Sean Pierce

Practice Areas

Alternative Dispute Resolution

Antitrust Law

Arbitration and Mediation

Business Law

Civil Litigation

Commercial Litigation

Construction Law

Employment Law

Estate Planning, Wills, Trusts, Probate and Taxation

Health Law

Intellectual Property Law

Labor & Employment

Litigation

Noncompete, Unfair Trade Practices, and Trade Secrets

Professional Liability

Professional Licensing Practice

Real Estate Law

Sports Management

Workers' Compensation

Career

Sean C. Pierce is a member of Wallace, Jordan, Ratliff & Brandt, L.L.C. and practices across Alabama and the Southeast from its Birmingham office. Sean is rated AV Preeminent® by Martindale-Hubbell and has over 25 years of experience handling management (labor and employment, D&O, corporate and commercial litigation), technology (intellectual property, cyber security and data privacy and protection), and professional liability (including E&O and malpractice) claims and cases, with an emphasis on restrictive covenant and trade secret litigation, complex litigation and class actions, RICO and whistleblower claims, and other bet-the-company and save-your-career litigation. Sean is admitted to practice before al state and federal courts in Alabama and the 11th and Federal U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeals. His experience includes defending his clients in state and federal court, before municipal, state and federal administrative boards, and in arbitration. He serves as outside General Counsel for several clients, and as both a mediator and an arbitrator.

Perennially ranked among the Best Lawyers by U.S. News & World Reports, Super Lawyers and by The Best Lawyers in America, Sean represents management and employers in all aspects of labor and employment matters, and is particularly experienced in restrictive covenant (non-competes, non-solicitations, confidentiality and trade secrets) litigation, and litigation through trial and appeal of matters arising under state and federal laws and regulations. He has represented employers and the wrongly accused in the #MeToo Movement. Sean’s practice also focuses on the counsel and defense of professional liability claims against attorneys, accountants, financial advisers and institutions (including under FINRA), engineers, architects and other design professionals (including intellectual property disputes), insurance and real estate agents and brokers, officers and directors, and health care providers, from physicians to hospitals. Sean has also developed expertise in diversity and inclusion, ethics, compliance and internal investigations for both medical and non-medical institutions and companies. He is also experienced in shareholder, trust and estate litigation, product liability and mass, environmental and toxic tort litigation.

Sean received both his Bachelor of Science in Business and his Juris Doctorate from The University of Alabama. He received further education at the Duke University School of Law and the University of Oxford. He is admitted to practice before all state and federal courts in Alabama and the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals.

He is an Alabama and Mid-South Super Lawyer®, a Best Lawyer in America® for Labor and Employment Litigation, and is the recipient of many other awards. He has served as Co-Chair of the Birmingham Bar Association’s Diversity/Inclusivity Committee and on the Alabama State Bar’s Diversity and Inclusivity Committee and has been a member since each’s inception. Sean was selected by the Supreme Court of Alabama to serve a three-year term on the Standing Committee on the Rules of Civil Procedure. He also currently serves as the Co-Chair of the Directors’ and Officers’ Liability Sub-Committee of the ABA Professional Liability Litigation Committee as the Chair of the Nuclear Verdict Defense Trial Strategy Committee for the Professional Liability Defense Federation (PLDF), and as Chair of Lawyers Professional Liability and Steering Committee Member for the Professional Liability Committee of the Defense Research Institute (DRI), the national defense bar, and has previously served as Liaison to DRI’s Lawyers’ Professionalism & Ethics Committee and the Chair and/or Vice-Chair of the Cyber, Real Estate and Design Professionals committees within DRI.

He is the author of many articles for DRI, PLDF and other organizations, is a frequent speaker on employment, professional liability and technology topics, and is the co-author of DRI’s “Professional Liability Insurance Coverage: A Compendium of State Law.”

Professional Memberships

Alabama State Bar

Birmingham Bar Association

American Bar Association

Professional Liability Defense Federation, Chair and former Board of Director

Defense Research Institute, Steering Committee Member of the Professional Liability Committee

Publications

“Signs” of the Times: An End to “Long-Haired Freaky People Need Not Apply”?, Professional Liability Defense Federation (PLDF) Quarterly, Spring 2020

“Cyber Attacks on Professionals: The Anatomy of a Hack”, Defense Research Institute (DRI) Professional Liability Seminar, New York, NY, December 5, 2019

“Avoiding Claims of Race, Religion and National Origin Discrimination in Today’s Diverse World”, Harbuck Keith & Holmes LLC’s Annual Labor & Employment Seminar in Birmingham, AL, October 19, 2018

“The Pendulum Has Swung – Trump’s Board and the Shifting Focus of the NLRB Toward Business-Friendly Policies”, 4th Annual Employment Practices Liability Insurance (EPLI) Execusummit Spring Conference, Orlando, FL, April 10, 2018

“Before the Breach: Cyber Attacks on Professionals and How to Prepare for Them”, Defense Research Institute (DRI) Professional Liability Seminar, New York, NY, December 7, 2017

“Perspectives on Workplace Drug and Alcohol Testing”, Harbuck Keith & Holmes Annual Labor and Employment Seminar, Birmingham AL, October 27, 2017

“Pregnancy Complications: Revisiting the Bump in Pregnancy Discrimination Law,” Harbuck Keith & Holmes LLC’s Annual Labor & Employment Seminar in Birmingham, AL, on October 4, 2016

“Lawyer Malpractice: Trends and Defense Strategies,” Professional Liability Attorney Network Conferences in Kansas City and Hartford (2015)

“Evaluating & Stopping High Exposure Employment Claims,” Professional Liability Attorney Network Conferences in Atlanta, Chicago, Hartford and New York, and to numerous individual insurance and corporate clients (2012-2015)

Author, “Signs” of the Times: An End to “Long-Haired Freaky People Need Not Apply”?, Professional Liability Defense Federation (PLDF) Quarterly, Spring 2020

Author, “The Never-Ending Nightmare: Lawyer Cyber Risk”, Defense Research Institute (DRI) For The Defense, April 2020

Co-Author, DRI Professional Liability Insurance Coverage Compendium – Mississippi, Chapter, 2013

Personal

Sean enjoys hunting, fishing, reading, coaching youth soccer, and spending time with his wife and sons.

Experience

Harbuck Keith & Holmes, Co-Founder and Member, 2015-2021

Carr Allison, Shareholder and Co-Chair of Labor & Employment and Professional Liability, 2002-2015

Languages Spoken

English

Expert in these Jurisdictions

Alabama, 2001

U.S. District Court, Northern District of Alabama, 2001

U.S. District Court, Middle District of Alabama, 2001

U.S. District Court, Southern District of Alabama, 2006

Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, 2015

Education

Awards