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J. Keith Givens

J. Keith Givens has been a civil trial lawyer for consumers and injury victims for over twenty-nine years. Givens was a finalist for the 2008 Trial Lawyer of the Year Award, as recognized by the Public Justice Foundation for his work on the environmental case of Perrine v. E.I. DuPont de Nemours and Company. The trial of the Perrine case resulted in a $390 million verdict, the highest consumer verdict in the U.S. for the year.

As a senior partner of The Cochran Firm, Givens serves as a member of The Cochran Firm's management team for national operations. Givens has been a board certified civil trial lawyer (1989-2009) who has concentrated his practice in the area of personal injury and wrongful death. Currently, he focuses his practice on truck accident cases, product claims, and complex litigation. Givens obtained the state of Alabama's highest verdict for a single wrongful death ($25 million) against a drunk driver and lounge, for the death of a lawyer killed while jogging. He was also the attorney for plaintiffs in a $700 million settlement of an environmental case involving PCB, the largest settlement in the history of the state of Alabama.

Givens is past president of The National Trial Lawyers legal association, an invitation only association of the Top 100 Trial Lawyers from each state. He is currently an Executive Committee Member of The National Trial Lawyers and a member of the Editorial Board for The Trial Lawyer, the largest distributed magazine for Trial Lawyers.

The Trial Lawyer named Givens as a 2011 member of The Round Table: America’s 100 Most Influential Trial Lawyers. Members of The Round Table are among the top 100 civil plaintiffs and criminal defense attorneys in the United States.

The Martindale-Hubbell Bar Register recognized Givens for his professional achievements, legal ability and professional ethical standards by awarding him an AV® Preeminent Peer Review Rating™ in the practice areas of Personal Injury, Wrongful Death and Products Liability. An AV® Preeminent Peer Review Rating™ is the highest rating of professional excellence and reflects the confidential opinions of members of the Bar and the Judiciary.

Givens is a member of the Alabama Bar Association, the Georgia Bar Association, and the Florida Bar Association. He has been a member of the Georgia Trial Lawyers Association, the Academy of Florida Trial Lawyers, and the Alabama Trial Lawyers Association (currently known as The Alabama Association for Justice), where he has served as president-elect (2000) and president (2001). Givens also served as president of the Alabama Civil Justice Foundation, and he was president of the Southeast Alabama Trial Lawyers Association for two years. He has been a Board Certified Civil Trial Lawyer by the Florida Bar Association (1989 – 2009) and by the National Board of Trial Advocacy (1990 – 2007). He is a sustaining member and has served on the Board of Governors for the Association of Trial Lawyers of America, now the American Association for Justice (AAJ). Givens was the recipient of the Al Sansone Service Award, the highest award of service recognized by the Alabama Trial Lawyers Association (ATLA). A graduate of the University of Alabama, Givens earned undergraduate degrees in both Psychology and Business Administration. He obtained his Juris Doctor from the University of Alabama School of Law where he was a finalist in the John A. Campbell Moot Court competition. In 2004, Givens was named by the University of Alabama as the first Howell Heflin Guest Lecturer. He currently serves on the University of Alabama Law School Foundation Board of Directors. As an author and speaker, he has written and spoken on a wide range of topics concerning trial skills.