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S. Wade Malone

S. Wade Malone

Partner

Atlantic Station
201 17th Street NW
Suite 1700
Atlanta, GA 30363
wade.malone@nelsonmullins.com

Wade has significant experience in arbitration, complex commercial litigation, and appellate cases. He handles disputes in business, healthcare, intellectual property, antitrust, restrictive covenant, cybersecurity and construction. His legal practice includes the representation of both plaintiffs and defendants in litigation in both state and federal courts in numerous jurisdictions throughout the United States.

He chairs the firm’s...

Wade has significant experience in arbitration, complex commercial litigation, and appellate cases. He handles disputes in business, healthcare, intellectual property, antitrust, restrictive covenant, cybersecurity and construction. His legal practice includes the representation of both plaintiffs and defendants in litigation in both state and federal courts in numerous jurisdictions throughout the United States.

He chairs the firm’s Atlanta Office Business Litigation Team.

A former president of the Atlanta Bar Association, Wade co-founded the organization’s Summer Law Internship Program and has chaired it since its inception in 1993. The program has provided hundreds of high school students with paid internships, work experience, a deeper understanding of the law, and a mentor relationship.

S. Wade Malone

Atlanta Office Business Litigation Team.

A former president of the Atlanta Bar Association, Wade co-founded the organization’s Summer Law Internship Program and has chaired it since its inception in 1993. The program has provided hundreds of high school students with paid internships, work experience, a deeper understanding of the law, and a mentor relationship.

Wade has significant experience in arbitration, complex commercial litigation, and appellate cases. He handles disputes in business, healthcare, intellectual property, antitrust, restrictive covenant, cybersecurity and construction. His legal practice includes the representation of both plaintiffs and defendants in litigation in both state and federal courts in numerous jurisdictions throughout the United States.

He chairs the firm’s... Atlanta Office Business Litigation Team.

A former president of the Atlanta Bar Association, Wade co-founded the organization’s Summer Law Internship Program and has chaired it since its inception in 1993. The program has provided hundreds of high school students with paid internships, work experience, a deeper understanding of the law, and a mentor relationship.

Experience

The following is a selected sampling of matters and is provided for informational purposes only. Past success does not indicate the likelihood of success in any future matter.

Experience

  • Litigation practice includes representation of both plaintiffs and defendants in litigation in both state and federal courts throughout the United States, including business, healthcare, intellectual property, antitrust, restrictive covenant, cybersecurity, and construction litigation
  • Certified Mediator
  • Law Clerk for Judge John L. Coffey of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, Milwaukee, Wisconsin (1986-1987)

Representative Matters

  • Represented an individual in a 35-day arbitration in an effort by others to dilute his ownership and management rights in a thriving hotel software business
  • Represented a minority owner in litigation in which the majority owners tried to squeeze him out of a successful software consulting business
  • Represented an individual in a lawsuit alleging copyright infringement
  • Represented a family in litigation versus a major utility involving rights in a 99-year lease of a power plant

Education

  • The George Washington University Law School, JD, with honors (1986)
    • Member and an Editor of the George Washington Journal of International Law and Economics
  • Georgetown University, BA, Government, cum laude (1983)

Admissions

  • Georgia
  • U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia
  • U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia

Practice Areas

The bar rules of some states require that the standards for an attorney's inclusion in certain public accolades or recognitions be provided. When such accolades or recognitions are listed, a hyperlink is provided that leads to a description of the respective selection methodology.

  • The Georgia Chief Justice’s Commission on Professionalism’s Lifetime Achievement Award for service to the profession and the Atlanta community (2022)
  • The Best Lawyers in America®, Commercial Litigation (2013–2025)
  • Georgia Super Lawyers, Business Litigation (2004–2024); Selected by his peers as one of the Top 100 Lawyers in Georgia (2017–2020)
  • Benchmark Litigation "Litigation Star", General Commercial (2018–2025)
  • Georgia Trend “Legal Elite”  — General Practice/Trial Law (2021)
  • Randolph Thrower Lifetime Achievement Award, for promoting diversity in the legal profession, from the State Bar of Georgia (2012)
  • Atlanta Bar Association’s Leadership Award, the Bar's highest award, given to those that inspire by their example, challenge by their deeds, and remind us all of our debt to the profession and community (2009)
  • Charles E. Watkins, Jr. Award from the Atlanta Bar Association for sustained and distinguished service to the Bar (1998)
  • Atlanta Bar Association, Distinguished Service Awards (1996, 2013)
  • Served as the 96th President of the Atlanta Bar Association, the largest voluntary bar in the Southeast, with more than 6,300 members (2003–2004). The Atlanta Bar Association had its greatest increase in membership in its 131-year history under Mr. Malone's term
  • President, Atlanta Bar Foundation (2014–2016)
  • President, Atlanta Legal Aid Society (2001)
  • Co-Chair, Atlanta Bar Association’s Summer Law Internship Program which provides paid internships for Atlanta area high school students (1993–present)
  • Former Chairman (2001–2002); Former Member (1999–2002), City of Atlanta Board of Ethics
  • Served in the House of Delegates of the American Bar Association (2005–2011)
  • Selected by the judges of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia to serve on the Northern District of Georgia’s ten-lawyer Bar Council (2005–2011)
  • Chair, Northern District of Georgia Bar, Council's Disciplinary Committee (2005–2011)