Litigation
A combination of focused knowledge and extensive experience offers our clients a distinct advantage when facing disputes in both state and federal courts. Attorneys at Waldrep Wall Babcock & Bailey PLLC have broad litigation experience in both state and federal courts within North Carolina and across the country.
Dennis Bailey has over 30 years of litigation experience in both trial and appellate courts, including business and banking disputes, premises liability claims, and serious personal injury and medical malpractice claims. He also represents health care professionals in licensing board matters.
Kelly Cameron has over 25 years of experience in protecting his clients’ most valuable assets and resolving their most challenging issues. Kelly represents local, regional, and international companies ranging in size from start-ups to publicly traded, Fortune 100® firms defending and resolving complex, multi-party commercial matters, regulated investment advisor and broker litigation, and contract disputes.
Joe Carruthers has over 40 years of litigation experience covering a broad range of matters including medical malpractice defense, wrongful death, serious personal injury, business disputes, and products liability. He handles litigation cases through trial and appellate review.
Chris Haaf has more than 15 years of experience representing individuals and businesses of all sizes in complex disputes involving health care, real estate, trade secrets, employment, and a wide-variety of other issues. Chris has also briefed and argued appeals in appellate courts across the country, including several federal courts of appeals, the North Carolina Court of Appeals, and the Ohio Supreme Court. Early in his legal career, Chris served for eighteen months as a judicial law clerk to the Honorable Dolores K. Sloviter on the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in Philadelphia.
Jack O’Neal is a litigator with five years of experience including a significant amount of time arguing motions and other matters in the courtroom. Since joining Waldrep Wall, Jack has become an indispensable part of our litigation team, taking on leadership roles in complex e-discovery and case management. Prior to joining Waldrep Wall, Jack was an associate at a law firm in Roanoke, Virginia where he represented insurance companies and their insureds in Virginia state courts.
Appellate
Waldrep Wall’s Appellate team has deep experience handling appeals in both state and federal courts. Our team includes a former federal judge along with former federal law clerks. Waldrep Wall attorneys have briefed and argued appeals in the North Carolina Court of Appeals and the North Carolina Supreme Court, as well as the United States Courts of Appeals for the Second, Fourth, Sixth, Ninth, and Federal Circuits and have briefed appeals in all but the First and Seventh Circuits. With our firm’s wide range and depth of bankruptcy experience, we feel at home taking the lead on bankruptcy appeals in federal district court or before the five bankruptcy appellate panels.
The team represents appellate clients across a wide range of industries in cases raising a variety of substantive and procedural issues. We are frequently engaged to draft appellate briefs and conduct oral argument, taking the lead on the appeal after an appealable decision has been made in the trial court. We are also well-versed in appellate motions practice. Our Appellate team offers comprehensive support, whether defending favorable rulings or seeking to overturn trial court errors.
Our involvement in a case often begins at the trial level, working with trial counsel to develop an effective appellate strategy and ensuring that all potential appellate issues are properly preserved for appeal. The potential for appellate waiver is significant throughout litigation but particularly acute at trial. In addition to error preservation, we partner with trial counsel to build a favorable record for appeal and to anticipate the litigation and trial tactics of our opponents.
The Litigation Team
Dennis Bailey, Kelly Cameron, Joe Carruthers, Chris Haaf, and Jack O'Neal
