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| Jim Waide |
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After graduating from Millsaps College, Waide served three years in the Marine Corps, including one year as a forward observer in Vietnam. He then graduated from Tulane Law School, worked for one year as a law clerk to Federal Appeals Court Judge (former Mississippi Governor) J.P. Coleman, and then began a private practice consisting largely of representing individuals in disputes with governmental entities and corporations.
His efforts to change laws unfair to the common individual have resulted in a well-known decision (McArn v. Allied-Bruce Terminix, Inc., 626 So.2d 603 (Miss. 1993), establishing a public policy exception to the employment-at-will doctrine, a decision abolishing the immunity of private parties in certain civil rights cases (Wyatt v. Cole, 504 U.S. 108 (1992)), and a decision providing a heightened standard of proof for insurance companies to prove arson against their insured (McGory v. Allstate Insurance Co., 527 So.2d 632 (Miss. 1998)).
The West Reporter System lists Waide as counsel of record in over 200 reported decisions.
Waide's best known case is the United States Supreme Court decision in Reeves v. Sanderson Plumbing Products, Inc., 530 U.S. 133 (2000), which limited the circumstances in which appellate court judges may overrule juries. According to "Corporate Counsel", April, 2000, p. 40, the Reeves case "could affect all civil litigation, and could influence all employment cases based on federal law." After the decision, "Corporate Counsel" called Waide's Reeves case a "resounding defeat of corporate America". "Corporate Counsel", August, 2000, p. 15. "Corporate Counsel", which represented the side adverse to Waide, praised Waide's handling of the case saying:
In oral argument, Waide combined a cogent recitation of law in facts with some genuine down-home Southern charm, calling the female justice "ma'am", and adopting a self-effacing manner that observers say seemed to disarm the staid Court accustomed to a certain smugness from some of Washington's top litigators.
"Corporate Counsel", August, 2000, p. 16.
Several other national publications have also noted Waide's ability as a trial lawyer. The September-October, 2001 issue of "Modern Maturity", p. 71, contains the following concerning Waide: "Waide is not a usual lawyer. He has been practicing civil rights law since the mid-1970's, and for years, his was the only practice of this kind in Northern Mississippi. State Supreme Court Judge (now Federal District Judge) Mike Mills, an ideological opposite of Waide, and before he went on the bench, sometimes courtroom opponent calls Waide 'the best constitutional lawyer in Mississippi.'"
The "Fifth Circuit Civil News", which reports on the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals decisions covering the states of Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas describes Waide as follows:
"He really pushes the envelope by trying to out new law that can help plaintiffs" ... According to Nancy Allen Wegener, a Clarksdale lawyer who has tried cases with Waide, "he's in the Eastern Division of the Northern District of Mississippi in Aberdeen so often that it's sometimes known as the Jim Waide Division. His trial pace puts him before the Fifth Circuit for oral argument four to five times a year."
In the firm's trials, Waide is assisted by one of the firms associates, each of whom shares Waide's philosophy of providing top quality representation to ordinary citizens in a battle with larger and far wealthier opposition.
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