Editorial
Front Page - Friday, December 31, 2010
Chattanooga attorney enjoying fourth decade with same firm
David Laprad
Chattanooga attorney David Noblit has been with Leitner, Williams, Dooley & Napolitan since March 1979. He concentrates on clients forced into litigation to resolve a spectrum of legal disputes. To date, he’s tried about 100 cases to verdict or judgment and, as a Rule 31 mediator, conducted about 500 mediations.
- David Laprad
According to a number of studies, the average time a person spends with a single employer is four years. While that might seem brief, it would be even lower if Chattanooga attorney David Noblit wasn’t bumping up the average.
In March 1979, Leitner, Williams, Dooley & Napolitan offered Noblit, who was nearing the completion of his legal education at Memphis State, a job. Noblit accepted, and has been with Leitner ever since.
Noblit even sits in the same spot he occupied when Leitner interviewed him. While it might seem incredulous that an attorney would spend over three decades with one firm, the surprising thing would have been if Leitner had let Noblit go, as he’s proven himself to be a skilled trial attorney and a productive mediation advocate.
Noblit says two things kept him at Leitner, the first of which was the firm’s prominence as a litigation practice.
“We represent companies and individuals who get sued. We’ve defended individuals who were sued for their involvement in a car wreck, stores that were sued in slip-and-fall cases and companies that were sued for putting out a bad product. We’ve done medical malpractice, attorney malpractice, accountant malpractice, real estate errors and omissions – anything for which someone can be sued. That suited my aptitude for formulating a strategy, making a presentation in court, doing a pleading and so on,” he says.
To date, Noblit has tried approximately 100 cases to verdict or judgment. He chalked up most of those at the front end of his career, when he says it wasn’t unusual to try one or two jury trials a month.
Noblit’s trial practice led him to embrace alternative dispute resolution early in the development of mediation as a more practical way of resolving disputes. Since adding mediation to his areas of concentration and becoming a Rule 31 mediator in 2000, Noblit has conducted about 500 or so mediations.
“If you’ve had some experience in the court system as a trial lawyer, then at one point or another, you’ve had a jury hand you your hat and tell you you’re wrong. Maybe the jurors based their decision on something you hadn’t thought of because they’re lay people, not lawyers who do this every day.
“And because of that experience, you realize you can help people who haven’t been through that process and seen justice not work for them the way they thought it should, and help them resolve their matter in a way that might not be the best possible outcome for them, but it’s not the worst case scenario, either,” Noblit says.
Noblit confesses that when he was younger, he preferred going to trial, but now that he has a few years under his belt, he’s a proponent of mediation.
“When I was young and had more energy, and maybe less judgment, I enjoyed going to trial. I had a couple of clients that didn’t believe in settling cases for which they thought they did not owe money, so I tried a lot of the same cases over and over again, with different names, faces and wrinkles.
“It was always exciting to meet good lawyers and judges on the other side and try cases. And I enjoyed the thrill of getting ready and making a presentation, and the satisfaction that came with the jury understanding my argument and position,” Noblit says.
Despite his passion for litigation, Noblit quickly warmed up to mediation, as it allowed his clients to control their own destiny and reach a compromise before becoming embedded in the experience and expense of a trial.
“When you’re involved in a case, it’s one of the major psychological stressors of life; whether you’re a defendant or a plaintiff, it’s always on your mind. It makes healthy people sick and happy people depressed, and the larger the stakes, the greater the effects. So why not take your case to mediation and settle it? You might not like the other person and you might not be thrilled with the results, but you went into a room and resolved your differences. And you did it without turning control over to a jury that has no stake in the outcome,” he says.
Born in Chattanooga in
1953, Noblit attended the Uni-
versity of Tennessee at Chatta-nooga on a wrestling scholarship and majored in criminal justice. He decided to pursue a career in law when he looked at the salaries and “end of life points” for people working the jobs that would be available to him as a result of his degree. Noblit hoped to secure work in the juvenile court system, but when the placement director at Memphis State asked him if he’d like to interview for a position at Leitner, he said yes.
Professionally, Noblit is a member of the Chattanooga and Tennessee Bar Associations and the State Bar of Georgia. He’s also a member of the Trial Attorneys of America, the International Association of Defense Counsel, the Association of Defense Trial Attorneys and the Tennessee Association of Professional Mediators. In addition, he’s a member of the Brock-Cooper American Inn of Court, where he serves on the executive committee.
Noblit has also been in-volved in his community. For ten years, he coached an independent youth wrestling team, and he spent about a decade as a leader in the UTC and UT alumni associations.
While Noblit’s work keeps him busy, he does have a large family with which he enjoys spending time. He’s married to Jenny Frost-Noblit, a Realtor and broker, and has two children from his first marriage and two stepchildren from his marriage to his second wife, who passed away in 2006. All are grown and on their own, and to date have provided Noblit with three grandchildren. (A fourth is on the way.)
Noblit also likes to play tennis, and is currently hoping to recover from back surgery in time to start playing when clay court season begins. He and his wife enjoy walking together, playing with their dogs, working in their yard and “rehabbing” old properties.
If the studies are correct, most professionals will work for a variety of employers throughout their career. That puts Noblit in a minority. It also puts him in a position to show that dedication and loyalty are still a part of the American work ethic, and that professionals can do extraordinary things when they establish roots and grow in place.
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