Thomas M. "Tom" Hale

Thomas M. Hale is an experienced, skilled and effective trial and transactional lawyer who brings a wealth of knowledge to his clients. He is a solution seeker and problem solver and works hard as an advocate for his clients in an honest, straight-forward and professional manner, He exercises sound and prudent judgment in advising them of the legal alternatives, and his ability to clearly explain how the facts and the law are likely to converge, and what the most likely outcome would be, is of great benefit to his clients. Mr. Hale tries all types of civil cases in both the federal and state courts throughout East Tennessee with specific emphasis on business-related disputes in contract, corporate, employment and environmental areas. He provides general commercial advice to local and national businesses. His broad practice includes: contract preparation and review; advice on entity issues (i.e., corporate, partnership, LLC); real property matters; Uniform Commercial Code issues; purchases and sales of business entities; purchases, sales and leases of commercial real property; advice on obtaining and making loans and advice in the formation and governance of legal entities. For his corporate law practice, the prestigious, peer-review publication, Best Lawyers in America selected Mr. Hale for inclusion to its list each and every year since 2008, and also selected him as the "Knoxville Lawyer of the Year" in 2012. He has also been included in this publication in 2011 for his litigation-commercial, land use and zoning, municipal and real estate law practices. Mr. Hale and his partner, Ed Rayson represented a minority shareholders of one of the largest private companies in Tennessee and, by preparing a case showing multiple ways in which the majority shareholder was oppressing the minority, they were able to help their clients secure substantial value for their shares. In another instance, by being thoughtful and thorough in defending a contractor's claim against his client, he was able to prove that his client had a more substantial claim against the contractor by using the contractor's own testimony. His client had been prepared to pay to settle the case. Mr. Hale led a team of the firm's layers in the successful representation of a well-known national restaurant chain in the defense of 60 lawsuits resulting from Hepatitis A exposure from consumption of produce supplied by a local supplier of produce and its supply chain. He recently concluded representation of a national developer in a suit for the reformation of the official plats governing a 200+ lot subdivision involving 300+ named defendants, including lot owners, lenders, utility providers and local governmental entities.