Fearsome Firm Cunningham Bounds Carries Big Stick in Civil Litigation


It's a reception area befitting Mobile's "most feared" civil litigation firm: Fresh flowers in tall vases, a gracefully curving staircase, and three massive Waterford crystal chandeliers.

The Dauphin Street firm of Cunningham, Bounds, Yance, Crowder and Brown, L.L.C., wears the trappings of success.

"We have an outstanding group of courtroom advocates," said Robert T. "Bobo" Cunningham Jr. of the firm that originated with his father, Robert T. Cunningham Sr., and Richard Bounds, now both retired.

Nine partners steer the law firm through the successful resolution of court disputes, frequently winning record-breaking verdicts for their clients and sizable fees for the attorneys.

As the lead name on the firm letterhead, Cunningham said he sometimes gets credit for successes more properly attributed to his partners, associates, and "outstanding staff of investigators, paralegals, secretaries and others."

It takes the whole team to build a successful case, Cunningham contends.

"A trial is a long process," he said. "It's like building a skyscraper; you have to build it from the ground up."

Cunningham, Bounds as a firm - as several of the partners - were voted "most feared," Cunningham said, because their names on plaintiff documents mean an uphill battle is in store for the defense.

"I think we've set every record I know of ... in all categories I'm aware of in the state," Cunningham said. "Products liability, medical malpractice, insurance fraud, wrongful death verdicts."

Cunningham suggests that his firm is successful because it picks its battles.

"We are extremely careful about which cases we take," he said. "We want to be sure that our client is right before we file a lawsuit."

They didn't always have that luxury, Cunningham conceded.

"Twenty-five years ago, my partners and I were in traffic court, district court. We were handling anything we could get our hands on."