F. Ewin Henson, III earns MDLA Lifetime Achievement Award
The Mississippi Defense Lawyers Association is pleased to announce that F. Ewin Henson, III, of the firm of Upshaw Williams Biggers & Beckham, LLP of Greenwood, MS, is the honored recipient of the prestigious “MDLA Lifetime Achievement Award.” The award was presented at the association’s annual membership luncheon on January 19, 2018 at the Embassy Suites in Ridgeland, Mississippi. The criteria for the award is to honor an individual who has practiced law for thirty years or longer in the area of defense law who has significantly advanced the ideals of Mississippi Defense Lawyers Association.
Ewin’s introductory biography was presented to those attending by law firm partner and friend Clint Guenther.
Ewin was born in Charleston, Mississippi and admitted to the Mississippi Bar and United States District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi in 1974. He is qualified to practice in all Mississippi State and Federal Courts and in the United States Federal Circuit Courts of Appeal for the Fifth and Eleventh Circuits. His undergraduate degree is from Mississippi State University, with honors, in History and Political Science and his Juris Doctorate Degree is from the University of Mississippi in 1974 with distinction.
Following graduation from law school in 1974, he practiced law in Clarksdale until 1987 when he joined Upshaw Williams. While in Clarksdale, he was a member of the Coahoma County Bar, serving as Secretary, Vice President and President. Since joining the firm and moving to Greenwood, he has been a member of the Leflore County Bar Association and has served as Vice President and President. He has been elected a Fellow of the Mississippi Bar Foundation. He has been a member of the Mississippi Defense Lawyers Association and the Defense Research Institute since 1984, and served the MDLA as Director, North Regional Vice President, Secretary Treasurer, President elect and President. He is a member of the Federation of Defense and Corporate Counsel, the Bar Association of the Fifth Federal Circuit and the Mississippi Claims Association. Ewin serves on the Board of Directors of the Catholic Foundation of the Diocese of Jackson, Mississippi.
Ewin’s primary practice areas are insurance coverage issues and litigation, toxic torts, commercial litigation, general tort litigation, product and premises liability and professional errors and omissions litigation (other than medical), as well as governmental liability, automobile liability and trucking cases.
Ewin has successfully tried numerous cases in the State Courts of Mississippi and the United States Districts Courts for the Northern and Southern Districts of Mississippi. He has attained defense verdicts in fields as diverse as claimed brain damage from ingestion of lead paint, to insurance coverage for intentional acts, bad faith on first party claims and sexual misconduct by a client's employee. He has successfully tried many other cases for trucking companies, insurance companies (both first and third party claims) and premises liability for business owners.
He has conducted numerous programs in continuing education classes on insurance coverage, governmental liability, governmental liability and other topics for clients and has been a speaker on lawyers professional liability issues at seminars previously presented by the recommended liability carrier for the Mississippi Bar.
He is on the Mississippi Courts' Approved Mediators List and has conducted mediations on insurance coverage, automobile liability and general tort cases as well as nursing home cases
Ewin was congratulated by previous MDLA Lifetime Achievement Recipients Lucius B. Dabney, Jr. (2009 recipient), Lee Davis Thames (2013 recipient), Edward J. (Ned) Currie, Jr. (2016 recipient) and Armin J. Moeller, Jr. (2017 recipient).
MDLA is proud to honor Ewin with this award and is grateful for his service to the association and the MS Defense Bar.