In 2023, Watson Spence LLP partner, Louis Hatcher, was asked to take lead on a civil case involving a young African-American man, Demetrius Luke, who had been charged with a crime by way of a knowingly false affidavit for an arrest warrant. One of Mr. Luke’s original attorneys had died during the representation, and the other attorney was terminally ill. …

Watson Spence partners, Alfreda Sheppard and Louis Hatcher, have won a big trial victory over the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). The EEOC sued Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital (Phoebe) for disability discrimination and retaliation in a lawsuit filed in 2017. Five years and one day after the filing of the lawsuit, a federal jury in the United Stated Middle District of …

Watson Spence partners, Alfreda Sheppard and Louis Hatcher, have obtained what is reported to be the largest employment law settlement ever paid in a Lee County case by ACCG, the county’s insurer. Remarkably, the $225,000 settlement on behalf of Mike Sistrunk was obtained prior to a lawsuit being filed. Ms. Sheppard and Mr. Hatcher jointly noted: “We have been privileged …

In October 2020, Watson Spence attorneys Alfreda Sheppard and Louis Hatcher recovered a six-figure monetary settlement to resolve a reverse discrimination and retaliation lawsuit.  The lawsuit, filed in 2014, alleged that a white female employee of the Richmond County Probate Court was demoted and subjected to a hostile work environment by the Richmond County Probate Court Judge, an African-American male.  …