Firm News

November 12, 2010 From the Birmingham News:

September 16, 2010 We are pleased to announce that we have won our legal battle with the State of Alabama over the legal fees due to our Firm for our work in representing the Legislature over no bid contracts by the Riley administration. After nine months of refusing to pay us any thing (and wasting thousands of dollars of tax payer money in the process), Governor Riley finally agreed to pay us the entire amount we were due, but only on the eve of us deposing the State Finance Director, the State Comptroller, and the Governor himself in our lawsuit. Thanks to Tommy Gallion for representing us in this litigation and to Christopher Genereux for his hard work assisting Tommy.

August 30, 2010 On August 30, 2010, Thomas, Means, Gillis & Seay won the first round in its lawsuit against the State of Alabama Comptroller to collect on the legal fees the State owes our Firm for representing the Alabama House of Representatives and filing suit on behalf of the Contract Review Permanent Legislative Oversight Committee of the Alabama Legislature against the State over no bid contracts by the Executive Branch (read more about that below). Today the Honorable Tom King, Jr., Circuit Court Judge, issued a most excellently written legal Opinion denying the Defendant's Motion to Dismiss our lawsuit to collect the legal fees.

The State owed our Firm $78,355.05 for our legal work for the Legislature, although interest has been growing on that amount since payment was denied last winter. While the State Comptroller issued payment on the first invoice we submitted, Governor Riley then stepped in and ordered that payment be denied on our second and third monthly invoices. Before we filed suit to collect our attorneys' fees, the Alabama House of Representatives and Alabama Senate passed a Joint Resolution calling on the State Comptroller to issue payment to our Firm on the second and third invoices but Governor Riley vetoed the Joint Resolution, thereby forcing us to file to suit. When we filed suit, Governor Riley then issued a $100,000 no bid contract to the law firm of Wallace Jordan Ratliff & Brandt, L.L.C. to defend a lawsuit that was only seeking $78,355 that was lawfully owed in the first place. In short, Governor Riley is committed to wasting even more taxpayer money in this futile attempt to avoid paying our Firm for our legal work for the Legislature. Attorney Tommy Gallion is representing our Firm in the lawsuit, with Christopher Genereux of our Firm assisting Tommy with legal research and writing.

This matter is set for another hearing before Judge Tom King, Jr. on September 30, 2010.

Judge King's Order is available here in pdf format.



The Complaint we filed against the State Comptroller is available here in pdf format.


The Motion to Dismiss filed by State Comptroller, which Judge King denied, is available here in pdf format.


Our initial Response to the Motion to Dismiss is available here in pdf format.


Our second Response ("Sur Reply") to the Motion to Dismiss is available here in pdf format.

October 30, 2009 On October 29, 2009, Thomas, Means, Gillis & Seay filed a landmark lawsuit on behalf of the Contract Review Permanent Legislative Oversight Committee of the Alabama Legislature challenging a $13 million no bid contract that was to be paid out of 100% State funds. The Plaintiffs are Alvin Holmes as Chairman of the Contract Review Permanent Legislative Oversight Committee of the Alabama Legislature; and the Contract Review Permanent Legislative Oversight Committee. The Defendants are The State of Alabama Department of Finance; Bill Newton, who is the Acting Director of the State of Alabama Department of Finance; Bob Riley, the Governor of the State of Alabama, Paragon Source, LLC, who was to be awarded the $13 million no bid contract; Janet Lauderdale, the President of Paragon Source, LLC; and Thomas Raburn, the Managing Member of Paragon Source, LLC.

The Petition for Injunctive releief that we filed is available here in pdf format.

September 29, 2009 Thomas, Means, Gillis & Seay is proud to announce that Montgomery Spotlight Magazine has selected the Firm for its cover story for the October 2009 issue of the magazine. This issue will be released on October 10, 2009.

July 15, 2009 Thomas, Means, Gillis & Seay is proud to announce that Montgomery Spotlight Magazine has named our Firm as its recipient of their 2009 Law Firm of the Year Award. The Firm will be honored at The Ultimate 50 Award ceremony on July 23, 2009 at the RSA Activity Center.

June 26, 2009 Thomas, Means, Gillis & Seay is proud to announce its involvement in the Colonial BancGroup, Inc. Securities Litigation. Our attorneys Tyrone C. Means, H. Lewis Gillis, and Gerald C. Brooks will be handling this very significant and high profile class action on behalf of the Plaintiff Class.

On May 7, 2009, U.S. District Judge Myron H. Thompson appointed Arkansas Teacher Retirement System, State-Boston Retirement System, Norfolk County Retirement System and City of Brockton Retirement System (collectively, the "Public Pension Fund Group") as Lead Plaintiffs and approved their selection of Lead Counsel, Labaton Sucharow LLP, and Liaison Counsel, Thomas, Means, Gillis & Seay, P.C., in In re Colonial BancGroup, Inc. Securities Litigation, No. 2:09cv104-MHT (M.D. Ala.), a consolidated class action asserting claims under the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 against Colonial BancGroup, Inc., certain of its current and former directors and officers, outside accountants, and underwriters of public offerings of the Company's securities. The Public Pension Fund Group represents a Class of all persons and entities who purchased or otherwise acquired the publicly traded securities of Colonial during a class period between April 18, 2007 and January 27, 2009.

