Ashe Rafuse & Hill partners among Georgia’s Top Lawyers: 2011 Legal Elite

Partners in Midtown-based law firm Ashe Rafuse & Hill, LLP, are among the 2011 Legal Elite in Georgia Trend magazine’s ninth annual listing, as selected by their peers.

R. Lawrence Ashe, Jr., Chair; Nancy E. Rafuse, Managing Partner; and James J. (Jim) Swartz, Jr., Partner, were recognized in Labor & Employment. William B. Hill, Jr., Partner, was recognized in General Practice/Trial Law.

“Peer recognition is particularly appreciated,” says Rafuse. “I am honored and appreciate the nod, and of course consider Lawrence, Hill and Jim to be among the best. We are pleased that our peers affirmed that through Georgia Trend.”

To compile the list, Georgia Trend mails ballots to a sampling of attorneys who are members of the State Bar of Georgia; a ballot is also posted on the magazine’s Web site. Any attorney who is a member of the state bar and lives and practices in Georgia was eligible to vote and be voted onto the list. The listing is determined solely by lawyers’ votes.

Atlanta-based Ashe Rafuse & Hill, LLP focuses on employment, civil rights, and commercial litigation nationally.

Lawrence Ashe is completing his 44th year advising clients on and litigating employment law and civil rights matters. He also is nationally recognized for his class-action and test validation experience and has been acclaimed by the National Law Journal as the “Dean of the Management Class Action Bar.” He has tried more employment and employment selection class actions to judgment than any other management lawyer in the country, including some of the largest cases tried to date.

Nancy E. Rafuse is the Managing Partner of Ashe Rafuse & Hill. She has represented employers in all aspects of employment and civil rights litigation, including collective and class actions. In addition to class actions, Nancy serves as lead trial counsel for corporations in a number of alleged employment discrimination actions and frequently is retained to handle expert witness issues. She is regularly invited to speak to management and human resources groups on employment and labor issues. Nancy is admitted to practice in Georgia and many federal courts throughout the United States.

William B. Hill, Jr., or "Hill" as he prefers to be called, concentrates his practice on commercial and complex litigation, with a particular emphasis on products liability, Lanham Act, and employment defense. Hill also regularly serves as mediator and arbitrator in a variety of commercial and civil rights disputes. Prior to joining the firm, Hill was a partner with Lawrence Ashe and Nancy Rafuse at an international 800-attorney law firm. He also previously served as a Judge on the Superior Court of the Atlanta Judicial Circuit in Atlanta, Georgia, and as a State Court Judge for the State Court of Fulton County, Georgia. Before his tenure on the bench, Hill worked for thirteen years with the Georgia Attorney General's Office, where he served in many capacities, including Deputy Attorney General.

As a member of the Firm’s Employment Law Section, Jim Swartz represents clients in employment, civil rights, and public accommodations cases, including matters brought pursuant to Titles II and VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, the Fair Labor Standards Act, Section 1981 of the Civil Rights Act of 1866, and the Family and Medical Leave Act. Prior to joining the Firm in 2005, Jim represented clients in general litigation matters at an international law firm for five years. His cases there included construction disputes, breach of contract claims, trade secret misappropriations, Fair Credit Reporting Act lawsuits, and fraud cases.