Richard E. Smith

• Represents Chapter 7 Trustee in one of the largest corporate Chapter 7 liquidations in the Northern District of Alabama.
• Represents the second-largest publicly traded operator of general acute care hospitals in the United States in multiple business litigation matters throughout Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee.
• Represents regional engineering and construction companies in a broad scope of legal matters ranging from business transactions to litigation, handling all aspects from the bid process to the final certificates of occupancy.
• Served as lead counsel for the owners of a local business sued for an alleged half-million dollar fraudulent transfer. The trial lasted over a week and resulted in a defendants’ jury verdict, which was later affirmed on appeal by the Alabama Supreme Court, and is the leading case interpreting Alabama’s version of the Uniform Fraudulent Transfer Act.
• Successfully defended a national department store in a jury trial where customer sued the store over a mistaken shoplifting allegation. After two day trial, the jury returned a verdict in favor of the department store.
• Successfully defended a national retailer in a lawsuit alleging an employee dropped two boxes of folding tables on a customer in the store. The trial lasted five days and ended with a jury verdict in favor of the national retailer.
• Served as lead counsel in a landlord-tenant dispute where client was sued for over $500,000 in unpaid rent, repair costs and other fees. Following a week-long jury trial, the jury found in favor of our client on the landlord’s claims and awarded the client over $60,000 on the tenant’s counterclaim, plus all of the client’s legal fees.
• Served as lead counsel in an airplane crash case defending a fixed base operator in a personal injury and property case. The owners of the plane crashed on their first flight following an annual FAA maintenance inspection, and sued the FBO for negligently/wantonly performing the annual inspection. The week-long jury trial ended in a defense verdict.
• Defended multiple banks, other lenders and brokerage companies in over 30 arbitration decisions before American Arbitration Association, NASD and FINRA arbitration panels in claims ranging from violations of Truth in Lending Act claims, Fair Debt Collections Practices Act claims, Fair Credit Reporting Act claims, fraud, misrepresentation and other business tort claims.
• Tried several jury cases on behalf of business plaintiffs with four verdicts over a million dollars and an arbitration award over a million dollars.

• International Association of Defense Counsel: Member
• Defense Research Institute: Member
• Alabama Defense Lawyers Association: Member
• American Bar Foundation: Fellow
• American Bar Association: Member
• The American Health Lawyers Association: Member
• Alabama State Bar: Member
• Birmingham Bar Association: Member
• Samford University: Member: Board of Overseers

The experienced team of healthcare attorneys at Christian & Small help clients successfully navigate through the complex regulatory, legal, and business challenges facing this rapidly changing industry. We are ready to face a wide range of healthcare-related disciplines whether your company provides healthcare, pays for healthcare, develops healthcare technology, researches and develops new medical therapies and devices, or provides other healthcare-related goods and services.

Our team of health care attorneys are prepared to help you with issues related to:

• Certificate of Need
• Contract negotiations
• Cyber security and data breach
• HIPAA Privacy
• Labor and employment
• Litigation
• Medicare and Medicaid
• Patient Rights
• Real estate
• Regulatory and compliance
• Telemedicine

If you are an individual healthcare provider or another non-institutional provider, you need proactive and timely advice that can help you grow your practice and avoid costly oversights.

Christian & Small is a multi‐disciplinary regional law firm with a global perspective. Our attorneys serve individuals and established regional, national, and international companies, as well as emerging businesses. Clients rely on Christian & Small for innovative legal services that reflect a deep understanding of the law and their businesses.

Our firm is headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama, with additional offices in metro-Jackson, Mississippi, and the Alabama Gulf Coast, providing us a strategic geographic base from which to serve clients on a statewide basis and throughout the Southeast.