Chattanooga attorney Bill Trumpeter doesn’t have just one briefcase, he has six, each of which serves a specific purpose. There’s a small one for when he’s going on a quick trip and needs only his laptop, a slightly larger leather one for when he has to take his computer and a few files, and a big one for when he’ll be out of town for a week or two, and will be hauling a lot of papers.
He looks at his collection, which is lined up against the wall of his office at Miller & Martin like an assortment of lost luggage, with amusement. If Trumpeter had put stickers on his briefcases of everywhere he’d been, they’d be plastered with scenes from all 50 states. As a labor and employment attorney, he’s spent countless hours in airports, planes and hotels as he’s traveled across the country to handle a variety of matters for his clients. He’s logged more than two million miles with Delta Airlines alone while advising clients during a union campaign, dealing with unfair labor practice charges against employers, taking part in collective bargaining negotiations, and participating in hundreds of labor arbitrations.
He says arbitration is the way to go when resolving a legal matter. “In the good old days, a trial lawyer would take a file, try the case, and get a result. He didn’t spend months and years in discovery and depositions. Arbitration is like that. You get your case lined up and try it.” Trumpeter appreciates arbitration not just for its expediency, but also for the tactical approach it forces an attorney to take. Lawyers must think on their feet, anticipate what the other side is going to do, and react. Arbitration also requires common sense, thorough knowledge of the rules, and understanding of how to apply the rules to a given situation.
“A client will call me and say, ‘I’ve got a picket line outside. Can I fire them?’ Or ‘This guy is threatening everybody. What should I do?’ It’s that kind of urgency, and if I don’t have a quick answer, I’m no good to them,” he says. Trumpeter has employed these skills throughout his career to considerable success. In one case in the mid-’90s, he saved a client tens of millions of dollars by successfully defending a collective action case over the tip credit the Fair Labor Standards Act allows. “The company had about 400 restaurants around the country with an average of 35 tipped employees at each one. And the facts and the law were working against us. So, we filed a summary judgment motion contemporaneously with our answer, and the judge granted us summary judgment on every claim and dismissed the entire lawsuit. The client was delighted,” Trumpeter says.
Trumpeter had to travel a long way from his blue-collar roots to get to where he could win multi-million dollar lawsuits. The older of two boys, he grew up in North Canton, Ohio, where he played football and baseball and wrestled for the local high school. His mom and dad owned a pub about a mile from the Pro Football Hall of Fame called Trump’s Hall of Foam. Since their eldest son was a good student, they expected him to go to college and pursue a career in either law or medicine. Trumpeter was weak in math and science, so he decided to become a lawyer. He earned a bachelor’s degree in political science at Wittenberg University in Springfield, Ohio, married his college sweetheart, and then attended law classes at the University of Toledo. Trumpeter graduated from the latter in 1975 and immediately secured a position with an Akron, Ohio firm that was rebuilding its labor practice. While there, he met his future law partner, Ron Ingham.
Ingram moved to Chattanooga in 1976 to join a boutique labor firm; three years later, he invited Trumpeter to join him. Although Trumpeter liked the practice for which he was working, the tire manufacturing upon which Akron had staked its provision had moved on, and the economy was depressed, so Trumpeter packed up and moved to what would someday be known as the Scenic City. He says it was like moving to the Wild West.
“It was exciting. Up north, everything was organized, but down here was a new frontier. We dealt with two or three union campaigns a month. It was a great environment for a young guy,” he says. In 1981, Trumpeter, Ingham and Hal Clements formed their own firm. Six years later, circumstances led the three attorneys to merge with Miller & Martin.
“I joke that Clements, Ingham & Trumpeter added 43 lawyers to its firm and became Miller & Martin,” he says. “We had some of the same clients, and Miller & Martin didn’t have a large labor and employment law practice, so we moved in and helped them to develop it.”
Trumpeter is especially pleased to have worked with Coca-Cola Enterprises, which he represented in matters around the country. He talks at length about the people he met and the various iterations of the company, all the while looking at a framed Coca-Cola poster hung on the wall behind his desk. Listening to Trumpeter talk, it’s clear he’s loved being a lawyer. Instead of complaining about being burned out and travel-weary, he talks enthusiastically about having seen the country and helped large companies on important matters. When describing how much he’s enjoyed his job, he uses the word “tremendously.”
Even with 36 years as an attorney under his belt, Trumpeter’s blue-collar roots are still visible. He speaks with matter-of-fact, that’s-the-way-it-is candor, and he’s always one breath away from a wisecrack or a good story. “I have to find something to laugh about in everything I do. If I didn’t, I’d go nuts,” he says. (Example of Trumpeter’s sense of humor: As he’s posing for a photograph for this article, he tells the receptionist at Miller & Martin he’s having his picture taken for Just Busted Magazine.)
At a stocky 5’8”, Trumpeter looks like a 60-year-old former high school athlete. To stay in shape, he trash talks racquetball opponents at the Sports Barn, plays golf, and goes bike riding with his wife, Debbie, whom he endearingly calls “my beautiful, beautiful bride.”
Like his dad, Trumpeter is a proud father of two sons. He’s also a grandfather to “two lovely grandchildren.” Although Trumpeter has not set a date for his retirement, he does say he’s approaching the end of his career. To keep busy, he plans to develop a practice as a civil mediator. The switch will provide Trumpeter with yet another new frontier to explore. One thing won’t change, though: If he ever needs to travel, his briefcases will be lined up and ready.