Jack Williams joined Powell Goldstein LLP last year as a partner in the Tort Litigation & Environmental Practice Group and the Special Matters and Investigations Group.

From 2000 - 2006, Jack was a partner at King & Spalding LLP. His practice focused on complex litigation, including class actions, products liability, personal injury and mass tort litigation, internal corporate investigations, and trial practice. Among other things, Jack served as trial counsel for one of the defendants, Brown & Williamson Tobacco Company, in the multi-billion dollar Louisiana medical monitoring class action, Scott, et al. v. The American Tobacco Company, Inc., et al. The trial lasted nearly three years from 2001 to 2004, and an appeal of the only claim won by plaintiffs is ongoing. Plaintiffs sought a $10 billion medical monitoring fund to cover a wide variety of diagnostic tests for cancer, heart disease, and respiratory ailments. In a sweeping victory on the medical monitoring claim, the jury found in defendants' favor on every medical test sought by plaintiffs. Defendants also won a defense verdict on each of plaintiffs' claims for product defect, with the jury finding that cigarettes were not a defective product. Jack also represented other firm clients, including an Atlanta bank that was defrauded of several million dollars via a complex factoring scheme, a former insulation contractor embroiled in asbestos litigation, and he served as trial counsel to Americasmart Real Estate, L.L.C. in a Superior Court of Fulton County trial in which the jury returned a verdict on Americasmart's behalf. Jack also defended a multi-national pharmaceutical company in personal injury litigation involving one of the world's best-selling prescription medications.

From 1995 to 2000, Jack was an Assistant United States Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia, primarily prosecuting business crime. Jack served as the government's lead trial counsel or co-counsel in a number of cases in which convictions were obtained on behalf of the United States, including a case in which a securities dealer defrauded 45 investors out of over $3.5 million in a 4-year Ponzi scheme; a case in which a mortgage company owner defrauded a local bank out of over $1.2 million in an extensive check-kiting scheme, and a case in which, after a month-long jury trial, a criminal defense lawyer was convicted on corruption charges. Jack successfully defended before the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit several convictions he obtained on behalf of the United States. Jack has extensive experience in grand jury practice and he was awarded a Certificate of Appreciation from the United States Secret Service for his successful investigation and prosecution of a large bank fraud and money laundering conspiracy operating throughout the southeast United States.

Jack began his legal career at King & Spalding after graduating from the University of Michigan Law School in 1989. He was a member of the Products Liability Practice Group primarily representing General Motors and other firm clients in various product liability suits. He served as trial counsel in Taylor v. General Motors Corporation, in which General Motors obtained a defense verdict after an eight-day jury trial in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia. On behalf of another firm client, Jack successfully defended before the Georgia Supreme Court the case Love v. Whirlpool, et al. 264 Ga. 701, 449 S.E.2d 602 (1994), in which the Court upheld the constitutionality of Georgia's Statute of Repose. Jack was also involved in the firm's internal corporate investigations practice.

Jack has served as an adjunct faculty member at Emory Law School and has been a seminar speaker on class actions, trial practice, and various issues relating to e-discovery, white collar crime and internal corporate investigations.

In 2003, Governor Perdue appointed Jack to a seat on the five-member State Ethics Commission, which enforces Georgia's campaign finance disclosure and reporting requirements under the Ethics in Government Act. Jack served on the Commission until January 2007 and is its immediate past Chair.

Jack is a Fellow in Litigation Counsel of America, a trial lawyer honorary society. Membership is limited, representing less than one-half of 1% of American lawyers, and is by invitation only. Fellows are selected and invited into Fellowship after being evaluated on effectiveness and accomplishment in litigation and trial work, along with ethical reputation. Jack was selected as a 2006, 2007 and 2008 Georgia Super Lawyer and he is a member of Leadership Georgia, Class of 2004.

Before attending law school, Jack earned an M.B.A. from Cleveland State University, and he played professional football for seven years, with the then St. Louis Cardinals of the NFL and the Ottawa RoughRiders and Edmonton Eskimos of the CFL.