Pope has been representing catastrophically injured victims, and families who have lost loved ones, for over 25 years. But what sets him apart from other trial lawyers is the personal relationship he forms with his clients, and his willingness to take on the cases that no one else will. Too many attorneys, especially those you see on TV, on billboards, and in social media, only want the cases which they can churn out settlements, and mostly for an amount far less than adequate compensation to the client. Why? Because those lawyers are operating a volume practice, often where your case is handled by staff, and the attorney does not even meet the client. And, those attorneys never appear in Court, do not know the Judges, and are simply not equipped to handle the more complex and difficult cases. If you have been catastrophically injured, you want an experienced physician to be taking care of your medical needs, not their staff, and not someone who doesn’t even have the time to spend with you to understand your needs. You need the same thing in a trial lawyer.
Just as with your health care, results matter. Pope, on his own, has achieved results that are unheard of, from a single attorney, practicing in South Georgia, who routinely takes on the big insurance companies, case by case. In the last 10 years alone, he has recovered in excess of 250 Million Dollars for his clients in verdicts and settlements. And he has done so taking on the most difficult cases imaginable, and cases that no other attorney in Georgia would touch.
For instance, he handled what is to date, probably the most difficult wrongful death case ever tried in the State of Georgia, and perhaps the country. He represented the widow of a fisherman who went missing after the boat he was fishing on in the Gulf of Mexico never returned to the marina. The fishing boat was found, capsized, five days after the boat was reported overdue back at the marina. Not only were there no survivors, there were no bodies, and each member of the fishing party was legally declared dead by a Florida Court. Furthermore, there were no eyewitness as to what had occurred, or even where, in the Gulf of Mexico, the boat capsized. The boat was underwater so long, all GPS data was corrupted. Pope filed the wrongful death case against the Estate of the owner of the boat, its captain, that was also legally presumed dead. The case went to trial, without knowing where the boat capsized, thus not knowing whether Florida law would apply, or Federal law known as the Death on The High Seas Act. There was no cause of death, date of death, body to examine, and no evidence of what caused the boat to capsize other than the wave height had picked up later in the evening of the day that they disappeared. The jury returned a verdict for the family in excess of the available insurance, providing justice to the mother and children that had lost their father.
Pope represented the largest landowning family in Beverly Hills, California in their fight against one of the largest real estate conglomerates in the country, arising out of the K-mart bankruptcy and selection of stores to be repurposed as Lowe’s retail stores. He represented a large private equity firm in Chicago arising out of one of the largest wildfires in the State of Georgia which grew out of a controlled burn. The Benelli family, out of Italy, hired Pope to represent them when a group of investors attempted to block them from importing Italian motorcycles into the United States. Pope took on the largest bank in Dallas, Texas when it tried to hold a small local Valdosta business liable for a loss of 5 million dollars arising out of a fraudulent scheme created by an crooked automobile dealer in Oklahoma, and was able to successfully prove that the bank’s loss was caused by their own negligence.
Pope recovered for an avid offshore racing enthusiast from Oklahoma, one of the largest personal property settlements against an insurance company when his brand-new offshore racing boat was badly damaged in a motor vehicle collision while in route to the Miami Boat Show.
While Pope has had the opportunity to be involved in some interesting and unique legal cases over his career, his greatest enjoyment comes from helping those who need it the most, — those clients whose lives, family, and livelihood have been turned upside down due to the negligence of someone else. He has represented families who have lost a loved one in tractor trailer collisions, motor vehicle collisions, motorcycle collisions, boating accidents, ATV accidents, pedestrian collisions, product defects, premises liability, and medical malpractice. He has obtained one of the highest personal injury verdicts in South Georgia, and as well as one of the highest wrongful death verdicts in South Georgia, one of the largest wrongful death settlements in a routine motor vehicle accident in a rural south Georgia community, and one of the largest civil rights verdict in the State of Georgia.
