawyer and try cases that matter."

"I come from very humble beginnings," he added. Spicer grew up in Flora, Mississippi, as one of 11 children, and his father died when he was young. "For me to have the opportunity to now be a partner in two great law firms is a tremendous honor—and I'm very excited about the next phase of my career."

Spicer joined Butler Snow in 2008, after law school at the University of Kentucky. He started out handling premises liability and trucking cases, as well as other high-exposure injury matters. "I didn't care what area—I just wanted to try cases," Spicer said.

Over time he gravitated toward pharma and medical device cases for some big pharmaceutical companies that are Butler Snow clients.

Spicer said his trial practice has taken him all over the country, from Butler Snow's Jackson, Mississippi, headquarters, mostly to Philadelphia, New York, St. Louis and California.

It is a high stakes practice. Last spring, Spicer was part of a trial team, with lawyers from Houston's Beck Redden and Philadelphia's Drinker Biddle & Reath, defending Johnson & Johnson subsidiary Ethicon in a pelvic mesh case, McFarland v. Ethicon, in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas—part of the pelvic mesh mass tort litigation in Philadelphia in which Ethicon is the primary defendant. The first monthlong trial in 2018 resulted in a hung jury, but the jury for the second trial in April, which lasted three weeks, returned a $120 million plaintiff's verdict. Ethicon is appealing.

The cases Spicer has handled with King & Spalding lawyers include Fosamax litigation for Merck with Varner and Julia Zousmer and other Merck and Johnson & Johnson cases with Bayman, Alex Calfo, Julia Romano and others.

"Adam slots in perfectly to a number of our litigation sweet spots so he will be able to work across some of our key areas, such as pharmaceutical and medical device as well as toxic & environmental tort and life sciences and healthcare," said Josh Kamin, who heads King & Spalding's Atlanta office, in a statement.

"Building additional depth in this area in our Atlanta office is a key priority," Kamin said.

Spicer's addition comes just six weeks after King & Spalding added M&A partner Erik Belenky in Atlanta from Jones Day.