Whatley Drake & Kallas concentrates its practice on complex civil litigation in the areas of mass torts, labor and employment law, antitrust, consumer and securities fraud, and products liability.  While the firm has more than 40 lawyers, its efforts in this case will be lead by partners Joe R. Whatley Jr. and Deborah Weintraub.

The firm’s practice is predominantly a plaintiffs’ practice, but the firm has tried class actions to verdict for a defendant as well.  Mr. Whatley was counsel for the defendant Union in Cox v. USX, 88-N-2069-S (N.D. Ala.), a RICO class action, where the jury returned a verdict for the defendants after a month-long trial.  He was also counsel for the plaintiff class in Pickett v. Tyson (formerly IBP), 96-A-1103-N (M.D. Ala.), where the jury returned a verdict of $1.3 billion after a five week trial.

Mr. Whatley was also counsel for Alabama’s historically black universities in the Alabama Higher Education Desegregation Litigation, which was tried on three occasions, once for six months, and which resulted in substantially increased funding for those universities.  Ms. Weintraub has represented the plaintiffs in a number of major securities fraud class actions and other complex litigation.

The firm includes a number of other experienced trial lawyers, including Jack Drake, who has tried more than 50 cases to jury verdict, Edith Kallas, who serves as lead counsel in Thomas v. Blue Cross, 06-cv-11-R (W.D. Ky.), representing a national class of physicians against all Blue Crosses in the country and In re Brokerage Antitrust Litigation, MDL No. 1663 (D.N.J.), a national class action against the major brokers and insurers in the country, and Doug Jones, the former United States Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama, who has tried numerous jury cases.  The firm has been and is currently involved, on various leadership levels, in nationally prominent environmental litigation.

For more information about Mr. Whatley
For more information about Whatley Drake & Kallas LLP