Additionally, Pope does not operate a volume practice, or a settlement mill. He limits his active cases to less than 75 and takes a personal interest in every one of them. His knowledge, skill, and work ethic, are not only evidenced by the results he has achieved for his clients, but also in the trust and confidence placed in him by his colleagues, the judiciary (both State and Federal), the Governors of Georgia and the legislative leaders of Georgia. He serves as the Chairman of the Judicial Qualifications Commission, which oversees all state court judges in the State of Georgia. He was selected by the federal judges in the Middle District of Georgia to serve on the Advisory Rules Committee for the Middle District of Georgia. He is a past president of the Georgia Trial Lawyers Association, the largest trial lawyer group in the State of Georgia. He is a past Chairman of the General Practice and Trial Section of the State Bar of Georgia, the largest section of the state bar dedicated to trial practice. He is a past member of the Board of Governors of the State Bar of Georgia, and currently serves on Elections Committee and the Unified Bar Committee.
He is a member of the Southern Trial Lawyers’ Association, and the American Association of Justice. He is a Fellow of the Lawyer’s Foundation of Georgia, a non-profit arm of the State Bar of Georgia limited to only 3% of Georgia lawyers whose public and private careers demonstrate outstanding legal abilities and a devotion to their communities. He was recently selected to serve as a special master under the Supreme Court of Georgia in lawyer discipline cases and was appointed by the Lt. Governor to serve on the committee to select the public defender for the Southern Judicial Circuit.
He was honored as being chosen by his peers as a Georgia Rising Star, being among the top up and coming lawyers in Georgia under 40 years old. Thereafter, he has been consistently selected as Georgia Super Lawyer. He was also recognized as a Top 100 Trial Lawyer by the National Trial Lawyers.
Pope has been certified as a life member of both the Million Dollar Advocates Forum and the Multi-Million Dollar Advocates Forum. This forum is one of the most prestigious groups of trial lawyers in the U.S. The organization was founded in 1993 and is limited to attorneys who have won million and multi-million-dollar verdicts, awards and settlements. Fewer than 1% of U.S. lawyers are members. He has been recognized and included among the best trial and appellate lawyers in the bar by his honor of being a Fellow in the Litigation Counsel of America, The Trial Lawyer Honorary Society. This honorary society recognizes excellence, integrity, and diversity within the law.
In conjunction with his professional affiliations, Pope is also actively involved in the community. He is a member of Park Avenue United Methodist Church. He is a prior member of the Board of the United Way of Lowndes County, where he served on the executive committee, served for several years as Chairman of Allocations, directing where the funds raised by the organization were spent, and served as the Campaign Chairman along with his wife, Evelyn. He has been a member of the executive committee for the local YMCA Board of Directors, has served as Treasurer, Vice-President, and President of the Lowndes Education Improvement Foundation, and currently serves on the Board of Directors of Guardian Bank, and its holding company, WB&T Bankshares.
Last, he is an accomplished pilot, with over 2,500 hours of pilot time, holding a commercial pilot’s license with multi-engine instrument ratings, with FAA type ratings in both Cessna Citation Jets, Dassault Falcon Jets, the L-39 Albatross Fighter Jet, as well as a helicopter license. He utilizes this skill in his law practice, allowing him to represent clients throughout the country. The ability to travel has afforded him the opportunity to litigate cases in in numerous states across the country, including Georgia, Florida, Alabama, New York, Oklahoma, Texas, Colorado, Maryland, Arizona and New Jersey.
Education
Pope received his bachelor’s degree at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He thereafter received his J.D. from the University of Georgia, cum laude, where he also served as an Editor on the Georgia Law Review, publishing one article titled “Metro Broadcasting v. FCC,” 25 Ga. L. Rev. 535 (1990).
Courts
- State and Superior Courts of Georgia, admitted 1992
- Court of Appeals for the State of Georgia, admitted 1993
- Supreme Court of Georgia, admitted 1993
- United States District Court, Middle District of Georgia, admitted 1995
- United States Court of Appeals, 11th Circuit, admitted 2003
- United States District Court, District of Colorado, admitted 2009
- Circuit Court of the 14th Judicial Circuit, Bay County, Florida, admitted 2009
- United States District Court, Northern District of New York; admitted 2010
- Circuit Court of the 13th Judicial Circuit, Hillsborough County, Florida, admitted 2012
