Paul Zimmerman can relate to his business owner clients. He’s run a business before and knows what it’s like to have every decision you make directly impact others and your ability to provide for your family. That’s why Paul appreciates the trust that clients place in Christian & Small, and approaches each engagement as a partnership between attorney and client because legal issues are also business issues.
Paul formerly taught paramedics. He says his days as an instructor help him talk to juries and people from all walks of life when he’s tried cases in both rural and metro Alabama courtrooms. It’s also helped him develop a better dialogue with firm clients. Paul believes that if he can educate clients about their situation, they will make better decisions, ask better questions, and hopefully, rest easier at night.
Paul serves on the firm’s technology committee.
REpresentative experience
- Extricated two shareholders from complicated disputes among the various shareholders of their two companies and with a third company by orchestrating his clients’ buyout by other shareholders.
- Defeated a former employee’s request for injunctive relief regarding customer lists and other requested relief.
- Obtained testimony that served as foundation for the Alabama Supreme Court’s holding that the plaintiff’s damages were speculative and that no evidence of a misappropriated trade secret was presented during a three-week trial. Obtained dismissal for client following reversal of the verdict.
- Part of firm team that represented a Louisiana company in nearly 100 products liability cases in seven states.
- Coordinated the defense of 17 fraud cases against a mortgage lender.
- Delivered oral argument before the Judicial Panel on Multi-District Litigation.
- Obtained a defense verdict for his client in a nuisance and trespass verdict following a two-week trial.
- Obtained an injunction against a client’s business partner preventing him from continuing to operate the business.
- Obtained an injunction prohibiting a client’s sub-contractor from operating a rival website.
- Obtained summary judgment for a smoke alarm manufacturer on products liability and breach of warranty claims in a notoriously plaintiff-friendly venue.
- Obtained a settlement for his client in an amount that was four times the limitation of liability in a contract between the parties.
REPORTED DECISIONS
- Systrends, Inc. v. Group 8760, LLC, 959 So. 2d 1052 (Ala. 2006) (obtaining, ultimately, a dismissal for his client after eliciting trial testimony that led to the reversal of one of the largest jury verdicts in the history of Jefferson County, Alabama).
- Phillips v. AmSouth Bank, 833 So. 2d 29 (Ala. 2002).
Professional and Community Involvement
- The Sedona Conference Working Group 1(Electronic Document Retention and Production): Member
- Birmingham ESI Roundtable: Speaker
- American Inns of Court: Member
- Alabama State Bar: Member
- Birmingham Bar Association: Computer and Technology Committee
- City of Helena, Alabama: Member, Design Review Board
- Helena Business and Professional Association: Former Director
- Our Lady of the Valley Catholic Church: Member and occasional trumpet player
Publications and presentations
- Speaker at The Huron Legal Institute’s: “2012 E-Discovery Briefing: How to Respond to Increasing Costs,” Atlanta, GA. (March 2012).
- Presenter at Attorneys Insurance Mutual of the South Fall 2011 CLE: “Five Ways to Prevent Common E-Discovery Mistakes.” (December 2011).
- Moderator for Birmingham Bar Association Panel Discussion: Electronic Discovery: A View From the Bench. (June 2011).
- Presenter at the Birmingham Electronically Stored Information (ESI) Roundtable, Deposing the Electronic Discovery Witness (March 2011).
- J. Paul Zimmerman & Courtney L. Saad, Outlook Social Connector: Blurring the Line between Professional and Personal, Stare Decisis: A Quarterly Publication of the Primerus Young Lawyers Section (Jan. 2011).
- A Primer on the New Electronic Discovery Provisions, 71 The Alabama Lawyer 3 (May 2010).