While the firm has since mushroomed to national status, with 9 offices total throughout the US, Al-ston & Bird is a cornerstone of the Atlanta legal community, first opening its doors here in 1893. The At-lanta office is also its largest, housing over 400 lawyers, as well as its most comprehensive, with virtually all of its legal services being offered in some capacity. In litigation, the firm is considered by peers to be “traditionally one of the better ones in the state, and of course one of the biggest.” In recent years, the firm has made national news for its involvement in defending Toyota in the wake of widely publicized re-calls of certain vehicles manufactured by the company that were allegedly defective. Cari Dawson continues to be the go-to person for any and all class action disputes, most notably in the automotive sector, representing corporations such as Porsche Cars North America and Porsche AG in the Volkswagen “clean diesel” multi-district litigation. She was won numerous plaudits from peers and from the media since then. Product liability co-chair Bernard Taylor is reverently addressed by peers as “still the man you want to see over there. He goes well outside Georgia in his work - he is respected nationally. And you don’t cross him.” Taylor specializes in product liability, professional liability and commercial litigation and is widely considered a “senior statesman.” A peer calls James Grant “A&B’s biggest ‘badass,’” and goes on to say, “I worked with him once, and he was excellent. It was amazing how quickly he got up on the facts, but you won’t see him around Georgia much! He gets a lot of calls for out-of-state work.”
