News & Knowledge

Congratulations to FormanWatkins Partners Charles Abbott and Tim Gray who were recently recognized by New Orleans CityBusiness as 2023 Leadership in Law honorees. For 19 years, the publication has recognized area professionals in the field of law for their career and community accomplishments. To see the full list of honorees, click here.  Charles joined the firm in 2017 as a partner and has served as lead counsel or co-counsel on cases in very diverse practice areas. He routinely serves as lead counsel/co-counsel on significant, high-dollar commercial, contractual, business interruption, tort, admiralty/maritime, products liability, construction, and toxic tort cases pending in both federal and state courts throughout Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. He is Martindale-Hubbell® AV Preeminent® Peer Rated, a Fellow of the Litigation Counsel of America and has been selected to The Best Lawyers in America® in Commercial Litigation and Mass Tort Litigation/Class Actions (Defendants), a Louisiana SuperLawyer since 2014, and as a Top Lawyer for Mass Tort Litigation/Class Actions by New Orleans Magazine. He is a CityBusiness “Leadership in Law” Hall of Fame Honoree. Tim has served as national trial counsel to several defendants in toxic tort litigation and has tried cases in several states in that capacity. He also represents parties in commercial disputes in Louisiana and Mississippi ranging from straightforward breach of contract actions to more complex matters involving multiple parties. Tim’s commercial practice has included representation of a real estate investment trust in acquisitions, dispositions and financings, as well as representation of local Louisiana individuals and companies […]

The Forman Watkins & Krutz New Orleans office has been awarded a Top Workplaces honor for 2023 by The Times-Picayune and The New Orleans Advocate. Top Workplaces are determined solely by employee feedback gathered through a third-party survey administered through Energage LLC. The anonymous survey uniquely measures 15 culture drivers that are critical to the success of any organization including alignment, execution, and connection. Only 80 out of nearly 1,000 companies in the Greater New Orleans area earned this distinction. The firm has previously received the honor in 2020 and 2022.

W.G. Watkins, a Founding Partner of Forman Watkins & Krutz, LLP, has been named a BTI 2023 Client Service All-Star. This list recognizes a select group of just 293 attorneys in the United States who demonstrate an unwavering commitment to providing exceptional client service. The BTI Consulting Group curates the list solely from unsolicited nominations submitted by large corporations and Fortune 1000 organizations. Now in its 22nd year, the BTI Client Service All-Stars LIST is the only ranking and attorney recognition relying solely on clients in an organic fashion. Read W.G.’s BTI Client Service All-Star profile

Spencer Ritchie was elected by the Mississippi Law Journal Board of Directors as a new member of the Board. The Mississippi Law Journal publishes four to six volumes of legal scholarship each year and is operated by students at the University of Mississippi School of Law. First published in 1922, the Mississippi Law Journal is one of the oldest student-edited law reviews in the American South. The Board of Directors, which oversees the Journal’s operations, is made up of five Journal alumni, three student editors from the Journal, and one faculty advisor.

The Firm is pleased to announce that Catherine Pettis and Jennifer Parks, respectively, received the 2022 FormanWatkins Pro Bono All-Star and Civic Star awards! Catherine Pettis, an Associate in our Jackson office, was awarded the Pro Bono All-Star for dedicating nearly 100 pro bono hours during 2022. The major of her pro bono work was representing a client from the Public Defender’s Office in a capital murder conviction appeal. Jennifer Parks, a legal assistant in our Jackson office, was awarded the Civic Star for dedicating more than 230 civic hours to local, state and national Legal Associations, Wills for First Responders and within her church’s women’s, youth and media ministries. We are grateful to have so many employees who devote so much time to their communities each year, and we are proud they are a part of the FormanWatkins family.  Read more on our Pro Bono and Civic Engagement initiatives here.

The firm is very pleased to announce that the Mississippi Bar will present Malissa Wilson with its 2023 Distinguished Service Award during the organization’s Annual Meeting held July 18-20 in Biloxi. Each year, The Mississippi Bar honors certain individuals whose work and contributions advance the purposes of the Bar and demonstrate the legal profession’s commitment to serving the public and the profession. Wilson received the Distinguished Service Award in honor of her outstanding achievements and significant contributions to the legal community. Ms. Wilson is a partner in the Jackson office of Forman Watkins & Krutz, where she has devoted her practice to all aspects of employment law. She has served as Chair of the Mississippi Bar’s Diversity in Law Committee and previously served on the Media and Law Subcommittee. She has 20 years of litigation and trial experience both in the private and public sector. Ms. Wilson received her B.A. degree, magna cum laude, from Texas Southern University, her M.S. degree from Columbia University and her J.D. degree, cum laude, from the University of Mississippi. She is admitted to practice in Arkansas, Illinois, Mississippi, Missouri and Texas. She is a Mississippi Bar Certified Mediator. Ms. Wilson has been recognized by The Best Lawyers in America® in the legal areas of labor, employment and workers’ compensation law with her most recent distinction being the “2023 Lawyer of the Year” for Jackson, Miss., in Labor and Employment litigation. This past year, she was invited to join the International Association of Defense Counsel. […]

