R. Carlton "Carl" Smyly

Carl Smyly was born and raised in Andalusia, Alabama. He received his undergraduate education at Birmingham-Southern College, where he was selected for membership in theOmicron Delta Kappa and Phi Beta Kappa scholastic honorary societies and was valedictorian of his graduating class in 1979. He then earned his Juris Doctor degree at the University of Virginia School of Law in 1982. Mr. Smyly has been assigned the highest possible Peer Review Ratings for legal ability and ethical standards in the Martindale-Hubbell Legal Directory and was selected by his peers for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America in the specialty of Construction Law. For 2015, Mr. Smyly was selected as The Best Lawyers in America "Lawyer Of The Year" in the Construction Law practice area for Birmingham, Alabama. He is a member of the Alabama Defense Lawyers Association, the Defense Research Institute, the American Bar Association’s Forum on the Construction Industry, and the Construction Litigation Committee of the American Bar Association’s Litigation Section. Mr. Smyly is admitted to practice in all state and federal courts in Alabama, and is also admitted to practice in the United States District Court for the Western District of Tennessee, the United States Court Of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, and the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Mr. Smyly’s practice emphasizes commercial litigation and construction law. In the construction area, he has represented general contractors, subcontractors, owners, developers, lenders, program managers, consultants, architects, engineers, and manufacturers. The scope of his representation includes contract negotiations, form and procedure development, and pre-litigation dispute resolution, in addition to administrative proceedings, arbitration hearings, and bench and jury trials. Mr. Smyly has tried many construction cases in state and federal courts. He has also handled numerous other types of commercial lawsuits, including partnership disputes, stockholder disputes, antitrust cases, intellectual property cases, real estate disputes, products liability cases, professional liability cases, business tort cases, commercial lending and fraud cases, and class actions.