JILL A. PRYOR

Antitrust Appellate Business Torts Class Actions Commercial Litigation Corporate Governance Employment & Civil Rights Environmental Litigation False Claims Act Intellectual Property Internal Investigations Professional Liability RICO White Collar Crime

Contact Jill Pryor

Phone 404.881.4131
Fax 404.881.4111
Email pryor@bmelaw.com
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Jill Pryor has nearly 20 years’ experience representing clients in high stakes trial and appellate business litigation including the areas of business torts, corporate governance and shareholder disputes, class actions, trade secrets, intellectual property (including patent), professional malpractice, fraud, and the Georgia and federal Racketeering and Corrupt Organizations acts (“RICO”).

Recognized for her success in trying large business cases to juries, Jill has recently won a multi-hundred million dollar plaintiffs’ jury verdict and obtained a complete defendants’ jury verdict in a case in which multi-hundreds of millions in damages were sought.

Jill is a past chair of the Appellate Practice Section of the State Bar of Georgia. She serves by appointment of the Chief Judge as a member of the Lawyers Advisory Committee of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. A former law clerk on that court, Jill has briefed and argued many cases in the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, as well as the Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court of Georgia. She currently serves as the Chair of the Atlanta Bar Association’s Judicial Selection and Tenure Committee and as Vice Chair of the State Bar’s Corporate Governance and Long Range Planning Committee.

Jill is a past president of the Georgia Association for Women Lawyers and a Fellow of the Lawyers Foundation of Georgia. She is a member of Leadership Atlanta’s Class of 2007 and has served on the boards of directors of several non-profit organizations. She is also an assistant debate coach for Arbor Montessori School.

Position:

Partner

Education & Background:

College of William and Mary (B.A., 1985)
Phi Beta Kappa
Yale Law School (J.D., 1988)
Senior Editor: Yale Law Journal, 1987-1988

Education & Background:

Law Clerk to the Honorable J. L. Edmondson, United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, 1988-1989

Awards & Recognition

The Best Lawyers in America
Chambers 2008 - Leader in the Field of General Commercial Litigation
Georgia’s Legal Elite, Business Litigation, Georgia Trend Magazine
Top 50 Female SuperLawyers
Atlanta Bar Association’s Outstanding Woman in the Profession Achievement Award
Georgia Association for Women Lawyers Kathleen Kessler Award for service, mentoring and professionalism

Representative Cases

Represented David McDavid in obtaining a $281 million jury verdict against Turner Broadcasting System (TBS) for breaching an agreement to sell McDavid the Atlanta Hawks, the Atlanta Thrashers and the operating rights to Philips Arena. The jury verdict is one of the largest compensatory damage awards in Georgia history.
After a four week jury trial in which the plaintiffs sought $124 million in compensatory damages, trebled, obtained a complete defense verdict for a former CFO and Sr. V.P. of a nursing home conglomerate who were accused of accounting fraud, breach of fiduciary duty and violation of Georgia RICO
Defeated certification of a class of approximately 1,000,000 consumers for a company with approximately $1 billion in revenues
Conducted an internal investigation involving the CEO of a high profile non-profit corporation
Won an appeal affirming that a corporation cannot maintain a counterclaim against a shareholder who obtained his shares in a merger on the grounds that the shareholder was unjustly enriched because the corporation in which the shareholder originally owned stock allegedly defrauded the acquiring company
In arguments in both the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court of Georgia, defeated on appeal a RICO claim against Georgia title pawn brokers
Represented plaintiffs in fraud, RICO, and other professional malpractice cases that have resulted in confidential settlements for her clients

Publications

Author: Note, “The Natural Born Citizen Clause and Presidential Eligibility,” 97 Yale Law Journal 881 (1988)
Co-Author: Chapter, “Trade Secrets,” 4 Georgia Jurisprudence, Business Torts and Trade Regulation (Thomson West 2005)
Co-Author: Chapter, “State RICO Actions,” 4 Georgia Jurisprudence, Business Torts and Trade Regulation (Thomson West 2005)

Admitted

State Bar of Georgia
United States Supreme Court
United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia

Professional Activities

Chair, Georgia Appellate Practice Seminar, ICLE of Georgia, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008
Steering Committee, Eleventh Circuit Appellate Practice Institute, ICLE of Georgia, 2006, 2008 (Panelist 2006)
Speaker/Panelist, Georgia RICO Seminar, ICLE of Georgia, 1992, 1993, 1995, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2005
Executive Board, “It’s About Time: Part-Time Practice and Policies in Atlanta Law Firms” (2004)
“Breach of Fiduciary Duty,” Torts Seminar, Georgia Trial Lawyers Association, 2000
Corporate Litigation Seminar, ICLE of Georgia, 1998
Federal Civil Litigation: Appellate Practice, Lorman Business Center, 1994, 1995
Federal Court Practice Seminars, National Business Institute, 1995, 1996
“Innovative Applications of Georgia’s RICO Statute for the Civil Trial Lawyer,” Georgia Trial Lawyers Association Annual Seminar, May 1994
Member: Lawyers Advisory Committee to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit (1996-present)
Atlanta Bar Association (Chair: Judicial Selection and Tenure Committee; Member: Litigation, Intellectual Property, Women in the Profession Sections)
State Bar of Georgia (Vice Chair: Corporate Governance & Long Range Planning Committee; Member, Business Courts Committee; Member: General Practice and Trial, Appellate Practice, Business Law Section, Business Litigation Committee)
American Bar Association (Member: Council of Appellate Lawyers, Antitrust, Business Torts, Litigation and Law Practice Management Sections)
American Association for Justice
Georgia Trial Lawyers Association (Editorial Committee, The Verdict, 1996-2000)
Georgia Association for Women Lawyers (President: 2000-2001)
Lawyers Club of Atlanta
American Inns of Court (Barrister, Lumpkin Inn, 1992-94)