JACKSONVILLE (September 20, 2010) — Smith, Gambrell & Russell announces the addition of James W. Middleton as a litigation partner in the firm’s Jacksonville office. Mr. Middleton joins SGR from the Jacksonville office of Rogers Towers, P.A.

Mr. Middleton’s practice includes complex commercial litigation, professional liability, products liability, intellectual property, class actions, bank failure FDIC litigation, business torts, and land use litigation. He has significant trial experience in both jury and nonjury trials in state and federal courts, and with appeals and arbitrations, including AAA. Mr. Middleton’s business litigation experience includes officer/director and shareholder derivative suits, antitrust, patent, trademark and Lanham Act litigation, fraud, products liability, contract, defamation and punitive damage claims.

“We are very proud to welcome Jim to our team,” said Dana Bradford, Managing Partner of the firm’s Jacksonville office. “He is a highly regarded litigator whose impressive combination of ability and experience will strengthen the firm’s already well-established litigation practice.”

Mr. Middleton has a Martindale Hubbell AV Preeminent Rating and is a Litigation Counsel of America Fellow. He received his B.S.B.A. from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill in 1978 and his J.D., magna cum laude, from Florida State University College of Law in 1985.

Mr. Middleton is a member of The Florida Bar, serving on the Civil Procedure Rules Committee and the Rules of Judicial Administration Committee, and is a member of the Trial Lawyers Section; The North Carolina State Bar; and the Jacksonville Bar Association. He is admitted to practice in U.S. District Courts, Middle, Northern and Southern Districts of Florida; the U.S. District Courts, Western, Eastern and Middle Districts of North Carolina; the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit; the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit; and the Supreme Court of the United States. Mr. Middleton can be reached by email, jmiddleton@sgrlaw.com, or by phone, 904-598-6108.