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Lawyer of the Year Lauds the Jury System

Thomas Wiseman, an attorney with Wiseman Ashworth Law Group, in Nashville, Tenn., has just been named the 2011-12 Lawyer of the Year in the area of medical malpractice defense by Best Lawyers. The 1979 graduate of Washington and Lee University has taken the occasion to muse on his practice and the jury system.

“Every case is different and every time I learn something new,” Tom told the Nashville Tennesseean. “My clients really care about defending their decisions. Doctors and nurses try to do their best to help people.”

Tom, a Tennessee native, is in the family business; his father, Thomas A. Wiseman Jr., now a federal court trial judge, practiced general civil and criminal law when Tom was a child. He vividly remembers some of his father’s clients paying for their legal services by giving him produce or by working for him.

At W&L, Tom concentrated his history degree on East Asia; he obtained his J.D. from Vanderbilt. He began his legal career with a firm in Louisville, Ky., then moved to a smaller firm where he had more opportunities to try cases in front of a jury. His current firm also earned accolades from Best Lawyers in the Best Law Firms area.

“When 12 people from all different walks of life are brought into the courtroom to listen to the evidence and apply the law to do justice, there’s no class and racial distinction; everyone has an equal voice and power and there’s no inequality,” Tom told the paper. “To me, that’s one of the purest forms of democracy.”

You can read the interview with Tom here, and more about his firm at this link.

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