The Legal Dream Team that Devised and Perfected the Art of Laser Litigation

By: Donald V. Watkins

Copyrighted and Published on January 8, 2026 

An Editorial Opinion

When I retired from the practice of law in 2019, I had amassed a win-loss record of 217 courtroom victories and 8 defeats.  About 154 of those victories were procured during the years I worked from my Birmingham, Alabama law office. 

Most of the Birmingham courtroom victories occurred after I formed a dream team of litigation attorneys that consisted of Joe Whatley, Rick Kuykendall, Sam Heldman, Kenneth Thomas, H. Lewis Gillis, Andrew Allen, Peter Burke, and Candis McGowan.  Valton Johnson and Joseph Cole were our superstar paralegals.

The combined brainpower on this dream team was off the charts.  I enjoyed directing and supervising their work on cases where losing was not an acceptable option.  Every one of these professionals was extremely gifted in his/her craft.  Their collective brilliance was spellbinding.  As a team, we set and broke a lot of records in American jurisprudence.

We enjoyed working with each other in the team's war room at the law firm of Cooper, Mitch, Crawford, Kuykendall & Whatley.  We devised a litigation technique that was designed to ensure victory in each case.  First, we organized into three teams that would work in 8-hour shifts on each assigned case, each day.  Next, we fired off a barrage of substantive motions, briefs, and reports in each case each day.  This Blitzkrieg approached overwhelmed our opponents.  We called our technique “laser litigation.”  

Laser litigation even wore down the U.S. government in criminal cases targeting Birmingham Mayor Richard Arrington, Jr. (from 1988 to 1992) and Chief U.S. District Court Judge U.W. Clemon (in 1996).  The government eventually abandoned its criminal investigations in each man's case.

Later, Lewis Gillis joined me in deploying laser litigation in the successful criminal defense of former HealthSouth CEO Richard Scrushy, who won a dismissal and/or acquittals on all 85 felony counts in his 2003 indictment.

After my first retirement in 1998, all of us went our separate ways.  I ventured into the banking and clean energy worlds and only occasionally took on a selected civil or criminal case of special interest.  The other team members continued to enjoy highly successful careers in law. 

My work with this dream team of exceptionally talented lawyers spoiled me. I retired permanently as a litigator in 2019 with the satisfaction of knowing that no litigator in America is likely to break my 217-8 win-loss record in courtroom victories during my lifetime.