Thirteen Ogletree Deakins Attorneys Named Lawyer of the Year

ATLANTA – August 15, 2016 – Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart, P.C. (Ogletree Deakins), one of the largest labor and employment law firms representing management, is pleased to announce that 13 of the firm’s attorneys have been named as a Best Lawyers^® 2017 “Lawyer of the Year.” Best Lawyers^® awards this honor to a single lawyer in each practice area and designated metropolitan area. These lawyers were selected based on particularly impressive voting averages received during the peer-review assessments.

The Best Lawyers^® 2017 “Lawyers of the Year” include:

• James C. Pennington – 2017 Birmingham Education Law “Lawyer of the Year”
• Leigh Mullikin Nason – 2017 Columbia-SC Employment Law – Management “Lawyer of the Year”
• Mark E. Schmidtke – 2017 Chicago Litigation – ERISA “Lawyer of the Year”
• Thomas M. Christina – 2017 Greenville Litigation – ERISA “Lawyer of the Year”
• L. Gray Geddie, Jr. – 2017 Greenville Labor Law – Management “Lawyer of the Year”
• R. Allison Phinney – 2017 Greenville Employment Law – Management “Lawyer of the Year”
• Timothy W. Lindsay – 2017 Jackson Employment Law – Management “Lawyer of the Year”
• Bernard J. Bobber – 2017 Milwaukee Employment Law – Management “Lawyer of the Year”
• Kevin J. Kinney – 2017 Milwaukee Labor Law – Management “Lawyer of the Year”
• Peter O. Hughes – 2017 Newark Labor Law – Management “Lawyer of the Year”
• Richard C. Mariani – 2017 Newark Litigation – Labor and Employment “Lawyer of the Year”
• Joseph T. Clees – 2017 Phoenix Labor Law – Management “Lawyer of the Year”
• C. Matthew Keen – 2017 Raleigh Labor Law – Management “Lawyer of the Year”

Ogletree Deakins also announced today that 195 of the firm’s attorneys were named to The Best Lawyers in America^® 2017. The 2017 list was compiled based on an exhaustive peer-review survey that examines the professional abilities of lawyers by other lawyers.

About Ogletree Deakins
Ogletree Deakins is one of the largest labor and employment law firms representing management in all types of employment-related legal matters. Premier client service, as outlined in the firm’s Client Pledge, is one of the firm’s top priorities and a cornerstone of its core values. U.S. News – Best Lawyers^® “Best Law Firms” has named Ogletree Deakins a “Law Firm of the Year” for five consecutive years. In 2016, the publication named Ogletree Deakins its “Law Firm of the Year” in the Employment Law – Management category. Ogletree Deakins has more than 750 attorneys located in 49 offices across the United States and in Europe, Canada, and Mexico. The firm represents a diverse range of clients, from small businesses to Fortune 50 companies.