Skip to Content

My clients want an attorney who is a quick study of their legal challenges and opportunities, and who brings energy, creativity, and determination to resolving their disputes. They want someone whom they can trust, and who gets results.

Cannon F. Allen, Sr. is an AV Rated Preeminent litigator with 35+ years’ experience in the courts of West and Middle Tennessee. He focuses his practice primarily on business disputes, breach of fiduciary duty claims, and mass/complex torts. He has tried multiple cases to verdict and on appeal for defendants and plaintiffs. His has broad experience assisting clients in evaluating and resolving claims before litigation, developing and implementing litigation strategies, defending officers and directors, and negotiating settlements. Mr. Allen take his client’s needs personnally, and he makes himself readily available to them throughout the process.

As a client relationship manager, Mr. Allen takes pride in connecting his clients to the broad array of legal services provided by Adams and Reese attorneys. He works hard to assemble the right team of attorneys and professionals to help his clients negotiate and complete commercial transactions, manage employment issues, do tax planning, develop trust and estate solutions and manage intellectual property.

Litigation clients are looking for someone to be in the foxhole with them, and who will tell them when to duck and when it’s time to charge.

Education

  • University of Virginia, J.D., 1987
  • Princeton University, A.B., 1984

Bar Admissions

  • Tennessee

Court Admissions

  • United States Supreme Court
  • United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
  • Tennessee Supreme Court
  • United States District Court for the Western District of Tennessee
  • United States District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee

Community Involvement

  • Past Board Member and Chairman of Westminster Academy, a Classical Christian school that teaches students using the seven liberal arts to love others, truth, wisdom, and beauty
  • Founder, Board Member and President of the 32-year-old Binghampton Fellowship Foundation which has trained hundreds of teachers and thousands of students in urban and private schools to help improve elementary education
  • Past President, Board Member/Officer and Board of Advisors of the seven-decades-old Memphis World Trade Club
  • Elder at Independent Presbyterian Church, 2014-present involved in building partnerships between racially diverse churches in community projects

In 2010, Cannon directed the World Trade Club’s efforts to serve the strategically important transportation and logistics industries in Memphis and spearheaded the development of the Memphis Multimodal Conference (2010), the Southeast Freight Conference (2011-2014) and the JOC Inland Distribution Conference (2015-16) in Memphis.

Acknowledgements

Cannon is AV® Preeminent™ 5.0 out of 5 rating by Martindale-Hubbell, a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation, is listed in Best Lawyers® - Mass Tort Litigation / Class Actions - Defendants, and Mid-South Super Lawyers® (by Thomson Reuters) Class Action Defense 2006, 2009-2018.

Canon has been named Best Lawyers® Lawyer of the Year in Memphis - Mass Tort Litigation / Class Actions - Defendants, 2020, 2022, 2024.

Professional Affiliations & Memberships

  • Federal Bar Association
  • American Bar Association, Litigation Section
  • Tennessee Bar Association
  • Memphis Bar Association
  • Association of Trial Lawyers of America
  • Transportation Lawyers Association
  • Binghampton Foundation, Director and President, 1992 - Present
  • Memphis World Trade Club, President, VP, Board of Directors & Advisors, 2008-2015
  • Extensive representation of clients in commercial and fiduciary duty disputes, mass torts, class claims, employment disputes, consumer actions, product liability claims, medical malpractice, personal injury, and multi-district litigation before the Sixth Circuit, various federal courts in Tennessee, Mississippi and Arkansas and state courts in Texas, Virginia, Florida, Oklahoma, New York and Utah
  • Class claims and mass and complex tort litigation (2006-present)
  • Commercial and consumer fire claims (2010-present)
  • Commercial litigation and fiduciary duty claims (2006 - present)
  • Executive compensation (2015-present)
  • Representing pharmaceutical companies in product liability litigation and government investigations by attorney generals in multiple states (2013-2020)
  • Representing a multinational biomedical device manufacturer in products and personal injury litigation (2013-2017)
  • Representing a major drug testing company in anti-competitive and trade practices disputes (2012)
  • Representing product manufacturers in personal injury and product liability litigation
  • Representing insurance companies in class and complex litigation, including coverage disputes (2006-2017)