Phil Butler has practiced in the area of civil litigation since 1971. He has been lead chair in defending over 100 jury trials in the most difficult and challenging forums in the State of Alabama.
Phil's trial experience includes such areas as products liability, reinsurance disputes between insurance carriers, insurance fraud and bad faith, wrongful death actions, motor vehicle accidents, aviation crashes, pharmaceutical mass tort litigation, construction disputes and eminent domain.
In recent years, Phil has become heavily involved in the defense of pharmaceutical products liability actions, generally for medications which have been removed from the market. He serves as lead chair trial counsel for many of these cases and also serves on national expert witness committees for two major pharmaceutical companies.
For the past 20 years, much of Phil's practice has involved direct action, insurance fraud and bad faith actions. His work in these areas has been as lead counsel for both trials and appeals. Due to the popularity of interest-sensitive "vanishing premium" litigation and his experience in working with actuaries, Phil not only handles these cases as lead chair but often consults with other insurance defense counsel in the preparation of actuarial testimony and strategy for trials. Additionally, he has been involved in defense of pharmaceutical marketing and pricing litigation.
Listed in Mid-South Super Lawyers, Business Litigation, 2016-2019 Listed in Alabama Super Lawyers, Business Litigation, 2009-2015 Listed in Benchmark Litigation, "Local Litigation Star," Alabama, 2013-2021 Listed in The Best Lawyers in America® Bet-the-Company Litigation, 2010-2021 Commercial Litigation, 2006-2021 "Lawyer of the Year," Montgomery, Bet-the-Company Litigation, 2014 In re Colonial BancGroup, Inc. v. Branch Bank & Trust Company, 2:11 cv-00824, in the M. D. of Ala. Defense of BB&T in lawsuit filed against it by The Colonial BancGroup, Inc., a chapter 11 debtor, seeking to claw-back $300 million in assets of its former subsidiary, the Colonial Bank, which assets BB&T acquired from the FDIC-Receiver after Colonial Bank failed. BB&T also asserts a third-party claim against the FDIC for indemnification of the plaintiff’s claims. The pending case presents the novel issue of whether a bankrupt bank holding company can claw back assets of its failed bank subsidiary from assuming bank that acquires the assets from the FDIC-Receiver. Reglan/Metoclopramide Litigation for Pfizer Inc. (National Team) The firm serves on the national counsel team for Pfizer Inc in litigation over Reglan/Metoclopramide, which involves approximately 6,300 plaintiffs in various cases in venues across the country. There is no MDL, but there are coordinated proceedings in PA, CA, and NJ, and several single-plaintiff and mass-plaintiff actions pending in state and federal courts in other jurisdictions. In 2011, our firm had two key roles on the national team and will continue to serve as lead national counsel for legal strategy going forward. In 2011, Phil Butler of our firm had primary responsibility for identifying and working up experts (neurology, neuropharmacology, gastroenterology, epidemiology, neuro-ophthalmology, and regulatory) and deposing key treating physicians in cases nationwide. Also in 2011, and on a continuing basis, Kevin Newsom, is head of the national legal strategy team, with primary responsibility for setting legal strategy and drafting/coordinating all dispositive, Daubert/Frye, and pre-trial briefing in Reglan cases nationwide. In 2011 through present, Russ Morgan has served as lead counsel for seven Reglan cases filed by over 25 plaintiffs in United States District Court for the Western District of Tennessee.
