I grew up on a farm in Killen, Alabama, where long days of hard work taught me endurance and grit. Those lessons became the foundation of my legal career, where persistence and sacrifice often mean the difference between winning and losing.
I studied corporate finance, investment management, and chemistry at the University of Alabama, intending to attend med school upon graduation. That plan was derailed after I took a single business law class that changed my future. I loved the challenge of solving complex legal issues and realized that my skills belonged in the courtroom, not a hospital. At Cumberland School of Law, I focused on trial advocacy. While others chased corporate law, I was already sharpening my skills to stand before a jury and fight.
While working my way through school, I held positions at two of Alabama’s most respected injury firms. There, I learned exactly how corporations and insurers exploit hardworking families. I worked a case where impoverished families were cheated by a burial insurance company and another where a father tragically and needlessly lost his life because an employer refused to follow basic safety rules. Watching those companies show zero concern lit a fire in me that has never gone out.
Since graduating in 1995, I’ve built my career around one goal: holding powerful corporations and greedy insurance companies accountable when they harm people. I spent over a decade honing my trial skills in Huntsville before returning home to Lauderdale County. In 2007, Tom McCutcheon and I joined forces, founding McCutcheon & Hamner with one shared belief: insurance companies must know we’ll take any case to trial, no matter the size. That’s the only way to win maximum results for our clients.
I’ve tried countless cases, secured life-changing verdicts, and built a reputation as a lawyer who doesn’t flinch when the stakes are at their highest. Outside the courtroom, I stay grounded in my community, raising my daughters, working our family farm, and staying faithful to the lessons I learned as a kid in Killen.
When clients hire me, they’re not just getting representation. They’re getting a trial lawyer forged by hard work, proven in courtrooms, and unwilling to back down against anyone.
