Donna focuses her practice on appellate matters, pharmaceutical product liability defense, and media defense.
Overview
Donna focuses her practice on appellate matters, pharmaceutical product liability defense, and media defense.
Practice Areas
Experience
- Rebelwood Apartments RP, LP v. English, 48 So.3d 483 (Miss. 2010).
- Memphis Biofuels, LLC v Chickasaw Nation Indus., Inc., 585 F.39 917 (6th Cir. 2009).
- Grobelny v. Baxter Healthcare Corp., 341 Fed.App’x. 803 (3d Cir. 2009).
- Morris v. Grusin, Tenn.Ct.App., 2009. 2009 WL 4931324, December 22, 2009.
- Barbour v. State ex rel. Hood, 974 So. 2d 232 (Miss. 2008).
- Janssen Pharmaceutica Inc. v. Armond, 866 So.2d 1092, Prod. Liab. Rep. (CCH) P 16,876 (Miss. 2004), resulted in new joinder and venue rules.
- Community Bank of Ellisville v. Courtney, 884 So.2d 767 (Miss. 2004), $5 million judgment reduced to $7,000.
- Janssen Pharmaceutica Inc. v. Bailey, 878 So.2d 31, Prod. Liab. Rep (CCH) P 17,008. (Miss. 2004), $100 million verdict vacated.
Distinctions
- Fellow, Mississippi Bar Foundation
- Best Lawyers in America®
- Lawyer of the Year, Product Liability Litigation – Defendants, 2023
- Lawyer of the Year, Appellate Practice, 2022
- Appellate Practice, 2007-2023
- Product Liability Litigation – Defendants, 2014-2023
- Super Lawyers®
- Mid-South Super Lawyers, Appellate, 2006-2022
- Top 50: Mississippi Super Lawyers, 2006, 2012
- Top 50: Women Mid-South Super Lawyers, 2011-2014
- Chambers USA, America's Leading Lawyers for Business
- Litigation: Appellate (Mississippi), 2014-2016, 2021-2022
Bar Admissions
- Mississippi, 1989
- U.S. District Courts
- Michigan: Eastern
- Mississippi: Northern, Southern
- U.S. Court of Appeals
- 5th Circuit
- 6th Circuit
- U.S. Court of Federal Claims
Education
- University of Mississippi, J.D., magna cum laude, 1988
- Symposium Editor, Mississippi Law Journal
- University of Mississippi, B.P.A., summa cum laude, 1985
- Clerkship, Judge Charles Clark, Chief Judge, U.S. Court of Appelas, 5th Circuit
Associations
- American Bar Association
- Forum on Communications
- Appellate Practice Committee
- Defense Research Institute (DRI)
- Appellate Advocacy Committee
- Media Law Resource Center
- Mississippi Bar Association
- Capital Area Bar Association
- Bar Association of the Fifth Federal Circuit
Papers, Presentations & Publications
- Co-Author, “Daubert and Frye and Anything Goes, Oh My!” Pro Te: Solutio, Vol. 10, No. 1, March 18, 2017.
- Presenter, "E-Discovery: This is What “Scary” Dreams are Made of," Joint Seminar for Mississippi Claims Association and MS Defense Lawyers Association, October 16, 2014.
- Co-Author, "The Path to Aggregate Settlements;" American Bar Association Mass Torts Litigation, Spring 2012, Vol. 10 No. 3.
- Author, "Navigating the Appeal – Practical Tips for the Occasional Appellate Practitioner," Mississippi Defense Lawyers Association Quarterly, May 2009.
- Mississippi Law Section, 50-State Survey of Law of Defamation and Invasion of Privacy
- Quarterly Procedural Update, Fifth Circuit Reporter