Joe Finley is a litigator and trial lawyer with over 20 years of experience representing companies in high-stake business and tort litigation. His practice focuses on large and complex construction and commercial cases in federal, state, and bankruptcy courts, as well as arbitrations and mediations.
Joe led a team of Jones Day lawyers representing the owners of the Vogtle Units 3 & 4 Project in a three-year litigation concerning more than $1.5 billion in alleged cost overruns relating to the design and construction of the first new nuclear projects licensed in the United States in more than 30 years. He is currently representing the Vogtle owners in construction litigation involving the project's electric bus systems. He also served as lead counsel in a series of construction cases involving much of the technological infrastructure of Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta. He has substantial experience with claims concerning schedule delay, cost overruns, and defective design and workmanship. His recent trial experience includes a multiweek civil jury trial that was part of a series of product liability cases across the country.
Before joining Jones Day, Joe served as a prosecutor in the U.S. Navy JAG Corps representing the government as lead counsel in a dozen felony jury trials and more than 50 bench trials and contested sentencing hearings. Joe is recognized by Chambers USA as a leading construction lawyer and is a member of the ABA Forum on Construction Law. He also serves as a guest instructor for Emory Law School's Kessler-Eidson Program For Trial Techniques.
Experience
Additional Speaking Engagements
- December 14, 2012
Opening Statements and Direct Examination, NBI Seminar on Advanced Trial Tactics - October 24, 2012
Perfecting the Attorney-Expert Relationship - February 20, 2007
Options Backdating - Defense Strategies, Investigations and Professional liability Coverage, DRI Teleconference, presented by DRI's Commercial Litigation Committee
- Emory University (J.D. with distinction 1995; Order of the Coif; Graduated second in class; Managing Editor, Law Journal; Winner of the 1995 Emory Law Day Moot Court Competition); University of California, San Diego (B.A. in Political Science with high distinction 1991); Georgetown University (Institute on Political Journalism, summer program 1990)
- Florida, District of Columbia, Georgia, and licensed to practice before the Court of Appeals of the Armed Forces
- Lieutenant Commander, U.S. Navy Judge Advocate General's Corps, where he served as a prosecutor from 1995 to 1998
Winner, Georgia "Commercial Litigation Department of the Year," The Daily Report, April 23, 2014
Winner, Georgia "General Litigation Department of the Year," The Daily Report, April 25, 2013