J. Henry Walker IV

Henry Walker serves as the Chair of Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP. In this role, he oversees the strategic direction and growth of the firm. Mr. Walker plays a key role in building and maintaining strong relationships with clients and developing capabilities in key industries and markets. Mr. Walker leads the firm’s Executive Committee working closely with them to define and execute the firm’s strategic objectives. Prior to his election to Chairman, he served as the firm’s Managing Partner.

Mr. Walker continues to handle select matters for clients as the lead trial counsel and a member of the Firm’s Complex Commercial Litigation Team. He has spent more than 25 years handling large complex litigation matters for clients, including class actions, technology, telecommunications and privacy cases. Based on his involvement in thousands of cases and previous in-house counsel experience, he has also provided extensive client counseling on the best ways to minimize risks and prevent litigation in business initiatives.

Mr. Walker has been first chair in numerous trials and arbitrations involving multimillion dollar business litigation, including claims for breach of contract, fraud, and tortuous interference. He has served as lead counsel in numerous successful efforts to defeat class certification, including major federal court litigation alleging hundreds of millions of dollars in damages. He served as lead in-house counsel in numerous major antitrust matters, including two successful landmark United States Supreme Court cases (Twombly and Trinko). Mr. Walker has also been lead counsel in significant trade secret, non-compete and non-solicitation cases on behalf of employers. He has provided litigation-related advice on compliance with SEC regulations and other laws affecting publicly-traded corporations, including drafting board talking points and disclosure documents. He has also provided litigation risk analysis on multibillion dollar acquisitions.

Mr. Walker rejoined the firm—where he practiced as a partner until 1996—in 2007 after serving as Chief Litigation Counsel to BellSouth Corporation. Mr. Walker’s mixture of in-house experience and outside counsel experience provides him with a unique understanding of the challenges facing clients and in-house counsel. At BellSouth, Mr. Walker managed a team of lawyers and paralegals responsible for a large and challenging litigation docket while taking frontline responsibility for numerous large litigation matters. He also participated in BellSouth’s Leads Program, a select executive leadership training program and received the BellSouth President’s Award and the General Counsel’s Award for Excellence. During his time at BellSouth, Mr. Walker was active in the Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC), including serving as the Chair of ACC’s Litigation Committee.He

Mr. Walker is very active in the State Bar of Georgia, currently serving on the Board of Governors and numerous committees. He is a member of the Georgia Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors and serves as the Vice Chair of the Georgia Chamber's Law and Judiciary Committee. Among other positions, Mr. Walker also served on the State of Georgia Judicial Nominating Commission which interviewed candidates and provided a “short list” to the Governor for judicial appointments. Mr. Walker was recognized in The Best Lawyers in America® for Commercial Litigation in 2017 and the four years immediately preceding. He was also named a 2017 "Atlanta Lawyer of the Year" in the area of Technology Law by The Best Lawyers in America®. Mr. Walker was named a Georgia "Super Lawyer" in 2015, 2016 and 2017 for Civil Litigation Defense by Super Lawyers magazine. He is AV® rated by Martindale-Hubbell.*