Butler Prather Adds New Partner and New Associate
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, October 23, 2023
Contact: James E. Butler, Jr. jim@butlerprather.com; Ramsey Prather ramsey@butlerprather.com; Archie Grubb archie@butlerprather.com – all at 800-242-2962.
Jim Butler and Ramsey Prather announce that their firm has today added a new partner, Archie Grubb of Columbus. Mr. Grubb has practiced law for 20 years and was formerly a partner at the Beasley Allen firm. He is a graduate of the University of Alabama, undergraduate and law school. He has handled all kinds of cases, from wrecks to class actions and False Claims Act cases. Mr. Grubb lives in Columbus with his wife Mary Lynn (the daughter of long-time Columbus lawyer Houser Pugh) and three children.
The Firm also announces the addition of another lawyer, Allison Brennan Bailey, of Atlanta. Ms. Bailey is a summa cum laude graduate of the University of Georgia and a summa cum laude graduate of Emory University School of Law. Ms. Bailey lives in Atlanta.
Mr. Grubb and Ms. Bailey join Butler and Prather and lawyers Daniel Philyaw and Caroline Walker Schley and a staff that includes two senior paralegals with over 30 years experience with the Firm and a Chief Investigator who has been with the Firm 25 years.
Butler Prather has offices in Atlanta, Columbus, and Savannah Georgia, and a nation-wide law practice, having represented clients in cases in 33 states and in most of Georgia’s 159 counties.
“We are very pleased to have Archie and Allison join our great Team,” said name partner Ramsey Prather. “We’ve got Team members here who have been with Jim and this Firm for 35 years, 34 years, 32 years, 32 years, 25 years, and 13 years and we’re very proud of that because longevity and experience really make a difference for the Firm’s clients,” Prather added.
Butler said “Archie and Allison add tremendous talent to the great Team we have here at our Firm.”
In 2022 and 2023 the Firm has won verdicts of $127 million, $1.724 Billion, and $135 million, in addition to multiple settlements of serious personal injury and wrongful death cases in the seven- and eight-figure range, including several where insurers paid policy limits upon demand, and one in which the insurer paid Butler Prather five times the policy limits. The Firm is currently handling cases literally on both coasts of the United States.
Butler has practiced law for 46 years, having graduated from the University of Georgia School of Journalism and the University of Georgia School of Law, cum laude. It is believed he has won, as lead counsel, more verdicts over $100 million than any lawyer in American history, and more verdicts over $100,000 than any lawyer in Georgia history – other than Billy E. Moore, now deceased and formerly of Columbus, who was one of Butler’s mentors. Jim divides his time between Savannah, where he lives with his wife Kim Cofer Butler (a defense lawyer at the Ellis Painter law firm) and daughter, and Atlanta, where his first three children and seven grandchildren live, and Columbus, where he lived for 44 years.
Prather is a magna cum laude graduate of New York University and a magna cum laude graduate of Tulane Law School, where he was Editor-in-Chief of the Law Review. Prather formerly practiced law at King & Spalding before joining the Firm in 2016. Like Butler, Prather was formerly a practicing journalist. Prather handles all kinds of cases, including serious injury and wrongful death cases including cases involving tractor trailer wrecks and defective auto products; false claims act cases for whistleblowers; and business torts. After law school Prather clerked for a Federal appeals court judge on the Eleventh Circuit and for a Federal district court judge. Ramsey lives in Columbus with his wife Shannon and two sons.
Dan Philyaw is a magna cum laude graduate of the University of Missouri and a cum laude graduate of the University of Georgia School of Law, where he was Best Oralist at both the National Moot Court competition and the Georgia Intrastate Moot Court competition. Dan joined the Firm in 2020. He is spending much of his time on products liability cases.
Caroline Walker Schley is a cum laude graduate of the University of Georgia and a cum laude graduate of the Mercer University School of Law, where she was Managing Editor of the Law Review. Caroline joined the Firm in 2021. She has handled all kinds of cases since joining the Firm, from wreck cases to fiduciary duty cases and nuisance/trespass cases.
Allison Brennan Bailey started her career at Eversheds Sutherland. She joined the Firm in June 2023. Her father is a plaintiffs’ lawyer in Atlanta; her middle name is in honor of former Supreme Court Justice William Brennan. At Emory Law School, Allison graduated #5 in her class, won the closing argument competition, and was awarded top litigator from her year in Emory’s trial techniques program and top appellate oralist from her year in Emory’s legal writing program. After graduation she clerked for a federal district judge in Virginia.