- Adoption
- Criminal DefenseOrtale Kelley has been committed to providing superior legal representation to the firm’s individual and institutional clients. Ortale Kelley with its office located in downtown Nashville, Tennessee, has established itself as one of middle Tennessee’s pre-eminent law firms. Our talented and creative lawyers are dedicated to excellence in the practice of law. In addition to the well-established litigation practice, Ortale Kelley has developed and provides efficient and effective legal representation in transactional practices as well. Ortale Kelley prides itself on its diverse practice areas, with specialized fields such as healthcare liability and alcohol beverage law, to more traditional fields like real estate and criminal law.
- Wrongful DeathIn the civil litigation area, Mickey has been recognized as a Rising Star by Super Lawyers. In the civil rights and employment area, Mickey has successfully handled significant numbers of sexual harassment, wrongful death, excessive force and other civil rights litigation matters. Â Mickey also represents restaurants, hotels, clubs and bar establishments that serve alcohol with all Tennessee state and local licensing and permitting for liquor, beer, dance, and special events.
- Sex Crimes
- Assault
- Corporate LawIn the area of corporate law, Ortale Kelley advises clients on a vast number of business matters. These can range from negotiating employment contracts to addressing shareholder demands. Our corporate attorneys also represent and advise our corporate clients with respect to various insurance issues, including casualty, liability, and workers’ compensation. We can assist and advise you with respect to asset and stock purchase transactions and corporate dissolutions, as well as officer and director liability. No matter the size of your business, Ortale Kelley will help you reach your goals, protect your interests, and avoid serious legal issues.
- Business FormationMr. Spining, an AV-Rated Lawyer, primarily practices in the Litigation Section, concentrating in Employment Defense, Insurance Defense, Governmental Entity Defense, Civil Rights Defense, Transportation Defense, Intellectual Property, Tax & Commercial Litigation. Mr. Spining also assists business clients with regulatory, insurance, taxation, corporate governance, intellectual property, business formation & transactional issues.
- Business DisputesAfter graduating from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville as a finance major, William decided to return to Nashville and earned a J.D. from Belmont College of Law, where he received a Health Law Certificate and the Best Performance Award for Health Law Practicum Course. As a law student, William interned with Dollar General’s in-house counsel, where he experienced the unique challenges a large corporation faces on a daily basis. During this internship, he researched and cataloged employment law regulations and statutes for stores located throughout the United States, attended a board of directors meeting and annual shareholders meeting, and shadowed the employment law, securities law, and business law divisions. While in school, William also competed in the 2015 Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot in Vienna, Austria, which attracts more than three hundred law schools from all around the world, and was later elected as Vice President of the Belmont Board of Advocates International Arbitration Team.
- Business TransactionsOrtale Kelley real estate attorneys will work with you on any issue involved in your real estate process, from drafting and negotiating contracts to zoning issues. Our attorneys are not only able to represent our clients in residential and commercial transactions, but also have the skills to litigate disputes that arise during the real estate process. Ortale Kelley attorneys act as agents for most of the major title insurance underwriters for transactions involving real property in Tennessee. Our knowledge of the complex nature of the real estate industry allows our attorneys to handle issues swiftly and effectively, allowing our client to focus on the transaction at hand. Our approach is to provide our clients with creative solutions to their legal issues, regardless of the size of the transaction or the size of the client.
- Limited Liability Companies
- Construction Contracts
- Trade Secrets
- Intellectual Property
- Workers CompensationSince joining the firm, Rick has worked on a variety of cases across multiple practice areas, including homeowner and condominium association disputes, governmental liability defense, and workers compensation defense and settlement.
- Wrongful Termination
- Employment DiscriminationMickey began his practice with Ortale Kelley in 2007. Â Since then, he defended civil litigants in a variety of matters in both state and federal courts, including appeals to the Court of Appeals and Supreme Court of Tennessee and the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. These matters include everything from employment discrimination, premises liability to wrongful deaths.
- Employment ContractOrtale Kelley employment law attorneys represent private and public employers through every step of their relationship with employees. From the signing of an employment agreement to the termination of an employment relationship, and every step in between, we provide advice and direction regarding how to handle and settle workplace disputes with a mind to preventing these disputes in the first place.
- Employment LitigationThere are unique legal duties and liabilities in the both tort and employment law context that affect the food and restaurant industries. Ortale Kelley attorneys have been counsel to many national and regional restaurant franchises and bring with them the skill and knowledge of this business. Ortale Kelley has been counsel to this industry in dram shop liability claims, slip and fall torts, wrongful death claims involving third-party criminal conduct and security issues, worker’s compensation and the numerous employment claims that arise in this context, including wage and hour matters, harassment and discrimination suits, and the like. Our attorneys have defended a variety of clients that include restaurants, convenience stores, fast food chains, and bars.
- Non-compete Agreement
- Sexual HarassmentFollowing his graduation from law school, Kiel had the privilege to clerk for the Honorable Michael W. Binkley and the Honor Joseph A. Woodruff in the Twenty-First Judicial District Circuit and Chancery Courts in Williamson County, Tennessee. As a law clerk, Kiel authored initial drafts of orders and memoranda articulating decisions made by the trial judges in civil, domestic, and criminal cases. After his clerkship, Kiel worked as a staff attorney for the federal government where he defended clients and stakeholders in a variety of employment related matters brought before administrative tribunals. Kiel also has experience defending civil litigants in cases involving sexual harassment, governmental liability, and other civil rights litigation matters.
