Litigation

Since its formation, the firm has retained an emphasis on the representation of local, state-wide, and national corporations in the conduct of their business affairs, including litigation. Representative clients include American National Red Cross, Hesston Corporation, Hesston Credit Corporation, Atlantic & Gulf Railroad, The Glidden Company, Gray Communications Systems, Inc., The Albany Herald Publishing Company, Hall-ing Refuse, Deerfield-Windsor School, Celtic Life Insurance Company, Employer's Casualty Insurance Company, American National Property and Casualty Company, MMI Companies, Inc., Ranger Insurance Company, and American General Life and Accident Company. The firm’s litigation experience is substantial and quite diverse. The attorneys of Langley & Lee have defended cases based upon products liability (automobiles, blueprint photocopy machines, electrical fixtures, asbestos products), discrimination (age, race, handicap), municipal liability (negligence, nuisance, 42 U.S.C. §1983), defamation (personal, business, credit), ERISA, RICO, construction contracts, secured lending, restraint of trade, professional malpractice, as well as more routine matters such as car wrecks and slip-and-falls. The firm has been involved in significant litigation in such corporate matters as franchise agreements, dissolution of closely held businesses, and enforcement of non-competition agreements. It is a testament to the firm’s litigation expertise that it is often called upon to serve as local counsel for litigation being conducted in local courts by attorneys from around the country. The firm's litigation practice still includes some defense of insured parties, but has always included significant litigation on the part of various corporate and business entities. The firm also has a limited practice representing plaintiffs, which is felt to provide invaluable experience in connection with the firm's defense practice. The firm’s case load includes matters pending throughout the State of Georgia, in both federal and state courts, at the trial and appellate levels.
 

Healthcare Law

One area of the firm’s special expertise is the healthcare industry. The firm is counsel for Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital, Inc., Southwest Georgia Community Health Institute, Inc., Albany Community Hospice, Southwest Georgia Family Practice Residency Program, Magnolia Medical Center, P.C., and Albany Area Primary Health Care, Inc., which operates rural primary health care clinics in three Southwest Georgia counties, and also operates the only rural HIV/AIDS clinic in the area. Langley & Lee’s healthcare practice is broad and diverse, encompassing the full panoply of issues related to that industry, including certificates of need, other health planning issues, general risk management, contracting, reimbursement, credentialing and other medical staff issues, managed care, home health, utilization review, medical consents, advance directives, hospice care, skilled nursing facilities, indigent care, etc. Of course, its litigation practice includes substantial experience in cases for these healthcare clients.
 

Business, Corporate, and Commercial Law

Langley & Lee does a substantial volume of work in the corporate, business, and transactional areas. The firm’s healthcare clients are generally corporate clients as well, and the firm’s work with those clients includes general corporate and transactional work which is not dissimilar to the counsel it provides to other corporate clients. Langley & Lee has recently represented clients in multi-million dollar transactions involving the purchase and sale of a waste management business, an interstate trucking company, two home health agencies, and a 49 bed community hospital, as well as many other smaller transactions involving the purchase and sale of business or professional entities. The firm’s corporate practice includes not only the representation of business corporations, but also a substantial number of non-profit corporate entities. The firm’s expertise extends not only to these corporate entities, but all types of business formations, including partnerships, limited liability companies, professional corporations, etc.
 

Real Estate

Langley & Lee maintains a varied real estate practice, focusing both on commercial transactions and residential closings.  The firm is approved as a closing agent for all major lenders, and is an issuing agent for Lawyers Title Insurance Corporation and Attorney Title Guaranty Fund, Inc.   The practice spans the field from residential to commercial, bond issues, and areas related to the development of real estate, such as real estate related litigation and zoning and land use.
 

Other Services

The firm's litigation practice has expanded over the years to include a variety of administrative matters, including the defense of workers' compensation claims, unemployment benefit claims, local, state, and federal tax controversies, reimbursement issues before Georgia's Department of Medical Assistance, and health care licensing and regulatory issues before Georgia's Department of Human Resources. The addition of Mr. Calhoun in 1999 has further expanded the scope of the firm's expertise in administrative/ regulatory matters, including certificates of need, insurance regulation and insolvency, teacher certification, and school law.

Langley & Lee is experienced in alternative dispute resolution, and often is successful in resolving disputes for its clients without resorting to the vagaries of trial before judge or jury. In addition to representing clients in ADR for many years, both Mr. Langley and Mr. Lee have often served as mediators, experience which inures to the direct benefit of the clients of Langley & Lee who participate in arbitration, mediation, etc.
 

The firm also has a significant practice in the areas of wills, trusts, and probate and strives to assist its individual clients in these areas both effectively and expeditiously.

Mr. Gregory, Mr. Davis and Mr. Orlowski have substantial prior experience in local government law and have represented numerous local government entities in real estate transactions, eminent domain proceedings, contracts, drafting ordinances, and other governmental regulations.  The firm serves as counsel to Albany Tomorrow, Inc. and the City of Leesburg, Georgia, and strongly believes that public policy should be set by duly appointed or elected officials and that the role of the attorney is to guide those persons making policy through the legal aspects of the policy making process.