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Walter
M. Jones, III is the Managing Shareholder at Martin & Seibert, L.C. He practices
primarily in the area of civil litigation defense with an emphasis on insurance
and class action defense. He has earned an AV® certification by Martindale-Hubbell
which is a significant rating accomplishment - a testament to the fact that the
lawyer’s peers rank him at the highest level of professional excellence. Mr.
Jones’ early experience included time as an attorney assigned to U.S. Legal Services
Agency [Department of the Army], where during his 4 years of service he developed
extensive criminal trial experience and managed medical malpractice claims and
litigation. As an individually requested legal defense counsel, Mr. Jones handled
hundreds of trials, with most involving serious felonies, conspiracies or actions
under foreign S.O.F.A. jurisdiction. After his time at the Pentagon, he served
as a legal advisor to a major medical center, where he provided risk management
counsel and evaluated and settled medical malpractice claims under the Federal
Tort Claims Act. Mr. Jones has litigated a number of noteworthy
matters of first impression before both state and federal courts. He has been
an expert witness on insurance extra-contractual claims, has served as lead counsel
on insurance-related class actions and has consulted on regional and national
class action cases. Using his background in the computer and technological sciences,
Mr. Jones has been very active in current issues regarding document retrieval
and storage, e-discovery and relational database management. Mr. Jones has directed
national class action discovery involving millions of records, and has often consulted
with offices of general counsel on internal document management and control. Mr.
Jones also serves as Discovery Coordinating Counsel and Consulting Technical Counsel
for a national, multi-line insurance carrier. He has also actively litigated the
production of discovery in a number of class actions and multi-jurisdiction actions.
This expertise reflects the firm’s mastery of cutting-edge technology, advancing
document retrieval and storage, e-discovery and relational database management.
The firm recently completed an e-discovery project utilizing Summation®, a litigation
support program. “We’re pleased with the firm’s success in using our iBlaze product,”
says Tom Rump, Vice-President of Litigation Solutions for CT Summation. “Martin
& Seibert’s result demonstrates a best-practice benchmark for large cases.” Mr.
Jones is a frequent lecturer in the insurance industry, speaking predominantly
on topics such as coverage, insurance claims practices (bad faith), claims management,
catastrophic damage control, and class action litigation management. He has served
as an Arbitrator for the American Arbitration Association and is also an active
member of many highly-regarded legal affiliations such as the International Association
of Defense Counsel, American Bar Association standing committees, Defense Research
Institute, Commercial Law League of America and several other practice-oriented
institutes, bars and associations.
Mr. Jones has repeatedly been selected as a Super Lawyer in WV since the recognition began in 2007. This recognition is only available for the top
5% of the lawyers in the state. The attorneys and staff of Martin & Seibert, L.C.
were honored as a “Go-To” law firm for the nation’s “Leading Financial Services
Companies in 2007.” This special edition publication, distributed by ALM (formerly
American Lawyer Media), the company that publishes Corporate Counsel® magazine,
also individually recognized Mr. Jones within the publication for his litigation
experience and his defense of commercial, extra-contractual and class actions.
The firm was again recognized in 2008 as a “Go-To” law firm in the publication,
“At the Top 500 Companies.” Mr. Jones was most recently recognized in a feature
on West Virginia in U.S. News and World Report®, published January 14, 2008.
Mr.
Jones has also proven himself to be very community-minded as well, serving in
various positions and holding numerous offices on behalf of the American Red Cross,
the United Way, and The American Cancer Society. His hours of dedication have
also led to involvement in dozens of fundraising and membership drives. Mr. Jones
has also served as chair of the West Virginia Public Defenders Corporation, Berkeley
County. Mr. Jones is admitted to practice before the U.S.
Supreme Court, U.S. Court of Military Appeals and Army Court of Military Review,
the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, the District of Columbia Court
of Appeals and all West Virginia state and federal courts. In his 28 years of
practice, he has over 20 published cases of significance to his practice. |
