Richard H. Sinkfield

Overview

Richard H. Sinkfield, a partner with Rogers & Hardin LLP, has practiced law since 1971. His primary area of specialization is trial and appellate advocacy in complex business litigation, including substantial securities, business torts, and director, officer and professional liability litigation. Richard has been listed for over ten years in The Best Lawyers of America, has regularly been recognized as a Georgia “Super Lawyer” and is considered as among a handful of the very best trial attorneys in Georgia. He also enjoys a preeminent national reputation for his work defending corporate clients in “bet the company” cases. A recent Chambers USA describes Richard Sinkfield as “[t]he quintessential trial lawyer,” and continues, “Sinkfield has built his reputation on a ‘magnificent courtroom presence’ that opponents concede has left them with ‘a lot of scar tissue’”. Richard is a Fellow of both the American College of Trial Lawyers and the International Academy of Trial Lawyers, a member of the International Association of Defense Counsel, and he has served on the American Bar Association’s Special Commission on Evaluation of Professional Standards. He is also a trustee of Vanderbilt University.

Representative Experience

• Representation of the defendants before the Georgia Supreme Court in Holmes v. Grubman, a case in which the Second Circuit had certified substantial questions of Georgia fraud and securities law to the Georgia court, including loss causation. Richard argued the case successfully for the defendants.
• Representation of retired educators and state employees and their beneficiaries against Georgia state retirement systems in multiple class actions arising from the retirement systems’ use of improper mortality tables.
• Representation of national privately owned nursing homes in five civil lawsuits arising out of tort claims for alleged improper care of patients and seeking, among other relief, to pierce the corporate veil and impose liability on individual shareholder.
• Representation of a pharmaceutical company in a number of "fen-phen" diet drug cases in Georgia, including the first such trial in Georgia to a jury verdict (for the defense). These cases involved thousands of plaintiffs nationwide. Many were consolidated for certain discovery purposes but were remanded for individual trials. The jury returned a verdict in favor of the defendant pharmaceutical company and against the plaintiff’s claim of alleged heart injury.
• Representation of a public hospital authority in defense of claims seeking substantial recoveries for alleged breach of executive employment agreements.
• Successfully argued in the Georgia Court of Appeals for reversal of class certification in Rollins, Inc. v. Warren, where the trial had certified a consumer class action against a pest control company.
• Successfully argued in the Georgia Supreme Court on behalf of Georgia Attorney General Thurbert Baker in a suit brought by the Governor seeking to compel the Attorney General to dismiss an appeal pending in the United States Supreme Court.
• Representation of an investment consulting firm and individual defendants in an ERISA breach of fiduciary duty action in which plaintiffs initially sought over $160,000,000.00. Obtained partial summary judgment and successfully tried remaining issues in bench trial to a fully favorable result.
• Representation of former owner of a non-profit hospital facility in an action alleging that a large public corporation owning numerous hospitals breached a contract to purchase the facility.
• Representation of a credit insurer in defense of a class action on behalf of former policyholders seeking premium refunds.
• Successfully defended companies and individuals in federal district court and the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals in connection with federal securities claims arising out of a buy/sell agreement. Successfully defended the grant of summary judgment on appeal to the Eleventh Circuit and obtained reversal of the district court’s denial of the defendants’ motion for attorneys’ fees.

Professional & Community Activities

• American College of Trial Lawyers - Fellow
• International Academy of Trial Lawyers - Fellow
• International Association of Defense Counsel
• State Bar of Georgia
• American Bar Association
• National Bar Association
• Gate City Bar Association
• Weyerhaeuser Company – Director since 1993
• Chairman, Corporate Governance Committee
• Vanderbilt University Board of Trust – Member since 1984
• Georgia Appleseed Center for Law and Justice – Board member
• Member, Executive Board of the Atlanta Area Council of Boy Scouts of America

Previous Activities:

• Central Parking Corporation – Member of Board of Directors from 2000-2005
• Director, United Auto Group, Inc., from 1993-1999; Executive Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer of UAG from July, 1997-March, 1999
• Counsel to the Board of Ethics for the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games, 1991-1997
• ABA Special Commission on Evaluation of Professional Standards, which drafted the current ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct, 1977-1983
• ABA Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility, 1983-1989
• Special Liaison to ABA Standing Committee on Professional Discipline and Lawyers’ Responsibility for Client Protection, 1989-1992
• Member, Board of Governors, State Bar of Georgia, 1988-98
• Member, Board to Determine Fitness of Bar Applicants, State Bar of Georgia, 1977-1985
• Member, Board of Directors, American Judicature Society, 1977-1982
• Member, Board of Directors, Federal Defender Program, Inc., Northern District of Georgia, 1977-1984
• Adjunct Professor, Litigation and Trial Practice, Emory University School of Law, 1973-1976
• Lecturer in Law, Litigation under the Federal Securities Laws, Vanderbilt University School of Law, 1977-1980

Also served on the boards of the following local civic foundations and associations:

• Atlanta College of Art
• Exodus, Inc.
• Families First
• Research Atlanta
• Zoo Atlanta
• Georgia Health Decisions
• Atlanta Urban League
• Metropolitan Atlanta Community Foundation
• Leadership Atlanta

Speeches & Presentations

• Atlanta Bar Association, served on panel on Lincoln on Professionalism (February 2010)
• Speech in connection with receiving the Learned Hand Award from the Atlanta Chapter of the American Jewish Committee (September 2009)
• Boardroom Diversity Symposium, served on panel to assist company management to better understand the return on investment of a diverse board (May 2009)
• American College of Trial Lawyers, participant in debate on “The Cooperstown Conundrum” regarding whether the use of performance enhancers should bar players from baseball’s Hall of Fame (March 2008)

Professional Recognition

• Best Lawyers in America – listed for more than 10 years
• Georgia Super Lawyers – listed in the top 100 lawyers in Georgia from 2004 through 2011
• Chambers USA, America’s Leading Lawyers for Business, the Client’s Guide -- listed from 2003 through 2011
• 2009 Recipient of the Learned Hand Award from the Atlanta Chapter of the American Jewish Committee
• 1995 Recipient of the Vanderbilt School of Law’s Distinguished Alumnus Award