Alan F. Herman
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Alan F. Herman is a Senior Partner with Hawkins Parnell Thackston & Young LLP. Alan is an experienced trial lawyer who strives to provide personal attention to each of his clients. He specializes in tort litigation with an emphasis on the defense of medical professionals, product manufacturer and sellers in product liability litigation, transportation clients, owners and operators of premises, construction litigation, legal malpractice, insurance related matters to include bad faith cases and other general negligence litigation in both state and federal courts.
Alan believes in being personally available to his clients for depositions and other interactions when it is convenient for them, whether that is at 7:00 a.m. or 6:00 p.m. When clients need Alan due to accidents in the middle of the night or problems that urgently arise, they know they can count on him to be available and to hold each matter entrusted to him as highly important because it is to each of his clients.
Alan is personally committed to his trade and aggressively defends his clients in a respectful, well-prepared manner. Alan’s forthrightness and integrity have earned him the esteem of his peers, including judges, opposing counsel, and jurors.
Professional Experience
Professional Medical Litigation
Alan has successfully defended medically related lawsuits of every kind, including medical issues involving almost every portion of the anatomy, from head to toe, over the majority of his 38-year career. Representative matters include:
- Defense of brain damage claims
- Defense of obstetrical claims, and alleged wrongful deaths of mothers and children
- Defense of healthcare providers in wrongful death and injury claims arising out of quadriplegia and paraplegia, anesthesia injuries, aneurysms, neurological compromises, closed head injuries, fractures of all types, ophthalmological injuries, surgical injuries, radiological claims, chiropractic and podiatric care, emergency care, paramedic claims, and claims involving men’s health
- Defense of psychiatrists in cases involving suicide, the use or alleged misuse of psychiatric medications, and border violations
Products Liability Litigation
Alan has served as national counsel for over 20 years for a component manufacturer of recreational vehicle products, which has made him knowledgeable on all aspects of recreational vehicles and their appliances, including furnaces, water heaters and ranges. Alan’s experience in these cases has involved his participation throughout the United States in product-related inspections and lawsuits in cases involving fires, explosions, exposure to carbon monoxide, propane gas and natural gas related cases, and other product-related claims.
Alan has defended claims on a national basis relating to personal care communicators designed to alert a call center in the event of emergency to elderly or disabled residents.
Other representative matters include:
- Defense of various manufacturers of lawn and garden equipment including, but not limited to, lawn tractors and chipper shredders in fires, cases involving injured extremities to adults and children, and other product-related actions
- Defense of consumer products, including washers, dryers, vacuum cleaners, baby baths, exercise equipment, bicycles, trailers, and power tools in claims involving personal injury and wrongful death
- Defense of manufacturers of industrial equipment, including punch presses and other heavy equipment
Defense of Trucking Companies
- Defense of national trucking companies in claims of personal injury, wrongful death, and property damage involving the companies themselves, their drivers, and insurers, including claims of negligent hiring and retention and multiple accident situations where negligent driving, poor weather conditions, visibility or products claims are at issue.
Premises Liability Claims
Alan has represented retailers and landowners in slip and fall cases, injuries due to alleged negligent security, alleged false arrests and imprisonments as well as claims relating to assaults and batteries.
Construction-related Litigation
Legal Malpractice
- Defense of attorneys in professional legal actions arising out of underlying litigation and also real estate transactions.
- Insurance-related litigation to include bad faith cases.
General Liability
Professional affiliations
- American Bar Association
- Atlanta Bar Association
- Defense Research Institute
- Federation of Defense and Corporate Counsel (FDCC)
- Georgia Defense Lawyers Association
- Georgia Society of Hospital Risk Managers
- Propane Gas Defense Association
- State Bar of Georgia
- Trucking Insurance Defense Association
Honors
- Listed, Best Lawyers in America, Personal Injury, (2003 - Present)
- Georgia Super Lawyer, Super Lawyer Magazine (2004 - present)
- Georgia Super Lawyer, Super Lawyers Magazine, Business Edition (2011)
- Listed, Georgia's Best Lawyers, Personal Injury, (2011)
- Listed, Best Lawyers in America, Personal Injury Litigation - Defendants (2012)
Presentations
“Mediation,” Defense Research Institute Damages Seminar, Las Vegas, Nevada
“Mediation,” American Law Firms Association Seminar, New Orleans, Louisiana
“Navigating the Legal System,” Recreational Vehicle Industry Association, South Bend, Indiana
“Navigating the Legal System,” HMK Watermill Ventures, Nashville, Tennessee
Trials
- Miller v. WestPoint Home, Inc.
- Allstate v. Electrolux
- Bartlett v. Luis
- Brown v. Costco
- Chapman v. Sears
- Clark v. Sutton
- Cundiff v. Lifeline Systems, Inc.
- DeMott v. General Manufactured Housing, et al.
- Donaldson v. Mann
- Harris v. Leader
- Koskoff v. Flow-Tron, Armatron International
- McCoy v. SAIA Motor Freight Line, Inc., et al.
- McGrail v. Rouse
- Mobley v. St. Mary's Hospital
- Murphy v. Symbas
- Newby v. Waddell v. Hennessy Cadillac
- Parham v. Blake
- Partain v. Soundappan
- Poe v. Kadum, et al.
- Prelusion v. MGI
- Ritter v. New Plan Realty, Inc.
- Skinner v. East Manufacturing Corp., et al.
- Sroka v. Suburban Manufacturing
- Stanley v. First Coast Intermodal
- Von Gal v. Suburban Manufacturing, et al.
- Ward v. Workcare Medical Group, et al.
- Wright v. Lafferty
- Lovitky v. Costco Wholesale Corporation
- Ives v. Silver Dollar City Stone Mountain Park, Inc., et al.
Practice areas
Education
J.D., University of Virginia, 1973
A.B., Psychology, Duke University, 1970
Bar admissions
- Georgia
Courts
- United States District Court (Northern District of Georgia)
- Court of Appeals of the State of Georgia
- Supreme Court of Georgia
- Supreme Court of the United States of America
- United States Court of Appeals (Eleventh Circuit)
- United States Court of Appeals (Fifth Circuit)
- United States District Court for the Middle District of Georgia