- Real Estate LitigationOrtale Kelley helps restaurants, bars, hotels, package liquor stores, grocery stores, convenience centers, other retail establishments, and distilleries with obtaining liquor licenses and beer permits. Additionally, we represent business entities and individual business owners with citations for alleged violations of beer and/or alcoholic beverage laws, business entity formation, and real estate matters associated with licensing. Ortale Kelley provides cost-effective services and solutions, whether we are assisting a local bar owner or a national restaurant chain. Our flat-fee rates are designed with our clients’ budgets in mind, allowing them to focus on providing valued services to their customers.
- Premises LiabilityPREMISES LIABILITY DEFENDANT/EXPERT TESTIMONY:  Plaintiff was a middle aged, gainfully employed maintenance supervisor of a property management company. While inspecting the status of a roof repair, he fell 18 feet off the stationary ladder of a strip mall. The fall broke multiple bones in his hand and arm and left him with constant, severe pain rendering him permanently disabled. He had several hundred thousand dollars of medical expenses by the time he filed suit against the building’s owner contending that the stationary ladder, which was not fabricated and mounted to ANSI standards, caused his fall. Chuck defended the building owner. Using a ladder expert from Charleston (SC), he introduced enough doubt about liability to settle it at mediation for only slightly more than medical expenses.
- Construction LitigationDuring his career, he has handled a variety of cases dealing with workers’ compensation, employment, commercial and tort litigation. Mr. Moore has trial experience in matters involving adoption, business relations, construction defects, insurance contracts, premises liability, personal injury, and workers’ compensation. Mr. Moore regularly provides seminars concerning auto insurance coverage including underinsured/uninsured coverage and workers’ compensation matters.
- Real Estate TransactionsReal estate transactions and the issues they present encompass vast and overlapping areas of the law. From property law to contract interpretation to insurance law, real estate attorneys must possess expertise in many other areas of the law, as well as have access to the local resources required to finalize or enforce a deal. Ortale Kelley’s real estate attorneys represent a broad range of clients across the state of Tennessee and across the borders of Tennessee into other Southeastern states.
- Land Use and Zoning
- Landlord-Tenant DisputesTodd A. Bricker is a partner at Ortale Kelley. Having joined the firm in 1999, Mr. Bricker’s primary area of practice is in real estate, with an emphasis on transactional and contract law. Additionally, he is experienced in landlord-tenant issues and title disputes. Although real estate is his main focus, Mr. Bricker has extensive trial experience, both jury and non-jury, with commercial and tort litigation, in matters including contract disputes, premise liability, and construction defects. During his career, Mr. Bricker has represented several publicly traded companies, including market-leading Real Estate Investment Trusts. Mr. Bricker has been admitted to practice before both the Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit and the Supreme Court of the United States.
- Condominium LawThe growth of Nashville and the increase in subdivisions and condominiums in our great city has brought with it an increase in issues relating to the area of Homeowner Association and Condominium Law. At Ortale Kelley, our attorneys are on the forefront of this rapidly growing area of law. We provide legal services to Homeowner Associations and condominium owners involved in traditional legal issues such as assessment collection and covenant enforcement, however we also have experience in issues unique to this area of law, including the rise in short term rental properties.
- Personal InjuryYou’ve been in an accident. Maybe you yourself were injured and now, you are being sued for someone else’s injuries. Or maybe an injury occurred on your premises and you are being blamed. Ortale Kelley personal injury attorneys are here to advise you as to whether you are at fault, vigorously defend you if you are not at fault, and deal with the complicated logistics of insurance so you don’t have to. Our goal is simple, to settle disputes quickly, while maintaining the best possible outcome for our clients.
- Medical MalpracticeLitigation involving health care liability, sometimes referred to as medical malpractice, is some of the most complex litigation in the legal field that often involves high stakes for health care practitioners, health care facilities, and insurance providers. Ortale Kelley health care liability attorneys have extensive experience in this area of the law which involves injuries received in the course of medical treatment. Our attorneys are well equipped to handle the highly technical aspects of a health care liability claim and have successfully defended clients in state and federal trial and appellate courts.
- Dog Bites
- Estate PlanningMr. Herbert attended Georgia Institute of Technology, obtaining an undergraduate degree in Industrial Engineering in 1958 and his law degree from the Nashville School of Law in 1967. Between Georgia Tech and the Nashville School of Law, Mr. Herbert served in the United Stated Air Force as a weather officer. Mr. Herbert has extensive experience in both jury and bench trials in the area of commercial litigation, contract cases, and cases involving title insurance claims. He has also appeared as a seminar speaker on the subject of real estate litigation. Mr. Herbert retired from Ortale Kelley in 2017 after 50 years of practicing law.
- WillsChuck has over 28 years of experience in Civil Litigation representing individuals and businesses as plaintiffs and defendants in state and federal courts. He also has considerable experience in Wills & Probate, Franchise Law, and Business Organizations.  Â
- Probate
- ForeclosureWhether you are a local community bank or a national lending institution, hiring an Ortale Kelley banking attorney to assist in your transactions will help protect your bottom line. We will comb through your loan documents to make sure you are protected and will represent your interests in the event of a bankruptcy foreclosure. Our real estate expertise allows us to have a complete understanding of the loan process from start to finish, which means we can handle any issues that may arise all the way through foreclosure, if necessary. With more eighty years of combined experience, our banking attorneys bring unparalleled attention and understanding to this practice, allowing Ortale Kelley to serve its banking clients promptly and aggressively.
- Tax Law