CALE CONLEY
Partner

Cale grew up in Smyrna, Georgia and went to the University of Georgia, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism, summa cum laude with highest honors. After completing his undergraduate degree, Cale worked as a clerk at the law firm of Butler, Wooten, Overby & Cheeley in Atlanta, where he had his first taste of Plaintiffs’ litigation as the initial document manager in the case of Moseley v. General Motors, a side-saddle GM fuel tank case which ultimately tried to a $105 million jury verdict in 1993 in Atlanta.

Cale left Butler, Wooten to pursue a writing career, authoring two critically-acclaimed hardbound books in two years -- War Between the States (1992, Gridiron Publishers) and Sunshine Hate (1993, Gridiron Publishers) – chronicling the colorful histories of southern college football rivalries.

Cale then enrolled at the University of Georgia Law School, where he was a member of both the Georgia Law Review Editorial Board and the Georgia Moot Court Program. His law review note, A State Law Theory for Product Liability Claims: A Journey Best Not Taken, was published in the Georgia Law Review. On the Moot Court team, Cale was a member of Georgia’s National Moot Court Team, which swept Best Brief and Best Team at the Region V finals in Atlanta and went on to finish 2nd in the nation at the National Finals in New York. Cale also worked in the Hall County District Attorney’s office under the third-year practice act and prosecuted three narcotics cases to verdict while still in law school. At UGA, Cale was named a member of both the Order of the Coif, recognizing scholastic excellence, and the Order of the Barristers, recognizing excellence in courtroom advocacy. In 1998, Cale also served as an adjunct professor at the UGA School of Law, teaching a class in Appellate Advocacy.

Cale took a full time position as an attorney at Butler, Wooten in 1996, where he worked for five years. In 1997, he participated in the two-month trial of Rodriguez v. Suzuki in St. Louis, a Suzuki Samurai rollover case which resulted in a jury verdict of $36.9 million. He also worked as lead associate during the six-week trial of Six Flags v. Time Warner in Gwinnett County, Georgia in 1998, a case which resulted in a Georgia-record $454 million verdict for the Plaintiffs. Cale participated heavily in the appellate briefing on that case as well, which became the largest verdict ever to be affirmed by the Georgia Court of Appeals and Georgia Supreme Court.

Since departing Butler, Wooten to form his own firm in 2001, Cale has served as lead counsel in dozens of cases involving serious injury, death, or economic damages to his clients. He has served as lead or co-lead counsel at trial in three verdicts exceeding $1 million dollars since 2002. Cale’s current practice focuses primarily on products liability, trucking wrecks, business tort, and wrongful death cases. Cale has specific expertise in vehicle rollover and tire failure cases as well as breach of fiduciary duty cases. He is admitted to practice in all state courts in Georgia, the Northern District of Georgia, the Middle District of Georgia, and the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. He has also served as counsel pro hac vice in cases in numerous other states.

In addition to his zealous representation of clients, Cale is currently involved as a leader in both the state and national legal community. Cale has been a member of the Executive Committee of the Georgia Trial Lawyers Association (GTLA) since 2001 and has been nominated to serve as the Secretary of GTLA for 2005-2006. Cale is also active in the American Bar Association’s Tort and Insurance Practice Section (TIPS), where he served as Editor-in-Chief of The Brief, the national magazine of the section, from 2002-2004 and currently serves as on the TIPS CLE Board as Coordinator of Regional CLE programs. Cale is also a frequent speaker at CLE programs through various professional groups, and has appeared on programs across the country on various topics.

In 2004, Cale was featured in the Fulton County Daily Report as one of 21 lawyers under the age of 40 who are “on the rise” in the Georgia legal community. Cale was also named a “SuperLawyer” in the March 2005 issue of Atlanta Magazine for his work in products liability cases, and was featured on the United Airlines’ SkyRadio program “America’s Best Lawyers” in 2005, where he addressed myths versus realities in the practice of law today.

Cale lives in Atlanta with his wife and daughter, and is a member of Central Presbyterian Church in Atlanta.