Scotty Welch is a shareholder in the Firm's Jackson office. He is a civil trial lawyer with current emphasis on commercial disputes, lawyers' professional liability and disciplinary actions (including service as an expert witness), financial services litigation and insurance coverage issues, along with personal injury, business tort, commercial transportation and product liability litigation, and first-party insurance disputes. He has experience in the trial and appeals of catastrophic bodily injury and death cases; industrial, agricultural and aviation product liability cases; and complex commercial and insurance litigation of all types. Mr. Welch appears as counsel in more than 125 reported decisions of the Mississippi Supreme Court, Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, Mississippi Court of Appeals and United States Districts Courts in Mississippi.
Mr. Welch is a Past President of The Mississippi Bar, a Past National President of the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA) and of the Foundation of ABOTA. He served as State Delegate to the ABA House of Delegates from Mississippi (2001 – 2006), Member of the ABA Board of Governors (2006 – 2009) and Member of the ABA House of Delegates (1993 –2009). As a Member of the Board of Governors, Mr. Welch served as its Liaison to the Tort Trial and Insurance Practice Section (TIPS) and to ABA's Standing Committees on Judicial Independence, Lawyer Professional Liability, Medical Professional Liability and Membership. He is currently serving his final year of a three-year term as a member of the ABA Standing Committee on Judicial Independence and was named to a three-year term as Mississippi State Chair of The Fellows of the American Bar Foundation in August 11.
- Counsel for major insurers in Mississippi regulatory matters (rate increases).
- Counsel for insurance company in putative class actions related to cancer policies.
- Counsel for other major corporations in putative class actions involving products and services.
- Counsel for financial institutions in various litigated matters, including consumer litigation and fraud matters.
- Counsel for a major insurance company in Hurricane Katrina coverage cases filed by the Attorney General of Mississippi and the former Scruggs' Katrina Group.
- Counsel for a major insurance company in Hurricane Katrina coverage and wind pool putative class actions, successfully opposing class certification in all.
- Counsel for leading issuer of annuity policies in multiple suits challenging suitability of the product.
- Appellate counsel in Hurricane Katrina and other litigation.
- Counsel for various Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) in product liability matters involving recreational vehicles, general aviation aircraft, trucks and industrial equipment.
- Counsel for trucking companies and others in various serious bodily injury and wrongful death cases.
- Faculty, IADC Defense Counsel Trial Academy, 1997
- Faculty, ABA TIPS Trial Academy, 2003
- Faculty, ABOTA Masters in Trial Programs in several states
- Faculty, Mississippi ABOTA Trial Practice Classes at University of Mississippi School of Law and Mississippi College School of Law
- Judge in various moot court competitions
- Participant, The Mississippi Bar's James O. Dukes Professional Responsibility Programs at Mississippi College School of Law 1L Orientations
- Listed in Best Lawyers in America® in Personal Injury Litigation since 1995; additional listings in Commercial Litigation, since 2007, Product Liability Litigation, since 2008 and Transportation Litigation, since 2011
- Named the Best Lawyers' 2011 Jackson, Mississippi Personal Injury Litigator of the Year
- Listed in Chambers USA: America's Leading Business Lawyers since 1st Edition in 2006
- Named a Lawdragon 500 Leading Lawyer since 2006
- Awarded the Mississippi Defense Lawyers Association's Lifetime Achievement Award (2012)
- Fellow – American College of Trial Lawyers
- Fellow – Litigation Counsel of America
- Listed in Who's Who in American Law since 1st Edition
- Listed as among top 50 attorneys in Mississippi by Mid-South Super Lawyers since 2006
- Member – The Mississippi Bar, President, 1994 – 1995; Distinguished Service Award, 2004
- Listed as a "Leader in Law" by the Mississippi Business Journal, 2010
- Member – American Bar Association: Board of Governors, 2006 – 2009 (BOG Liaison to Tort Trial and Insurance Practice Section (TIPS), and to Standing Committees on Judicial Independence, Lawyers' Professional Liability and Medical Professional Liability), Mississippi State Delegate to House of Delegates, 2001 – 2006; Caucus of State Delegates; House of Delegates, 1993 – 2009: Nominating Committee, Committee on Issues of Concern to the Profession, Technology Committee; Standing Committee on Public Education; Commission on Homelessness and Poverty; Standing Committee on Judicial Independence; TIPS National Trial Academy Special Standing Committee, 2009 – 2011; TIPS ABA/TIPS Committee
- Advocate – ABOTA, National President, 2001
- Sustaining Life Fellow – American Bar Foundation
- Mississippi State Chair, The Fellows of the American Bar Foundation
- Senior Life Fellow – Foundation of ABOTA
- Fellow – The Mississippi Bar Foundation
- Member – International Association of Defense Counsel (IADC), Trial Attorneys of America, Defense Research Institute, Trucking Industry Defense Association (TIDA), ABA Section of Litigation and Tort Trial and Insurance Practice Sections
- Mississippi, 1964
- United States Districts Courts Northern District of Mississippi, 1964; Southern District of Mississippi, 1967; Eastern and Western Districts of Arkansas, 1983
- United States Court of Appeals, 1968
- Supreme Court of the United States, 1968
- The University of the South (Sewanee), B. A., 1961, cum laude
- University of Mississippi, Bachelor of Laws, 1964, with distinction
- Member – Mississippi Supreme Court Commission on Impaired Lawyers
- Member, Board of Directors – Harbor House of Jackson, Inc.
- Member – MS Lawyers and Judges Assistance Program (LJAP)
- Member – Capital Area Bar Association Committees on Law Related Education and Bench/Bar Relations