Doug Hanson is Of Counsel with the Firm.

Doug began his career clerking for former Attorney General Paul G. Summers, on the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals.  He then served as Judicial Law Clerk and Staff Attorney to Justice Janice M. Holder on the Tennessee Supreme Court. Mr. Hanson entered private practice in 1999 as an Associate of Glassman, Wyatt, Tuttle & Cox where he was primarily assigned to professional lines (E&O coverage) representing lawyers, law firms, hospitals, nurses, nursing homes, dentists, brokers and accountants.  Mr. Hanson’s trial experience ranged from a successful defense verdict in a construction case to victories in premises liability cases in both bench and jury trials.

In addition to his defense work, Mr. Hanson represented Plaintiffs in obtaining over $20 million in favorable settlements.

In 2006, Mr. Hanson was one of the first of a very few trial lawyers in Tennessee and in the country to successfully defend a nursing home in a jury trial wrongful death case by obtaining a defense verdict.  This successful defense verdict came after mediator Tracy Shaw advised Mr. Hanson and his nursing home client during mediation that it was impossible to bring this case in under $750,000 before a jury.  Contrary to the mediator’s assertions, the jury found in favor of the Defendants, Mr. Hanson’s clients, in less than 20 minutes.

Mr. Hanson also had extensive successful appellate experience, prior to moving to Florida in 2008, handling appeals in the 6th Circuit, 5th Circuit, Tennessee state appellate courts and once composed a Petition for Certiorari to the United State Supreme Court in 1994.

Mr. Hanson moved to Florida in 2008 where he worked as a trial and appellate lawyer with several highly respected nationally known trial lawyers including Brian Barr of Levin Papatonio and Rainey Booth of Michels & Booth and Littlepage Booth.  Mr. Booth served as co-lead of the Scientific Committee for the Hormone Replacement Therapy MDL litigation.  Mr. Hanson assisted Rainy Booth with multiple bellwether defective drug and hormone replacement therapy cases and appeals resulting in approximately $250 million in jury verdicts, all of which were affirmed on appeal.  Mr. Hanson, while serving as Of Counsel with Michels & Booth, filed one of the first BP oil spill cases, represented several hundred BP oil spill claimants and worked with Brian Barr who served as one of four lawyers on the steering/executive committee for the BP oil spill.  Mr. Hanson worked closely with a Florida politician during the BP Oil Spill crisis and provided numerous workshops on the BP oil spill administrative claim submission process across Florida in Orlando, Tampa, Destin, Fort Walton Beach and Pensacola.  Mr. Hanson also appeared on both local news channels and CNN regarding the process for filing BP oil spill administrative claims and regarding the process for filing legal claims.

Mr. Hanson moved to Nashville, Tennessee in 2012 and joined the law firm of King & Ballow.  At King & Ballow, Mr. Hanson specialized in entertainment law, complex commercial federal litigation, class action defense and collective action defense.  Mr. Hanson primarily represented large national corporations, truck companies, hotel chains, airlines and recording artists.  Mr. Hanson’s average case while at King in Ballow ranged from $20 million up to $450 million.  Mr. Hanson won issues of first impression in wage & hour collective/class actions including a grant of summary judgment in the Eastern District of New York involving time rounding, uniform maintenance fees and federal discrimination while defending an airline staffing agency with alleged exposure exceeding $100 million. At King & Ballow, Mr. Hanson also obtained multimillion dollar settlements and verdicts representing companies including:

• a large hotel chain involving over $100 million in property deeds filed in Middle District of Tennessee;
• a defense contractor resulting in a large 7 figure settlement during trial in the Middle District of Tennessee; and
• a verdict and injunction worth $18 million for a highly specialized refractory company in a 7-day trial in Eastern District of Tennessee.

In the Central District of California, Mr. Hanson was able to leverage Motions to Dismiss on novel FAAAA and extraterritorial application of California law arguments in California class/collective actions against various truck lines resulting in favorable settlements of less than $2 million in cases with over $28 million in exposure.  Mr. Hanson also assisted attorney Richard Booth in successfully obtaining a $7.62 million copyright jury verdict against Robin Thicke, Pharrell and TI for the Blurred Lines litigation in the Central District of California and a dismissal of claims against Madonna related to her song Vogue in the Southern District of New York.

Mr. Hanson’s trial experience ranges from medical malpractice and commercial litigation in Tennessee, Construction Defect cases in Mississippi to simple car wreck cases in Florida state courts. Mr. Hanson was offered in-house legal positions with a truck company and a hotel chain, but decided to move to and spend 4 years in Bali instead.  Mr. Hanson served as Director of his own company in Bali that owned, operated and managed nightclubs, restaurants and a bar in Bali.

Mr. Hanson has returned to work at Glassman, Wyatt, Tuttle & Cox, where his litigation career began, and now serves as Of Counsel.  He looks forward to trying many more cases.