FormanWatkins is pleased to announce that Courtney C. Hunt has been promoted to Partner. Ms. Hunt joined the firm in 2016. She is a graduate of Smith College and Harvard Law School, and spent five years as a public interest lawyer in Jackson before becoming an integral part of FormanWatkins’ strategic legal team. In her time with the firm, Ms. Hunt has been involved in a wide range of toxic tort litigation, products and premises liability, commercial litigation, real property litigation, insurance coverage defense, and NCAA compliance and investigation matters. Ms. Hunt has received recognition as a Mid-South Rising Star and Best Lawyers in America Ones to Watch. She is an active member of the firm’s Pro Bono Committee and recipient of the firm’s Pro Bono Star Award.

The International Association of Defense Counsel (IADC) has announced that Malissa Wilson has accepted an invitation to join the IADC, the preeminent invitation-only global legal organization for attorneys who represent corporate and insurance interests. “I am happy to join an organization such as the IADC with like-minded people who have a consistent record of displaying high professional standards and a passion to advance the legal profession by promoting ethics and character, in addition to social justice and diversity,” Ms. Wilson said. With nearly 20 years of litigation and trial experience, Malissa focuses her practice on employment law, as well as matters involving civil rights, premises liability, product liability, and insurance. Previously, she worked as a special assistant attorney general in the Civil Division of the Office of the Mississippi Attorney General and as a senior assistant city attorney in the Labor, Employment and Civil Rights Division of the City of Houston (Texas). She also has served as in-house counsel for a national insurance company overseeing cases in Texas, Oklahoma, and Mississippi, as well as for Mississippi’s largest public employer, the University of Mississippi Medical Center. Malissa received her J.D. (cum laude) from the University of Mississippi School of Law. She also holds a Master of Science from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and a Bachelor of Arts (magna cum laude) from Texas Southern University. About the International Association of Defense Counsel The IADC is the preeminent invitation-only global legal organization for attorneys who represent corporate and insurance interests. Founded […]

Forman Watkins & Krutz LLP is proud to announce that Charles Abbott, Michael Abraham, Melissa Fuller, Tim Gray and Byron Kitchens were selected to the 2022 Top Lawyers list by New Orleans Magazine. New Orleans Magazine presents the Top Lawyers list annually, and this year’s list was prepared by Detroit-based Professional Research Services.  Honorees were selected via a voting system, in which voting was open to all licensed attorneys in New Orleans.  The voters were asked which attorney, other than themselves, they would recommend in the New Orleans area, and each attorney was allowed to recommend up to three colleagues in each given legal specialty.  Once the online nominations were complete, each nominee was carefully evaluated on the basis of the survey results, the legitimacy of their license, and their current standing with the State Bar Association of Louisiana.  Attorneys who received the highest number of votes in each specialty are reflected in the Top Lawyers list.

Forman Watkins & Krutz LLP  is once again represented in the latest edition of Super Lawyers, the prominent legal ranking published by Thomson Reuters, with 23 attorneys earning distinctions on the 2022 Mid-South Super Lawyers and Rising Stars lists. Super Lawyers recognizes outstanding lawyers from more than 70 practice areas who have attained a high degree of peer recognition and professional achievement, with no more than five percent of the lawyers in the state receiving the honor. The patented selection process includes independent research, peer nominations and peer evaluations to select lawyers across all 50 states and Washington, D.C. Congratulations to the following attorneys on their selection to this year’s lists: 2022 Mid-South Super Lawyers: Tanya Ellis, Win Gault,  Nick Giallourakis, Brian Hannula, Fred Krutz**, Mitch McGuffey, Alison McMinn, Joshua Metcalf, Jennifer Studebaker, Trey Watkins*, and WG Watkins** 2022 Mid-South Rising Stars: Mary Clift Abdalla, Patrick Fields, Joel Fyke, Courtney Hunt, Ruth Maron Huskey, Sampada Kapoor, Chelsea Lewis, Vernon McFarland, Daniel Roberts, Peyton Smith, Andrew Stubbs, and Caroline Upchurch **Also named to the Top 50 in Mississippi list *Selected as a Super Lawyer for 10 years