Shareholder Ronna D. Kinsella joined the law firm of Glassman, Wyatt, Tuttle & Cox P.C. as an associate attorney in June of 2010. Prior to joining the Firm, Ronna worked for a local Memphis firm practicing primarily in the areas of products liability, catastrophic personal injury/wrongful death, and complex commercial litigation. She also previously worked with two other local firms handling cases in the areas of bankruptcy, family law, personal injury, and medical malpractice. Ronna currently enjoys a diverse practice, assisting individual and corporate clients in the areas of transportation law/trucking defense, products liability, professional malpractice defense, business litigation, personal injury/wrongful death, premises liability defense, entertainment law and appellate work. Although the majority of Ronna’s work is from the defense side of civil litigation matters, she regularly takes on a select number of cases on the plaintiff’s side as well. Her experience in such diverse practice areas and on both sides of litigation allows Ronna to provide her clients with a unique, multidisciplinary approach to the effective, efficient resolution of their disputes, regardless of the complexity or novelty of the issues they face.

Since graduating from the University of Richmond, T.C. Williams School of Law in 2005, Ronna has successfully represented clients at both the trial and appellate level throughout Arkansas, Mississippi and Tennessee in both state and federal courts. She has been selected as a Mid-South Super Lawyer Rising Star, limited to 2.5% of all Mid-South attorneys in practice 10 years or less or aged 40 or under, for each of the last six years, where she is considered one of the top rated transportation attorneys in the Memphis area.

A few of Ronna’s accomplishments include:

• In a wrongful death case against a globally recognized transportation services provider, briefed and argued a Motion to Show Cause requesting the dismissal of a plaintiff’s case for discovery abuse before a federal court in Arkansas. In that matter, Ronna successfully argued that an extensive failure to investigate and disclose pertinent information by the plaintiff and plaintiff’s counsel required dismissal of the plaintiff’s entire case under Rules 26(g) and 37 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure before the District Court. When the plaintiff appealed to the Eighth Circuit, Ronna again successfully briefed and argued the matter, resulting in the affirmation of the District Court’s dismissal of the action.
• In another wrongful death case, Ronna successfully briefed motions to exclude every one of a plaintiff’s non-specially retained experts for violations of Rule 26 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure before a District Court Magistrate. Later in the same matter, after deposing the plaintiff’s two specially retained experts, an economist and purported Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations (“FMCSR”) expert, Ronna prepared Daubert motions ultimately granted by the Court, excluding the testimony of both proposed expert.
• In a declaratory judgment action filed by an insurance company to determine the applicability of uninsured motorist coverage, Ronna successfully briefed and argued on appeal that the declaratory judgment action was barred by the doctrine of prior suit pending where the coverage issue was arguably raised in a previously filed lawsuit between the parties, resulting in a dismissal with prejudice.
• Along with Shareholder Robert A. Cox, Ronna represents a global telecommunications leader in a variety of litigation disputes including matters of personal injury litigation, automobile injury litigation, and property damage. Together, Ronna and Robert also represent a global shipping and logistics provider throughout the areas of Arkansas, Tennessee and Mississippi in catastrophic personal injury/wrongful death defense matters in both state and federal courts.
• Authored the 8^th Chapter, entitled “Pretrial,” to the Defense Research Institute’s published book The Trial Compendium (2017).

Practice Areas:

• Transportation Litigation
• Personal Injury and Wrongful Death (Plaintiff and Defense)
• Products Liability (Plaintiff and Defense)
• Appellate Practice (Plaintiff and Defense)
• Premises Liability (Plaintiff and Defense)
• Legal Malpractice Defense
• Professional Malpractice Defense
• Commercial and Business Litigation (Plaintiff and Defense)

Education:

• Samford University, cum laude (B.A. History, Honors Program 2002)
• University of Richmond, T.C. Williams School of Law (J.D., 2005)

Court Admissions:

• Tennessee Supreme Court (2005)
• Mississippi Supreme Court (2005)
• Arkansas Supreme Court (2015)
• United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit (2005)
• United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit (2013)
• United States Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit (2013)
• United States District Court for the Northern and Southern Districts of Mississippi (2005)
• United States District Court for the Western District of Tennessee (2006)
• United States District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee (2008)
• United States District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee (2009)
• United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas (2011)

Memberships/Board Appointments:

• Tennessee Bar Association
• Mississippi Bar Association
• Arkansas Bar Association
• Memphis Bar Association
• Tennessee Defense Lawyers Association
• Defense Research Institute (“DRI”)
  • Diversity and Inclusion Committee, 2020 Seminar & Expo, Sponsorship Chair
  • Diversity and Inclusion Committee, 2019 Seminar & Expo, Co-Marketing Chair
  • Diversity and Inclusion Committee, Seminar and Expo Planning Subcommittee (2017 – present)
  • Diversity and Inclusion Committee, Litigation Skills Committee Liaison (2020)
  • Commercial Law Litigation Committee, Pretrial Practice and Procedure Substantive Law Group, Membership Chair (2018)
  • Trucking Law Committee, Webinar Vice Chair (2018)
  • Professional Liability Committee, Publications Vice Chair (2016)
  • Professional Liability Committee, Publications Chair (2017)

Honors and Professional Achievements:

• Super Lawyer Rising Star – 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 & 2019 (Transportation Litigation, General Litigation)
• Order of the Barristers (2005)
• CALI Award for Corporate Finance, University of Richmond School of Law
• Former Member of the Moot Court Board, University of Richmond School of Law (2003-2005)
  • Intra-Scholastic Chair of the Moot Court Board (2004)
  • Second Place Overall Oralist Award Chicago Bar Association Moot Court Competition(2003)
• Former Member, Trial Advocacy Board/Virginia Trial Lawyers’ Association, Treasurer (2005)
• Former Law Clerk for the Henrico Commonwealth Attorneys’ Office (VA) (2005)

Representative Cases

• Comstock v. UPS Ground Freight, , 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 104887 (E.D. Ark. July 26, 2013)
• Comstock v. UPS Ground Freight, Inc., 775 F.3d 990 (8^th 2014)
• Farmers Ins. Exch. V. Shempert, 2014 Tenn. App. LEXIS 46 (Tenn. Ct. App. Feb. 3, 2014)
• PNC Multifamily Capital Institutional Fund XXVI Ltd. P’ship v. Bluff City Cmty. Dev. Corp., 387 S.W.3d 525 (Tenn. Ct. App. 2012)
• Pennington v. UPS Ground Freight, Inc., 2018 WL 1881258 (N.D. Miss. April 19, 2018)
• Pennington v. UPS Ground Freight, Inc., 2018 WL 1881541 (N.D. Miss. April 19, 2018)

Publications

• Contributed to the 8^th chapter, entitled Pretrial, of The Defense Research Institute’s (DRI) book “The Trial Compendium”

Personal

In addition to her practice, Ronna has served as a volunteer for local Wills for Heroes and free legal clinics in the area and presented a CLE to recently admitted attorneys on Ethics in Discovery. An avid dog lover, Ronna supports several animal rescue organizations in the Memphis and surrounding area. She is the proud “mom” of three rescue pups as well as a German Shepherd pup named Keegan she’s training to become a therapy dog.

Professional Badges