special report: Attorneys

Small town lawyers still in big demand
By Sara Coleman
DBJ Contributing Writer

The legal profession in the Delta, as throughout the country, changes with time and the advent of new rules and regulations, but according to many lawyers from across the area, the practice of law is still a stable and essential part of the region’s social and business network.
Most Delta law firms maintain general practices and serve clients in many different ways, from their house sales to business dealings to personal injury cases.
“In my opinion, the practice is basically the same after my 35 years of work,” says Kirkham Povall of Povall and Jeffreys, P.A., in Cleveland. “We represent people with varied interests – business transactions, divorce and child custody matters, litigation. We handle all types of litigation – business, commercial, personal injury, worker’s compensation and medical malpractice. We represent banks in real estate transactions as well as farm sales and loans for farmers. From time to time, we also defend people who are charged in criminal cases.”
Povall notes that modern technology has sped up the process of practicing law and aids lawyers in accomplishing more in shorter amounts of time.
“From a practice perspective, the pace of your practice has gained tremendous speed due to advances in technology and the ability to produce documents, store and save and do research online as opposed to going to the books. That is a major change,” he says.
Povall emphasizes that, regardless of any industry changes, “It’s our job to assist people who have problems and need help.”
Bill Luckett of Luckett Tyner Law Firm, that has offices in both Clarksdale and Sumner, says he thinks that over the years the legal profession in the Delta has become more and more of a business.
“It used to be more of a close-bodied professional group. That’s not to say that lawyers can’t still be put together in a group and aren’t still professional, but it is more of a business approach now than it used to be. That is one of the changes that’s happened.”
In addition to the view of law practice as a business, Luckett has also seen other changes occur during his 35 year career.
“My firm started with two Harvard law graduates and my father – the first Luckett in the firm – joined them in 1948. I came along and joined it in 1973. Then, as now, our primary interest is litigation and handling matters through the various court systems. Litigation includes civil lawsuits and domestic relation matters. We also do real estate work. We don’t do any criminal work or bankruptcy work. We handle people’s civil suits whether they are over money or other types of damages or domestic relations in the courts of several states.
“Lawyers seem to, in my opinion, now do a lot more than just practice law - at least around here. There are many lawyers who are involved in other businesses, like me, doing a lot of different things in addition to their law practice,” Luckett explains.
“I still practice law to support my habits!” he adds laughing. “I like to do construction projects and a lot of other ventures. I will always be practicing law; it is a wonderful profession.”
Another major change that is affecting all law firms throughout Mississippi is the tort reform which occurred in recent years, according to Andy Dulaney of Dulaney Law Firm, LLP, in Tunica, though he noted he does not deal with a lot of plaintiffs’ work.
“It appears to me that tort reform is slowly but surely having a significant impact on the amount of plaintiffs’ cases that are filed and how they are being handled once they are filed.”
The development of the gaming industry in Mississippi has also changed the legal climate to some degree, he asserts.
“The casinos mean that there are more people and more business, which means there are more house closings, though those are pretty stagnant right now, as they are in most of the country. Certainly, the casinos are generating a significant amount of litigation with employee issues and premise litigation issues - things of that nature.”
Dulaney, whose legal work is centralized around government representation, real estate and a general practice, noted that even though changes occur the Delta continues to be an area known for its fair and balanced legal system.
“In light of what’s come out recently in Mississippi with a lot of the judicial issues, I think that the Delta in particular has been very fortunate because we seem to have higher quality judges who appear to be beyond reproach which tends to give every lawyer a feeling of comfort when they go into the courtroom knowing that there won’t be any sort of favoritism one way or another. They may not win, but at least they know they have a fair shot at it. I think that is important not just for the lawyer, but for the client to understand, too.”
The public in Mississippi has a common misconception about the legal system, something that Frank Thackston at the large firm Lake Tindall, LLP, of Greenville thinks needs to be corrected.
“The public perception of the legal system in Mississippi is, for example, that there are many types of cases where people do not get fair trials or that juries are not responsible and don’t do what they should do or that judges can’t be trusted to do what judges are supposed to do. Those perceptions are wrong. Yet a lot of members of the public believe those things,” says Thackston.
“The reason we know that is through our jury trials. When the lawyers in the trial ask the jury what they think about things, we see widespread misinformation on the part of jurors. My point is that the legal system in Mississippi is doing very well and the perceptions that it is out of whack or not performing as it should are misplaced,” he continues.
At Lake Tindall, Thackston is one of several lawyers who specialize in “mass tort complex litigation,” as he puts it, which would involve hundreds of claims and involve hundreds of people.
“We have many lawyers here at our firm and different lawyers do different things. We have lawyers here who are engaged primarily in a business type of practice. People with business problems, contracts, land work and things like that are serviced by those lawyers. We have one lawyer who more or less specializes in estate matters. We have several lawyers who engage in general tort litigation. A tort is usually a disagreement between two people who do not know each other; for example, a car wreck. It would involve a limited number of parties. Then, we have several of us who engage in mass tort complex litigation and by that, I mean involving hundreds of claims and involving hundreds of people. I am one of the lawyers here who does that.”
Though larger firms, like Lake Tindall, possess lawyers who each specialize in varying specifics of the law, most Delta lawyers engage in general practice.
Dean Belk of Clark Davis and Belk, P.A., in Indianola says, “We’re in a small town so our firm is general practice, but we don’t do criminal, tax, debt or bankruptcy. We do personal injury, personal injury defense, family law and estate work. We also do substantial land transactions and we represent a bank and the city, so we stay busy.”
Belk has been working in the legal profession since May of 1965 and since that time has seen many changes in the system.
“The biggest change in my judgment since I began in the law profession has been the advent of the discovery rules. In the mid-1960s, when I started, you’d go to court, have a little thin file and that’s all there’d be, so you’d have to fly by the seat of your pants. Nowadays, there are discovery practices where you take depositions, interrogatories and that sort of thing, so you pretty much know what both sides are going to say before you get there. In the old days, that wasn’t the case - you had no idea what the man was going to say and really no way to find out.”
Meador and Crump, LLC, also provides general law services to its clients through its offices in both Cleveland and Rosedale.
“We do a little bit of everything,” says partner Robert Crump. “We do everything from real estate transactions and loan closings to wills and estates to disputes and problems, divorces, child custody, child support to worker’s compensation and personal injury. It’s a very, very general practice.”
In all, whether a Mississippi Delta law firm is focused on specifics or general practice, the legal profession is a needed component of life and business. As Crump notes, “The legal profession in general in the Delta is very stable and doing well. I feel it will continue to do so.”  DBJ



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