Practice Areas:

• Legal Malpractice Defense
• Medical Malpractice Defense
• Accounting Malpractice Defense
• Broker Malpractice Defense
• Professional Board Complaints
• Aviation Litigation
• Nursing Home and Long Term Care Defense
• Copyright and Royalty Litigation
• Complex Federal Litigation
• Commercial Litigation
• Civil RICO Litigation
• Construction Litigation
• ERISA Litigation
• Products Liability
• Real Estate Litigation
• Business and Contract Dispute Litigation
• Tortious Interference of Business Litigation
• Procure of Breah Business Contract Claims
• Non-Compete Agreements and Duty of Loyalty Claims
• Trade Secrets and Unfair Competition Litigation
• State and Federal Appellate Court Practice
• Education Cases
• Insurance Coverage and Declaratory Judgment Litigation
• General Civil Litigation

Education:

• University of Memphis (B.A. Finance, Insurance and Risk Management 1992)
• University of Memphis (J.D. 1995)
• University of Memphis (M.B.A. Insurance and Risk Management 1997)

Honors:

• University of Memphis Law Review, Published
• Moot Court/Mock Trial Finalist

Court Admissions:

• Tennessee Supreme Court (1995)
• Western District of Tennessee (2001)
• 6th Circuit Court of Appeals (2003)
• 5th Circuit Court of Appeals (2003)
• North District of Florida (2009)
• Middle District of Tennessee (2012)

Publications:

• University of Memphis Law Review – Nobleman v. American Savings Bank:  Permissibility of Bifurcating and Modifying Homestead Mortgages

Seminars:

• Ethical Considerations Regarding Intra-Firm Conflict of Interests and Representing Potential Witnesses to Pending Litigation – Nashville CLE
• BP Oil Spill Administrative Claims Process – How to File Claims and Document Damages – Seminars in Orlando, Tampa/St. Petersburg, Destin, Ft. Walton Beach, Crestview and Pensacola

