Generally considered a top-tier Atlanta firm, the full-service Hawkins Parnell Thackston & Young specializes in civil litigation, usually on the side of defense (as can be inferred from its firm goal of executing the “best defense” for each client). In the headquarters of its Atlanta office, the firm is particularly strong in legal malpractice and personal injury litigation cases.

Just What the Doctor Ordered

Founded in 1963 as Freeman & Hawkins, Hawkins Parnell has grown to house more than 150 attorneys in its Atlanta headquarters and offices in Texas, West Virginia, California, New York, and Maryland. The firm is primarily a litigation shop, concentrating on high-risk trial and appellate work at the state and federal levels for clients ranging from small local businesses to national corporations. The firm claims to have represented more than 100 of the Fortune 500. Hawkins Parnell clients have included Union Carbide, Bayer, Monsanto, National Car Rental, Abbott Laboratories and the Atlantic Richfield Company.

While Hawkins Parnell is known for its work in areas such as product liability, toxic tort, professional negligence, construction litigation, legal malpractice, premises liability and governmental liability, one of the firm's most highly regarded sub-specialties is likely its medical malpractice unit, which features a team of registered nurses who serve as medical consultants and witnesses. In its more than fifty years of practice, the firm has litigated hundreds of medical malpractice cases and served as lead counsel in well over 1,000 fact and expert depositions.

Beyond medical malpractice, the firm's successes have included fending off legal malpractice and fraud charges for an attorney client, securing dismissal for a product liability suit claiming that various automotive products had caused a plaintiff's lung cancer and successfully defending clients in mesothelioma and wrongful death cases.

Farming for Verdicts

When they're not defending high-stakes litigation cases, the associates and partners of Hawkins Parnell partake in training at the firm's retreat facilities at Thackston Farm, a rural oasis almost a hundred miles southeast of Dallas. The land has hiking, fishing, a putt-and-chip golf course and meeting facilities with conference technology. The firm also sometimes hosts clients at the farm for a little relaxation and, of course, strategic legal planning.