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 8th Chapter, entitled “Pretrial,” to the Defense Research Institute’s published book The Trial Compendium (2017).
Contributed to the 8th chapter, entitled Pretrial, of The Defense Research Institute’s (DRI) book “The Trial Compendium”
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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.
