Firm News for our Business Litigation Attorneys

Spotswood Sansom & Sansbury LLC is pleased to announce that Matt Hart has joined the firm as senior counsel. “We are delighted to welcome Matt Hart to the firm as the head of our new white collar defense and investigations practice group,” said Bob Spotswood, the firm’s senior partner. “The skill set that Matt has developed and honed during his two decades as a federal and state prosecutor will further strengthen our firm’s ability to serve clients facing government investigation or enforcement action. We look forward to Matt’s contributions to our firm.” Hart prosecuted public corruption and white collar criminal cases for over twenty years. He served as an Assistant United States Attorney and as a Deputy Attorney General for the State of Alabama. During his time as federal prosecutor in the Northern District of Alabama, Hart established and directed a nationally renowned federal-state corruption task force which produced over…
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Spotswood Sansom & Sansbury LLC has elected Josh Payne a partner effective January 1, 2019. “We are pleased to welcome Josh to the partnership,” said senior partner Bob Spotswood. “Josh is a talented, hard-working lawyer who consistently demonstrates our firm’s focus on client service. Josh has served in leading roles in some of the firm’s most significant matters since joining our ranks in 2012. We congratulate him on this well-deserved career milestone.” Payne’s practice focuses on complex litigation, with a particular emphasis on antitrust and business disputes. Payne has represented directors and officers, manufacturers, insurers, financial and investment firms, and energy companies. In addition to trial and appellate work, Payne has extensive experience managing large data and document productions and litigating and mediating discovery disputes in high-stakes cases. Payne joined the firm after serving as an Assistant Attorney General for the state of Alabama, where he represented agencies and officials…
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In a case challenging an Alabama law on constitutional grounds, the plaintiffs subpoenaed information from state legislators, the current governor, and a former governor regarding passage of the law. The state officials moved to quash the subpoenas due to legislative privilege, but the district court refused. On appeal, Spotswood Sansom & Sansbury and a leading expert filed an amicus curiae brief in support of the legislative privilege on behalf of a bipartisan membership organization that serves state legislators and legislative staffs nationwide. The Eleventh Circuit reversed, concluding that the information sought was protected by the legislative privilege. Its discussion and application of the legislative privilege was consistent with and most fully briefed in our client’s amicus brief.