Exemplar Cases

• Jones v. Methodist Healthcare, 83 S.W.3d 739 (Tenn. Ct. App. 2001) (Won Appeal Defending Hospital Administering Transfusion Ultimately Resulting in HIV Infection to Patient/Plaintiff)
• Jones v. Metro Elevator Cp., 2001 WL 1683782 (Tenn. Ct. App., 2001) (Affirmed Jury Verdict Victory Defending Elevator Repair Company in Case Where Patron Fell Down an Elevator Shaft)
• Weiss v. State Farm Fire & Ca. Co., 107 S.W.3d 503 (Tenn. Ct. App. 2001) (Brief and Argued Issues of First Impression Regarding Unique Coverage Questions in a $1,000,000 Coverage Claim Issue)
• Union Planters Nat. Bank v. American Home Assurance Co., 2002 WL 1308344 (Tenn. Ct. App., March 18, 2002) (Brief and Argued Complete Hull Loss and Coverage Issues Involving Airplane, Affirmed in Part and Reversed in Part).
• Childress v. Union Realty Co., 97 S.W.3d 573 (Tenn. Ct. App. 2002) (Landlord Tennant Dispute and Briefed and Argued Procedural Defects Following Jury Verdict Awarding In Excess of $100,000)
• Tyson v. Equity Title Co., 282 F.Supp. 829 (2003) (Successfully Defended seven (7) Defendants in a Real Estate Broker Class Action Involving Predatory Lending Practices)
• Patel v. Bayliff, 121 S.W.3d 347 (Tenn. Ct. App. 2003) (Successfully Obtained Reversal of Trial Court’s Ruling While Representing Dr. Patel n a Million Dollar Home Purchase Dispute)
• Rains v. Bend of the River, 124 S.W3d 580 (Tenn. Ct. App. 2003) (Successful in Representing Tennessee Defense Lawyer’s Association’s Position in an Amicus Curiae Brief and Argument Regarding the Sale of Ammunition Sold to an 18 Year Old Who Shot and Killed Himself)
• Shoemake v. Omniquip Intern., Inc., 152 S.W.3d 567 (Tenn. Ct. App. 2003) (Successfully Briefed and Argued Product Liability Claim and Obtained Summary Judgment in Favor of Client that Manufactured the Product Leading to Plaintiff’s Death)
• Tyson v. Equity Title & Escrow Co. of Memphis, LLC, 282 F.Supp. 820 (W.D. Tenn. 2003) (Successfully Defended Rea; Estate Brokers and Agents in Predatory Lending Practice Case)
• Dubois v. Dr. Haykal et al., 165 S.W.3d 634 (Tenn. Ct. App. 2004) (Represented Pharmacies and Successfully Struck Plaintiff’s Expert in a Daubert Hearing, Court of Appeals Reversed Leading to Winning Case by Obtaining a Jury Verdict in Favor of Client Defendant Pharmacies)
• Childress v. Union Realty Co., 2005 WL 711960 (Tenn. Ct. App., March 28, 2005) (Briefed and Argued Jury Verdict Issues Before Court of Appeals on Appellate Review Procedural Grounds)
• Marlin & Edmondson, P.C., v. National Union Fire Ins. Of Pitts., Pa., 2005 WL 35008011 (Tenn. Ct. App., December 22, 2005) (Successfully Reversed Trial Court’s Ruling Against Client Insurance Company and Had Court of Appeals Grant Verdict in Favor of Client Insruance Company on an Accounting Malpractice Coverage Issue)
• Time and Security Mgmt v. Pittway Corp., 422 F.Supp.2d 907 (W.D. Tenn. 2006) (Successfully Represented Large Construction Company in a Product Liability Case).
• Bragg v. U.S., 810 F.Supp.2d 1307 (N.D. Fla. 2011) (Successfully Represented a Claimant in a Medical Malpractice Case Covered by the Federal Tort Claims Act).
• Wyndham Vacation resorts, Inc. v. Wesley Finn Group, LLC, 2013 WL 785938 (M.D. Tenn., February 28, 2013) (Successfully Represented Wyndham in A Case with Approximately $18,000,000 in Damages per Year and Obtained Large Favorable Confidential Settlement 2 Days Before Trial)
• Wyndham v. VP Transfers, LLC, 2013 WL 450954 (M.D. Tenn., August 27, 2013) (Successfully Obtained Summary Judgment in a Civil Rico Case Against Defendants)
• Byer v. Neslon, 2013 WL 11983776 (W.D. Tenn., April 5 2013) (Successfully Obtained Large Favorable Settlement in a Business Dispute Case Representing Byer and Time and Security Management).
• Wyndham v. Property Relief, LLC, et al. 3:13-cv-00434 (M.D. Tenn., Nov. 6, 2015) (Successfully Represented Wyndham in Obtaining Confidential Settlement in Case Involving Estimated $100,000,000 in Damages/Properties)
• Yoder v. Western Express, 181 F.Supp. 704 (C.D. Calif. 2015) (Leveraged Novel Arguments on FAAA and Against Extraterritorial Reach of California Laws to Obtained Court Approval of Low $1,780,000 Settlement in Wage & Hour Class/Collective Action with over $28,000,000 in Hard Damages, $56,000,000 in Liquidated Damages and Several Hundred Thousand Dollars in Attorney’s Fees)
• Wyndham Vacation Resorts v. The Consultant Group, 2015 WL 4459369, (M.D. Tenn., July 21, 2015) (Successfully Represented Wyndham in Obtaining Injunctions Against Companies Causing Several Million in Damages Per Year in Business Dispute and Non-Compete Cases)
• S. Sperry v. Shopman et al., 304 F.Supp.3d 694 (E.D. 2018) (Obtained Injunction and Favorable Verdict in 7-Day Trail in Federal Court with Verdict/Injunction Value of $18,000,000 to Client Represented).
• Diamond Resorts v. Phillips, 2018 WL 3326443 (M.D. Tenn., January 24, 2018) (Successfully Obtained Large Favorable Confidential Settlements Representing Wyndham in Business Dispute Litigation).
• Marvin Gaye Estate v. Thicke et al., (C.D. Calif. July 2015) (affirmed by 9th Circuit 2018) (Assisted Richard Busch in Obtaining Largest Copyright Verdict Ever, $7,620,000 , in a Jury Trial Against Robin Thicke, Pharrell and TI (Clifford Harris)).
• Boone v. Primeflight, 2018 WL 1189338 (E.D. NY February 20, 2018) (Successfully Defended Airline Staffing Client in Wage & Hour Class/Collective Action with Over $100,000,000 in Exposure, Eastern District of New York Granted Summary Judgment to Client on Issues of First Impression)
• Lack v. Saint Thomas Rutherford Hosp., 2019 WL 2880978 (Tenn. Ct. App., July 3, 2019) (Successfully Briefed and Argued Novel Premises Liability Arguments and Obtained Reversal of Trial Court Grant of Summary Judgment Against Client Resulting in Favorable Settlement)

Personal

Doug Hanson has 3 daughters aged 31, 30 and 14 and married to Alena.  He was an avid auto racer competing in GT3 Cup, Formula Mazda, Formula Atlantic and is a Nationally Certified Racing and Driving Instructor for Porsche, Skip Barber, BMW CCA, Audi Club, SCCA, PBOC Racing and Chin Motorsports.  He formerly competed at Wakeboarding, Snow Boarding and Surfing, but has recently slowed his pace and focuses on playing guitar and spending his free time with his daughters.