National Bar Association General Counsel Sharon Bridges Joins Adams and Reese

JACKSON, Miss. (August 24, 2011) - Sharon Bridges, current General Counsel and immediate past Vice President of the National Bar Association, the nation’s oldest and largest national association of predominantly African American lawyers and judges, has joined the law firm of Adams and Reese as a Litigation Partner in the firm’s Jackson office.

Bridges, a former Partner of Brunini, Grantham, Grower & Hewes, is an attorney practicing in complex litigation with significant experience in mass tort, product liability, medical malpractice, long term care and commercial litigation. Bridges is also an integral member of the labor and employment and governmental relations teams at Adams and Reese.

She is a former “Mississippi Woman Lawyer of the Year” by the Mississippi Women Lawyers Association and also one of the “Top 50 Leading Business Women” by the Mississippi Business Journal. In 2010, she received the National Bar’s Presidential Award for Exemplary Service for her term as Vice President.

Bridges is undefeated in jury trials for the past five years. She has received more than 1,000 early dismissals on behalf of an asbestos client. Bridges has also achieved several hundred dismissals on behalf of pharmaceutical clients in state and federal courts throughout Mississippi, and in 2009, obtained a dismissal in a medical malpractice suit in front of the Mississippi State Supreme Court. She helped Community Place Nursing Home, a 60-bed Medicare and Medicaid certified long-term care nursing facility, obtain a Certificate of Need for the construction, replacement and relocation from Hinds County to Rankin County in Mississippi.

“Her reputation as a respected, accomplished and seasoned litigator in complex litigation precedes her, and we are very excited to add Sharon to further compliment our existing litigation practice,” said Charles P. Adams Jr., Managing Partner at Adams and Reese.

Bridges formerly served as Associate General Counsel for Tulane University Medical Center and received a Bachelor of Science Degree in Nursing, with Honors, from Morris Brown College in Atlanta, becoming a registered nurse, and received her Juris Doctorate from Loyola University School of Law in New Orleans.

Adams adds: “Sharon’s diverse background as a former corporate counsel, plaintiff’s trial attorney and even as a registered nurse has helped mold her litigation experience to be able to handle a wide array of litigation matters for clients before all courts across the Southeastern region.”

Bridges is a leader both in her community and within the legal profession. In addition to previously serving as Vice President for the National Bar, she has served as an advisory board member for the National Bar Association’s Commercial Law and Health Care Law Sections. She is on the executive board for the American Association of Nurse Attorneys; an advisory board member of the National Association of Women Lawyers (NAWL); and board member for the Mississippi Nurses Association Foundation.

She is a Fellow of the Litigation Counsel of America; a member of the International Association of Defense Counsel and the Defense Research Institute. As a member of DRI, she served as a presenter during the 2010 DRI Nursing Home Litigation Seminar held in Chicago, where spoke on the topic, "Preparing Nursing Home Employees for Deposition: A Nurse Attorney Perspective.”

In 2006, Bridges was recognized for chairing the first statewide diversity conference, “Diversity: A Corporate Counsel and Corporate Executive Perspective,” as corporate counsel and corporate executives from Pfizer, AT&T, Coca Cola, Prudential Financial, Georgia Pacific, Harrah’s Casino and others addressed an array of topics related to diversity in corporations and law firms.

Adams and Reese is a multidisciplinary law firm with offices strategically located throughout the southern United States and Washington, DC. American Lawyer includes Adams and Reese on its distinguished list of the nation's top law firms - "The Am Law 200.” The National Law Journal also includes the firm on the "NLJ 250" list of the nation's largest law firms.