Two Chattanooga attorneys are among the top 100 Mid-South Super Lawyers for 2013. Jerry H. Summers of Summers & Wyatt and Roger W. Dickson of Miller & Martin were selected by their peers for inclusion on the list.
Since beginning his practice in 1966, Summers has served as an assistant district attorney, as lawyer for the Hamilton County Election Commission, as municipal judge, and was a finalist for a federal district judgeship.
During his professional career, the Chattanooga native also has been president of the Chattanooga Bar Association and chairman of the Chattanooga Bar Foundation. He has been state president of both the Tennessee Trial Lawyers Association and the Tennessee Association of Criminal Lawyers, and a member of the national board of directors of both groups.
Summers has argued cases before the United State and Tennessee Supreme Courts and has been involved in numerous landmark decisions in both civil and criminal law.
His peers in the legal profession have elected him to membership in the International Academy of Trial Lawyers, the American College of Trial Lawyers, the International Society of Barristers, the American Board of Trial Advocates, and the American Board of Criminal Lawyers.
Summers has been selected every year since 1983 as one of the “Best Lawyers in America” in both personal injury and criminal law. Also, by an unsolicited vote of Tennessee lawyers, he has consistently been selected as one of the “Best 100 Lawyers on Tennessee” and as a “Mid-South Super Lawyer.”
Dickson concentrates his practice on litigation, with an emphasis on complex commercial disputes, white collar crime, health care, personal injury, and products liability. He has handled major civil litigation for the world’s largest soft drink bottling company and has served as lead national counsel defending publicly traded consumer products companies in hundreds of pharmaceutical product liability cases. He also represents a publicly traded construction materials company in its litigation in Tennessee and one of the nation’s largest disability insurance companies in its complex litigation.
Dickson has represented clients in numerous federal grand jury investigations and trials involving antitrust violations, immigration matters, bank fraud, health care fraud, tax matters, labor law violations, and FDA matters. He served as trial counsel in the trial of United States v. Tyson Foods, which resulted in the acquittal of all defendants and was named as the top defense verdict of the year in the National Law Journal.
Dickson is a Rule 31 listed general civil mediator and serves as a mediator and arbitrator in all types of litigation.
Super Lawyers selects attorneys using what it calls “a rigorous, multistage process in which peer nominations and evaluations are combined with its independent research.” Each year, Super Lawyers invites lawyers to nominate the top attorneys they have personally seen in action. Their attorney-led staff also searches for lawyers who have attained certain honors or results.
Their researches then evaluate candidates using 12 indicators of peer recognition and professional achievement. Research evaluations are based on information from a variety of online and database sources including law firm websites, legal publications, and information supplied by lawyers at my.superlawyers.com.
Candidates are then grouped according to their primary practice areas. Candidates in each practice area who who received the highest point totals are asked to sere on a review panel.
Finally, candidates are grouped into categories based on firm size. The attorneys with the highest totals fro each category are selected. Thus, lawyers are grouped with other lawyers of comparable firm size.
Sources: Summers & Wyatt; Miller & Martin; Super Lawyers