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Caitlin S. Colley

Associate

Caitlin Colley is a trial lawyer and trusted advisor who focuses on complex business disputes, risk management, and data privacy for commercial businesses and the hospitality industry.

Professional Biography


Caitlin Colley's legal experience spans more than nine years, during which time she served as a judicial law clerk, a civil litigator, and in the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General's Corps (JAG). In her practice, Ms. Colley defends hospitality brands in civil litigation and advises industry leaders as outside counsel – providing comprehensive, practical business solutions and risk assessments throughout stages of litigation and business operations.

Ms. Colley supports clients through preventative risk management across general liability, premises liability, and data security compliance matters. With a strong investigatory and trial evidence background, she is skilled in drafting trial pleadings, pre-trial evidentiary and legal arguments, determining pre-trial strategies, directing voir dire, and preparing experts for trial. Her experience also includes assisting clients with developing procedures for data privacy and information security risk management, and responding to data breaches, incidents, and related litigation. With a background in regulatory and litigation matters, she provides a unique, dual perspective to clients.

Previously, as an active-duty JAG trial attorney and officer, Ms. Colley gained lead counsel experience in more than 70 investigations across multiple federal, state, and defense agencies. She coordinated legal actions among more than 50 commanders while supervising ongoing investigations and litigation, becoming a trusted advisor and go-to for commanders. Ms. Colley also advised senior leaders and clients on international law, The Hague Conventions, and administrative law matters of ethics, government investigations, property, and fiscal law. Ms. Colley maintains an active U.S. Security Clearance, ensuring her access to critical information on behalf of clients.

Ms. Colley's prior civil litigation experience includes advising clients and businesses on matters including complex litigation suits, wrongful death actions, subrogation, and declaratory actions across multiple national insurance carriers. She successfully defended insured private businesses, municipalities, and governmental entities before state and federal trial courts.

After receiving her Juris Doctorate in 2015, Ms. Colley served as a Judicial Law Clerk to the Honorable David M. Bragg in the 16th Judicial District of Tennessee.

As a veteran, Ms. Colley now works with a number of non-profits that provide support to combat veterans and their family members.

  • Achieved a verdict in favor of landowners in a property dispute regarding a municipality's abandonment of and failure to maintain a prescriptive easement.

  • Represented commercial business owners in the sale of their businesses.

  • Advised national hospitality brands as outside general counsel and litigation counsel.

  • Successfully represented a national real estate company in multimillion-dollar lawsuits involving claims of fraud and breach of contract.

  • Successfully secured judgments for a commercial business involving breach of contract claims.

  • Successfully argued and obtained summary judgment in favor of all defendants involving breach of contract, breach of duty to third-party beneficiaries, and violations of the Tennessee Real Property Disclosures Act.

  • Achieved multiple trial verdicts in favor of a major national auto and home insurer.

  • The Warrior Alliance Veteran Legal Services Clinic & Pro Bono Volunteer (2022 – 2024)
  • Mentor – City of Refuge J17 Scholarship Program (2023 – 2024)
  • Member – Next OnBoard (2023 – 2024)
  • Recipient – Baker Donelson's Atlanta Pro Bono Attorney of the Year (2023)
  • Member – Junior League of Johnson City (2016 – 2018) and Junior League of Atlanta (2021 – 2023)
    • Awarded 2017 Provisional Member of the Year Award for commitment and dedication to community service
  • State Board of Directors, Member – Habitat for Humanity of Tennessee (2015 – 2018)
    • Participant – The Jimmy & Rosalynn Carter Work Project, Memphis, TN (2016)
  • Participant – Middle Tennessee State University Veterans and Military Family Center, Pro Bono Legal Clinic (2016); Legal Aid of East Tennessee, Pro Bono Legal Clinic for Gatlinburg Wildfires (2016)
  • Judicial Extern – The Honorable J. Ronnie Greer in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee (2014)
  • Winner – 2013 Hugh Lawson Moot Court Competition
  • "Special Victims' Counsel in the Military Justice System," US Army Garrison Bavaria and Ansbach, Germany (2019 – 2020)
  • "Responding to Property Investigations," U.S. Army Europe Legal Assistance CLE (2019)
  • "Administrative Law and Ethics for Commanders," Combined Arms Training Center, Vilseck, Germany (2018 – 2019)

Education

  • Mercer University, Walter F. George School of Law, J.D., 2015
  • Oxford University, Magdalen College, Comparative Property Law & International Law Tutorial, 2013
  • East Tennessee State University, B.S., 2012, cum laude

Admissions

  • Tennessee, 2015
  • Georgia, 2022
  • Supreme Court of Tennessee
  • Supreme Court of Georgia
  • U.S. Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee
  • U.S. Court of Appeals of the Sixth Circuit
  • U.S. Court for the Northern District of Georgia
  • U.S. Tax Court

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