Colonial is an issuer of residential mortgages, commercial real estate loans and residential construction loans. Plaintiffs allege that Defendants violated securities laws by making false and misleading statements regarding, among other things, the credit quality of Colonial's loan portfolios, the Company's underwriting and loan origination practices, and its goodwill, loan loss reserves and other accounting provisions. Plaintiffs allege that, throughout the Class Period, Defendants represented to investors that it practiced conservative credit risk management that differentiated it from its peers, when, in reality, it pursued a high-risk, high-growth strategy that ultimately led to cascading loan losses and has brought the Company to the brink of bankruptcy. Plaintiffs also allege that Colonial originated so-called "subprime" residential mortgage loans to borrowers with low credit ratings, despite Defendants' repeated statements to the contrary.

Plaintiffs further allege that, when Colonial's deteriorating financial performance threatened to expose Defendants' deception, Defendants stated that the Company had been preliminarily approved for bailout funds from the U.S. Treasury Department's Troubled Asset Relief Program, omitting any mention of the material fact that receipt of those funds was conditioned on the Company raising $300 million in private equity -- a figure which, at the time, represented approximately double the Company's entire net worth. When Defendants' alleged fraud came to light, Colonial's stock price plummeted from a Class Period high of over $25 per share to less than $1 per share. Colonial bondholders suffered additional large losses.

The Consolidated Class Action Complaint is available here in pdf format.

April 14, 2009 Thomas, Means, Gillis & Seay's very own Kelvin W. Howard was a guest on ABC 33/40's Talk of Alabama program, discussing the importance of wills and estate planning.

April 14, 2009 Thomas, Means, Gillis & Seay's very own Fred Bolling represented the Firm at the Fox 6 Kids and Jobs Draft. This is our Firm's third year participating in this program for outstanding area high school students, giving them an opportunity to get hands on experience in the working world. Congratulations to Justin McCorvey of Jefferson County International Baccalaureate for being our 2009 selection!
Click on the Fox 6 Kids and Jobs logo for more information from www.myfoxal.com

April 14, 2009 Thomas, Means, Gillis & Seay's very own Afrika Parchman, who serves as attorney to the Birmingham School Board, is quoted extensively in this story from the Birmingham News regarding the School Board's investigation into more than $20,000 worth of merchandise and funds missing from Parker High School.

April 4, 2009 Thomas, Means, Gillis & Seay is proud to support The First Annual Magic City Black Expo. Visit our booth at The Magic City Black Expo on Saturday, April 4th, 2009 from 10 am to 7pm at the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex.

• Click here for more information on the Magic City Black Expo
• Click here for a list of the Distinguished Guest Speakers of The Magic City Black Expo, which includes our Distinguished Congressman and Candidate for Governor of Alabama, Artur Davis.

April 2, 2009 We are pleased to announce that on April 2, 2009, a Jefferson County, Alabama jury returned a $150,000 verdict in favor of our client and against Banks Transportation, a local charter bus company, in a case involving a collision on the interstate between two charter buses owned by the Defendant that were transporting a large group of school children and parent chaperones on a field trip to the Tennessee Aquarium. Our client, one of the parent chaperones, suffered a closed head injury as a result of the collision. Our investigation yielded evidence that the rear bus had a malfunctioning hydraulic braking system, which both bus drivers (one of whom was also the company owner) knew about at least hours before the collision occurred, as well as badly worn tires, which, in combination with the rear bus following too closely to the front bus, resulted in the collision. Congratulations to attorneys Jackie Smoke, Kelvin Howard, and Lewis Gillis and the excellent and dedicated support staff of our Firm for their outstanding trial work, and thanks to the fine jurors of Jefferson County for helping our client find justice!

March 3, 2009 We are pleased to report that on March 3, 2009, a courageous Montgomery County jury awarded our client, Sharon Jenkins and her husband, Harrison Jenkins, $3.5 million dollars in compensatory damages, arising out of an injury she received while an inpatient in Baptist Medical Center South of Montgomery, Alabama. Our firm was associated by William Gill, an outstanding lawyer in Montgomery, Alabama. The case was tried for five trial days. Attorneys Lewis Gillis and Gerald Brooks participated in the trial.
     The injury occurred on February 7, 2003, as the result of attempted blood draws by two medical technicians known as phlebotomists. Phlebotomists are medical technicians that are trained to draw blood so that various laboratory tests can be conducted. In this instance, two of the lab technicians that were employed and trained by Baptist breached the standard of care in drawing blood by gouging, probing and ultimately causing severe injury to Mrs. Jenkins' arm which is now virtually 100% impaired.
     She sustained a compartment injury to her arm and it took more than two years for the arm to "heal." She has substantial residual pain as a result of the injury and may in fact lose the arm in the future.
     Baptist failed to identify the phlebotomists who did the failed draws of blood. Further, they argued that her injury was a risk of blood draws, particularly because she was on a blood thinner medication.
     The jury saw through the defense and rendered its verdict against Baptist. Baptist has announced that it intends to appeal the verdict.
     We trust that she shall have a fair appellate review by the Alabama Supreme Court and justice will ultimately prevail.

February 11, 2009 Congratulations to attorney Kelvin W. Howard of our Birmingham Office for being elected Vice President of VOICES for Alabama's Children, a children's advocacy organization. Click on their logo to visit the website for VOICES and learn more about this fine organization.

February 5, 2009 Congratulations to Chorlette Davis, a paralegal in our Birmingham Office, for her election as a Board Member of the Alabama Association of Paralegals for 2009. Click on their logo to visit the website for the Alabama Association of Paralegals and learn more about this fine organization.

December 5, 2008 Congratulations to attorney Kelvin Howard for being elected to the Birmingham Bar Association Young Lawyer Section Executive Committee.