Thomas M West

Thomas (Tom) West

CURRENT OCCUPATION

• Trial Lawyer
• Practicing attorney since 1973

BAR MEMBERSHIPS:

• GEORGIA
• MASSACHUSETTS
• UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT
• UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FIRST CIRCUIT
• UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS ELEVENTH CIRCUIT
• UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS TENTH CIRCUIT
• UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT NORTHERN DISTRICT OF GEORGIA
• UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT MIDDLE DISTRICT OF GEORGIA
• UNITED STATES COURT OF FEDERAL CLAIMS
• SUPREME COURT OF GEORGIA
• COURT OF APPEALS OF GEORGIA
• PRO HAC VICE APPEARANCES: Alabama, Florida, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, New York, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas.

PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS:

• American Bar Association
• State Bar of Georgia
• American Association for Justice
• National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers
• Georgia Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers
• Gwinnett County Bar Association

ACADEMIC PROFILE:

• UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA Juris Doctor degree 1973
• UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA BA Political Science 1969

PREVIOUS OCCUPATION:

• Of Counsel, Don Keenan & Associates, Atlanta, Georgia 1983-1984.
• Partner: Bowen, Derrickson, Goldberg & West, Atlanta, Georgia 1976-1980.
• Director, Southern Prisoner Defense Committee, Atlanta, Georgia 1975-1976.
• Staff Attorney, University of Georgia School of Law, Prisoner Legal Counseling Project, 1973-1975.

AWARDS:

Southern Christian Leadership Conference (S.C.L.C.) DRUM MAJOR FOR JUSTICE AWARD 1982, for work on the Wrightsville, Georgia Civil Rights Cases.

2002 COTI Award, Georgia Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, awarded to lawyers in the most significant criminal case of the year, State of Georgia v. Timothy Dawson, 274 Ga. 327 (2001).

2005 COTI Award, Georgia Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, awarded to lawyers in the most significant criminal case of the year, for work in State of Georgia v. Dekelvin Martin, 278 Ga. 418 (2004).

PERSONAL PROFILE:

Mr. West graduated from the University of Georgia School of Law. Upon graduation in 1973 he worked as a staff attorney at the Prisoner Legal Counseling Project, the University of Georgia legal clinic for state prisoners, at the Georgia Diagnostic Center in Jackson, Georgia. At PLCP Mr. West handled mostly habeas corpus cases and in the process helped create legal precedent concerning the rights of parolees, Duncan v. Ricketts, 232 Ga. 89, 205 S.E. 2d 274 (1974); Justice v. State Bd. Of Pardons & Paroles, 234 Ga. 749 (1975), and the rights of those pleading guilty, Roberts v. Greenway, 233 Ga. 473, 211 S.E. 2d 764 (1975).

After two years with PLCP, Mr. West took a position in Atlanta as the director of the Southern Prisoner Defense Committee. The SPDC litigated prison condition cases including a class action case, which closed the infamous H-House at GD&CC, Hardwick v. Ault, 447 F. Supp. 116 (M.D.Ga.1978) and settled a death row condition case at Jackson. Mr. West has had an active criminal, personal injury, and police brutality practice in Atlanta since about 1980. In the early 1980s Mr. West and four other Atlanta lawyers were awarded the Southern Christian Leadership Council, (SCLC) Drum Major For Justice Award for representing African American’s arrested in Wrightsville, Georgia during voting rights demonstrations.

SIGNIFICANT CASES:

CIVIL CASES:

Mr. West has represented many clients and their families in personal injury cases and in the process has recovered millions in compensation for their injuries and in cases where a death has occurred, recovering for the full value of the life of the deceased. These cases range from automobile-truck collisions, automobile-automobile collisions, automobile-pedestrian collisions, truck-pedestrian collisions, automobile-bicycle collisions, slip and fall cases, prison stabbings, prison failure to provide proper care cases, jail beating cases, and bus ejection cases. Mr. West prides himself in successfully taking on cases which are rejected by other high-volume, “advertising” attorneys.

CRIMINAL CASES:

Mr. West in his 45 year career has represented clients accused of all types of criminal charges in state and federal courts ranging from traffic cases to murder to death penalty defense. These have included DUI, vehicular homicide, murder, drug possession, drug trafficking, armed robbery, aggravated assault, theft by taking, burglary, computer theft, identity theft, hit and run, possession of a firearm by felon, parole violation, assault, aggravated assault, battery, aggravated battery, terroristic threats, probation violation, extradition, rape, sexual battery, kidnapping, and child abuse.

SEE CASE RESULTS