Firm member Casey Pipes and associate Kirk Mattei recently published an article titled “Social Media Development = Real Estate Development“ in Real Estate Issues, the journal of the Counselors of Real Estate.  The article discusses the enormous impact social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter have on real estate development, and offers suggestions to developers on how best to employ these increasingly important tools.  To read the article, please click  here.

Firm members Warren Herlong and Casey Pipes will speak at the 58th Annual Right of Way Conference of the Alabama Chapter of the International Right of Way Association, which will take place March 1-3, 2017 in Tuscaloosa.  Their presentation, titled “Defending the Appraisal in Condemnation,” is scheduled for the morning of Thursday, March 2nd.  To review the agenda for the entire conference, please click here.

On December 4, 2016, firm members Warren Herlong and Casey Pipes conducted a seminar for the Alabama Chapter of the Institute on Eminent Domain Appraising for real estate appraisers in Birmingham, Alabama.

Helmsing Leach partner Patrick Finnegan was a member of the faculty of a day-long seminar on electronic discovery hosted in Mobile earlier this month by the National Business Institute.  In his presentation, Mr. Finnegan provided a comprehensive overview of the e-discovery process — from litigation holds and preservation through production — with a detailed focus on the technical aspects of the process, and discussion of relevant rules and case law.

Mr. Pipes is a member of the faculty for the American Law Institute’s Eminent Domain and Land Valuation Litigation conference which will take place in San Diego, California, January 26-28, 2017.  He will co-present a talk titled, Exhibits in Eminent Domain: How to Make a Persuasive Case.  Mr. Pipes has been practicing eminent domain law for two decades, and is one of Alabama’s leading practitioners in the field.

Firm member Casey Pipes will be among the presenters at the University of Alabama’s CLE Alabama seminar on Real Estate Law, which will take place in Birmingham on Friday, October 14, 2016.  Mr. Pipes will discuss recent developments in eminent domain law, a field in which he has extensive experience.

Firm member Warren Herlong has been invited to speak at this year’s Brigham Kanner Property Rights Conference to be held October 20-21 at the Peace Palace in the International Court of Justice in The Hague, the seat of government of the Netherlands.  This annual conference brings together practicing attorneys and academicians who are active in property rights.  Mr. Herlong has practiced for decades in the fields of eminent domain, condemnation and land valuation litigation, and has presented and published extensively on those subjects.  At the conference in The Hague, he will participate in a panel discussion entitled Recognizing and Protecting Cultural Property which will address issues and problems concerning recognition and protection of cultural property.

Joe Babington, firm member and Vice President of the Trial Attorneys of America (TAA), was the program director and a speaker at the 45th annual TAA meeting held June 9-10, 2016 in Chicago.  TAA is a national association of leading products liability defense and commercial litigation trial attorneys.  The program included presentations on genomics, 3-D printing,  The Internet of things, techniques and technology for presenting complex evidence, use of emoticons as evidence, and other current issues.  Mr. Babington spoke on the topic “Don’t Be Blinded By Science:  Use And Abuse Of Scientific And Medical Literature To Prove Causation.”  Mr. Babington is the incoming TAA president for 2017–18 and is in charge of the program for the organization’s 2017 TAA meeting.