A key component in an estate plan is the Georgia Advanced Directive for Health Care. This document allows you to name the people who have access to your medical information and who may make decisions about your medical care in the event you cannot. Upon attaining the age of 18 and becoming a legal adult, a parent cannot make medical decisions or gain access to your medical records. In the event of an emergency, it is important that health care professionals know who to contact. The Georgia Advanced Directive for Health Care appoints an agent, or agents, to act on your behalf. Any agent named must act in your best interests but is allowed access to your medical information without violating ... Continue Reading
A Premises Owner Can Defeat A Claim of Constructive Knowledge of a Hazard With Reasonable Inspection Procedures
The owner of an establishment is not liable for a claimant’s injury simply by virtue of the injury occurring on the owner’s premises. The fact that someone falls on the premises does not automatically entitle them to a recovery against the owner. The mere ownership of land or buildings does not render one liable for the injuries sustained by the persons who have entered thereon or therein. Simply stated, falling and injuring one’s self proves nothing. Such happenings are commonplace wherever humans go. To presume that because a customer falls on the premises of a proprietor, the proprietor has somehow been negligent would make the proprietor an ... Continue Reading
Georgia Supreme Court Holds Burden on Corporate Entity Must Be Considered When a Party Seeks to Depose a High-Level Executive
In General Motors, LLC v. Buchanan, Case No. S21G1147, 2022 WL 1750716, ---S.E.2d --- (Ga. Sup. Ct. June 1, 2022), the Georgia Supreme Court provided guidance on when a party’s high level corporate executive can be deposed. While the Court declined to adopt any sort of special test for when high level executives can be deposed, the Court held that a trial court must consider the traditional “apex factors” if the corporation seeks a protective order to stop the deposition on a case-by-case basis: the high rank of the executive, whether the executive has unique personal knowledge of the relevant facts, and whether the information is available from other sources. Buchanan ... Continue Reading
Drew Eckl & Farnham Achieves Midsize Mansfield Rule Certification
SAN FRANCISCO, May 5, 2022 — Diversity Lab announced that Drew Eckl & Farnham was one of 26 midsize law firms that have achieved the inaugural Midsize Mansfield Rule Certification. These certified firms have completed a rigorous 18-month collaboration with Diversity Lab — beginning in September 2020 — to track, consider, measure, and achieve diversity in leadership. Designed to expand on the early successes of the original Mansfield Rule piloted in 2017 with larger firms, the Midsize Mansfield Rule Certification measures whether law firms with approximately 25 to 150 lawyers have affirmatively considered at least 30 percent women lawyers, underrepresented racial and ethnic lawyers, ... Continue Reading
Drew Eckl & Farnham Recognized in Daily Report Georgia Legal Awards
ATLANTA, April 28, 2022 — The Daily Report has announced its winners and finalists for the 2022 Georgia Legal Awards. Three Drew Eckl & Farnham partners have been honored with Professional Excellence awards, and Drew Eckl & Farnham has been selected as a finalist for Law Firm of the Year. Honorees Mike Bagley (Lifetime Achievers)Julie John (Lifetime Achievers)Taylor Poncz (On the Rise) The honorees and winner of the Law Firm of the Year award will be presented at a gala on June 23 at Flourish Atlanta. For more information on the awards, click the link below. ... Continue Reading
Blake Williams Elected to Atlanta Bar Association Litigation Section’s Board of Directors
ATLANTA, April 21, 2022 — The Atlanta Bar Association's Litigation Section has elected senior associate Blake Williams to be a Member-at-Large on the section's Board of Directors for the 2022-23 bar year. The Litigation Section of the Atlanta Bar Association is the largest section by membership and is comprised of litigators across the spectrum of practices. It includes plaintiff’s lawyers, defense lawyers, mediators and dispute resolution practitioners, as well as judges from several different courts. Blake focuses his practice on general defense litigation matters including premises liability, products liability, insurance coverage, automobile litigation, and trucking and ... Continue Reading
Paul Grote Wins Eleventh Circuit Affirmance of Summary Judgment in Slip and Fall Case
The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the grant of Summary Judgment in favor of the defendant represented by Paul Grote, a senior associate at Drew Eckl & Farnham. The case, for which the Summary Judgment was granted in November of 2020, centered around signage in a slip-and-fall accident at a restaurant. The plaintiff claimed she slipped on a puddle of water left after an employee had mopped the floor, which was visible from a standing position. Plaintiff claimed no caution wet floor signs were present, and that a booth obscured her view of the floor. However, plaintiff’s claims were refuted by video, which showed plaintiff walk by a caution wet floor sign mere seconds ... Continue Reading
22 Drew Eckl & Farnham Attorneys Selected as Best Lawyers® and Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch
We are happy to announce that 16 of our lawyers have been listed as the 2022 Best Lawyers in America and six of our attorneys have been recognized as 2022 Best Lawyers in America: Ones to Watch. Current Recognized Lawyers Paul W. Burke since (2020)Insurance Law - Paul has been with Drew Eckl and Farnham since 1983. For the first 25 years of his practice, he focused exclusively on the insurance industry; litigating and lecturing around the country on insurance coverage matters. He also published over 50 articles in Insurance Industry and ABA publications. He obtained his Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter (CPCU) and Associate in Reinsurance designations in 2002 Barbara A. ... Continue Reading
Ten Drew Eckl & Farnham Attorneys Selected for 2022 Georgia Super Lawyers® and Rising Stars®
We are proud to announce that 10 of our attorneys have been selected for inclusion on the Georgia Super Lawyers® and Rising Stars® lists for 2022. Super Lawyer Honorees Only five percent of the lawyers in the state are named by Super Lawyers. The selections for this esteemed list are made by the research team at Super Lawyers, which is a service of the Thomson Reuters, Legal division based in Eagan, MN. Each year, the research team at Super Lawyers undertakes a rigorous multi-phase selection process that includes a statewide survey of lawyers, independent evaluation of candidates by the attorney-led research staff, a peer review of candidates by practice area, and a good-standing and ... Continue Reading
Drew Eckl & Farnham Announces 13 New Partners
Drew Eckl & Farnham is pleased to announce it has named 13 new partners. It is the largest class of non-equity partners the firm has elected in its 40 years of practice. The talent and diversity of our new partners reflects how the firm’s award-winning Path2Partnership program has worked to create an environment that nurtures diverse interests, backgrounds, and perspectives. “We’re honored that all of these talented lawyers have decided to make Drew Eckl & Farnham their home, and we’re excited about how they’ll contribute to making us better.”Joseph C. Chancey, Managing Partner The new Drew Eckl & Farnham partners are as follows: Lervette J. Blair is an ... Continue Reading