Samuel L. Lucas

PARTNER

Samuel L. Lucas is a founding partner of the firm, and focuses his practice on litigation and has represented both plaintiffs and defendants in state and federal courts regarding a broad range of areas including business litigation, local-government law, and personal injury.

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Sam is a 2005 cum laude graduate of The University of Georgia School of Law, and a 2001 graduate of Emory University. During law school, Sam served on the Editorial Board and as a Notes Editor for the Journal of Intellectual Property Law. Sam is a graduate of the 2008 Class of Leadership Rome and a graduate of the 2013 Class of Leadership Darlington, and the 2019 Class of Leadership Georgia.

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Sam, a native of Rome, started his career as Assistant District Attorney to the Honorable W. Kendall Wynne, Jr., in the Alcovy Judicial Circuit. In addition to his civil practice, Sam also serves as an Assistant City Attorney to the City of Rome and as the Solicitor of the Municipal Court of Rome, Ga., prosecuting traffic and misdemeanor cases.

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As an AV-rated litigator, Sam has extensive experience in federal court. In the last ten years, Sam has represented defendants in 30 cases in federal court and has obtained victories or dismissals at the motion-to-dismiss or summary-judgment stage in 18 of those cases. In 2007, along with Andy Davis, Sam obtained a plaintiff’s verdict of $30M in a wrongful-death action, which, at the time, was the largest personal-injury verdict handed down in the Rome Division of the Northern District of Georgia.

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In addition to his trial-court experience, Sam is a member of the appellate practice group and has significant appellate experience, both as an author and co-author of briefs as well as presenting oral argument, on a wide variety of topics representing plaintiffs, defendants, and amici in state and federal appellate courts. These decisions include appellate-only cases as well as cases that the firm handled at the trial level.

Representative successful appellate cases include:

• Georgia Power Company v. ABB, Inc., --- Fed. Appx. ---, 2020 WL 1944249 (11th Cir. 2020) (affirming the district court’s grant of summary judgment enforcing indemnification obligation) 

• Walker v. City of Calhoun, Georgia, 901 F.3d 1245 (11th Cir. 2018), cert. denied, 139 S. Ct. 1446 (2019) (reversing the second grant of preliminary injunction and finding the Standing Bail Order to be “entirely constitutional”)

• Walker v. City of Calhoun, Georgia, 682 Fed. Appx. 721 (11th Cir. 2017) (reversal of grant of preliminary injunction)

• Home Legend, LLC v. Mannington Mills, Inc., 784 F.3d 1404 (11th Cir. 2015) (obtained reversal of summary judgment with appellate court finding, in a case of first impression, that design of faux-wood laminate flooring was protectable under the Copyright Act)

• Guice v. Brown, 334 Ga. App. 199 (2015) (obtained reversal of denial of summary-judgment motion on basis of municipal-employee immunity)

• Day v. Floyd County Bd. of Educ., 333 Ga. App. 144 (2015) (in a case of first impression, the Court of Appeals reversed the decision of the trial court and found that the Charter Systems Act exempts charter schools and charter systems from the Fair Dismissal Act)

• Jai Ganesh Lodging, Inc. v. David M. Smith, Inc. et al., 328 Ga. App. 713 (2014) (obtained reversal of grant of summary judgment against hotelier’s negligent-construction claims against contractor)

• Fouch v. Bicknell Supply Co., 326 Ga. App. 863 (2014) (reversing trial court’s grant of summary judgment because silicosis plaintiff not required to establish the specific amount of exposure to toxic chemical in order to prove specific causation)

• Pruette v. Ungarino, 326 Ga. App. 584 (2014) (affirming grant of new trial to physician in medical-malpractice action after first obtaining grant of new trial in trial court)

• Drumm Corp. v. Wright, 326 Ga. App. 41 (2014) (reversing trial court and dismissing Defendant, a parent company with no ties to Georgia, on personal-jurisdiction grounds)

• Henry v. Jones, et al., 484 Fed. Appx. 290 (11th Cir. 2012) (affirming dismissal of Section 1983 false arrest and conspiracy action against municipal police officers)

Sam was part of a team that represented the City of Calhoun, Georgia in a class action regarding a challenge to monetary bail in which he twice argued before the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals.  The case is styled Walker v. City of Calhoun, Georgia, No. 4:15-cv-00170-HLM.  The team obtained reversals in both appellate cases.

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EDUCATION

• The University of Georgia School of Law, (J.D. 2005), Cum Laude

• Emory University, (B.B.A. 2001)

BAR AND COURT ADMISSIONS

• State Bar of Georgia

• Supreme Court of the United States

• United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit

• United States District Court, Northern District of Georgia

• Supreme Court of Georgia

• Georgia Court of Appeals 

• Superior Courts of Georgia

PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS AND HONORS

• Rome Bar Association

• Lawyers Club of Atlanta, Inc.

• Journal of Intellectual Property Law
  Editorial Board, 2003-2004, Notes Editor, 2004-2005

• Leadership Rome, Class of 2008

• Leadership Darlington, 2013

• Leadership Georgia, 2019

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COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT

• United Way of Rome and Floyd County
  Board of Trustees, 2012-2013

• Rome High School Mock Trial, 2011-2012
  Volunteer Coach