Doug Wilson, the current managing partner of McGuire, Wood & Bissette, PA, has spent the past forty years as an attorney specializing in solving problems and resolving disputes, whether through negotiation, litigation and trials, mediation or arbitration. Doug practiced in Georgia, primarily in Atlanta, for over twenty years before relocating in 1995 to Asheville, NC to join McGuire, Wood & Bissette. In Georgia, Doug was a trial attorney with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), investigating and prosecuting antitrust, trade regulation and consumer fraud cases throughout the Southeast. Following the FTC, Doug worked for Georgia Legal Services doing a wide array of cases including federal class action cases. Doug then entered private practice in Atlanta with a firm he founded concentrating in Federal Court and class action litigation, as well as litigation and trials in various state courts in Georgia.With an emphasis in construction law for the past twenty years, Doug has also represented a wide variety of clients in federal and state court in cases involving banking, antitrust and trade regulation, securities fraud, UCC and other business contract disputes, defense of accountants accused of negligence, condemnation, zoning and land use, environmental contamination issues, property owner association disputes, real estate and manufacturing issues in several states and jurisdictions. Doug also appears before municipal and county regulatory boards regarding development permits, zoning and land use matters. Doug combines his wide variety of litigation experience with financial and business acumen to find the most cost effective strategies for resolving his clients’ problems and achieving their goals. McGuire, Wood & Bissette clients appreciate Doug’s willingness to engage in cost/benefit analysis of complex legal matters, and address in a straightforward, non-judgmental manner the weaknesses as well as the strengths of their cases so our clients can make informed decisions regarding the best way to address actual or potential litigation.A Certified North Carolina Superior Court mediator, Doug is frequently called upon to mediate complex or multi-party disputes, often in the construction industry. Doug also mediates numerous other types of disputes that include personal injury, estate and will caveat disputes, land use, real property, easements and business disputes. A prominent local attorney once described Doug as a mediator by saying, “he finds a way to resolve the unresolvable.” Doug also uses his experience and expertise as a mediator to represent clients in mediations as their advocate to help achieve a reasonable resolution of lawsuits.Doug also has extensive experience with arbitration, serving as an arbitrator as well as representing clients in arbitrations. Doug has represented clients in arbitrations involving securities fraud, construction and personal injury. As an arbitrator, Doug has heard and decided numerous significant construction and business dispute matters.Representative experience: •Represented the seller of several apartment buildings who was sued for fraud in the sale of the apartments. At trial in federal court, upon motion by Doug at the conclusion of the plaintiff’s evidence, the federal judge dismissed all claims against Doug’s client.• Represented the manufacturer of electro-magnetic relays used in guidance systems for military missiles in a lawsuit challenging the efficacy of the relays. A favorable resolution of the lawsuit was achieved at mediation.• Doug represented a local printer in a lawsuit filed by Microsoft in which the software developer attempted to hold the client liable for the sale of pirated software by a customer. In addition to demanding a penalty in excess of $100,000, Microsoft insisted on the closing of the business unit. In the end, the business remained open, and Doug negotiated for a $5,000 payment to be paid by the printer's insurance carrier.• Doug represented a Rochester, NY company that specializes in “re-tubing” of large industrial air conditioning systems in a federal court lawsuit filed by Carrier Corporation alleging breach of contract, negligence, gross negligence and fraud that allegedly caused the failure of a large system in a major manufacturing plant. Through discovery, use of experts and other industry standards, Doug was able to establish that the failure could not have been due to any fault of Doug’s client as alleged by Carrier Corp, resulting in a dismissal of the lawsuit, with prejudice, and award of all costs to Doug’s client.• Represented a large Home Owners’ Association in lawsuit challenging the organization and governance by the HOA. With Doug as lead trial counsel, the HOA won at trial, and that victory was then affirmed by the North Carolina Court of Appeals, and request for review was denied by the North Carolina Supreme Court. The HOA was awarded attorney’s fees and expenses in addition to the judgment it won at trial.• Represented a title insurance company and its insured in a matter in which a $2.3 million dollar “hidden lien” was asserted against the insured’s property. Doug’s expertise with the North Carolina lien law enabled him to show the lien was invalid, and the case settled at mediation for pennies on the dollar.•Represented a major contractor sued for over $3.5 million dollars by a local hotel for deficiencies in the HVAC system, among other claims. Working with one of his McGuire, Wood & Bissette partners, Doug was able to establish that the plaintiff had allowed the statute of limitations to run and won Summary Judgment, which barred the claim.• Doug was selected as the chief arbitrator in a construction dispute regarding the expansion of a large commercial manufacturing building, a case in which hundreds of thousands of dollars was at issue.•Doug was selected as the sole arbitrator in a matter involving the enforceability of a lease provision in a major downtown redevelopment project in Charlotte, NC, a case in which potentially millions of dollars was at issue.Doug has authored numerous articles on the construction industry, especially regarding the North Carolina lien law, has taught at numerous seminars for attorneys and construction industry members, and authored (with previous partner Chuck Cloninger) a treatise on North Carolina Construction Law: Rights and Remedies. Doug is a member of the Construction Law Section of the North Carolina Bar Association, and has served on the Council to the Construction Law Section. Doug is a founding member of the Harry C. Martin American Inns of Court, and is a fellow in the Litigation Council of America. Doug is also a member of the North Carolina, Georgia and American Bar Associations.Doug has served the Asheville community in a variety of ways, including as President of Riverlink, the Asheville Economic Development Commission, the Asheville/Buncombe County Commission to End Homelessness and projects for the Chamber of Commerce. Doug has been a dedicated supporter of Pisgah Legal Services, serving on its Board, as Vice-President of the Board, as Chair of the long range planning committee, as well as several other committees leading to a $5 million dollar capital campaign enabling Pisgah Legal to purchase and renovate a new headquarters building. In 2011, Doug was awarded the Pisgah Legal Karl Strauss Board Member Emeritus Award for his long and productive service to Pisgah Legal and its mission to help the neediest in our community.In his spare time, Doug enjoys snow skiing, stand up paddle boarding, whitewater canoeing, yoga and fitness training, hiking with his dogs and reading historic novels. Doug and his wife Betsey have one daughter, Elizabeth, currently living in Breckenridge, CO.
