Lady litigator: Hicks first female lawyer at Goddard & Gamble

By Linda Braden Albert
of The Daily Times Staff

The long and distinguished history of Goddard & Gamble, Attorneys at Law, has added a new chapter: Diane M. Hicks, experienced in medical malpractice, health care law, commercial law and insurance defense, joined Goddard & Gamble Oct. 1. She is the first woman ever to be hired as an attorney with the all-male law firm.

A.B. Goddard, who has been with the firm 56 years, said, “We hired Diane as a malpractice lawyer and because she’s a registered nurse. Medical malpractice is one of her specialties.”

Hicks was born near Rochester, N.Y., and moved with her parents to South Florida as a young girl. She received her undergraduate degree in nursing, with a minor in music, from the University of Florida and her law degree from the University of Miami.

“A great day for me is, I can be singing or listening to music while I’m looking at medical records related to a lawsuit,” she said with a laugh.

Hicks moved to Blount County from Florida in 2004 and opened a law office in 2005 while continuing to represent clients in remaining Florida matters. Practice areas include insurance defense, medical malpractice and health care, criminal defense, domestic relations, elder law and Florida insurance defense and domestic relations cases.

Prior to leaving Florida, she was a partner in a mid-sized litigation firm, representing physicians, hospitals and nurses against medical malpractice claims as well as gaining experience in insurance defense, health care and domestic relations matters from 1999 to 2004. She worked with several other law firms beginning in 1988.

Stuck in traffic

Hicks said she left Florida after coming to the realization that she was stuck in traffic two hours each day, commuting to and from her office, which was only eight miles away.

“I calculated that on a daily basis, I’m stuck — not commuting, but just kind of stuck — for two hours out of my day. I started adding that up and thinking my life is just wasting away and here I’m just sitting in my car,” she said. “That, combined with some other things that were no longer what I wanted for my life, showed me that I needed to make a decision.”

The next day she put a “for sale by owner” sign in her yard. It sold the next day.

“When the check cleared, I went to my firm and told them I was leaving,” she said.

Hicks had traveled extensively in her job, which concentrated almost exclusively on malpractice cases. She explained that in Florida, a lawyer is allowed to travel to all 50 states to represent clients in such cases, whereas in Tennessee, the practice is limited to the states contiguous to, or actually touching, Tennessee.

“I just bounced around like a pinball machine,” Hicks said. “It just about wore me to a frazzle but at the same time, it allowed me the opportunity to see a big chunk of this country in a short period of time. I realized before I put my house on the market that it wasn’t the same everywhere, that there were places that were much more genteel, with a higher quality of living.” The place she chose was Maryville.

“I really felt like I was led here,” Hicks said, and has fallen in love with the people and the lifestyle of this area.

Not a secret

Hicks reflected on her 20-year practice and talked about some of the changes she has seen. The area of litigation, for example, is historically more male-dominated, so women who wanted to do trial work had few women mentors to guide them.
“I had one woman who wore a T-shirt and literally had a pack of cigarettes rolled up in her sleeve like she was trying to be Elvis Presley, from the 50s,” Hicks said. “I thought, ‘no, no, that’s not me. She cannot be my mentor, that’s not me.’

“The biggest challenge, I think, initially was, we were told things like not to wear perfume, you don’t want to stand out, you want to blend in,” she continued. “Don’t wear nail polish or any of those things that would draw attention to you as a woman. That’s what we were told back in the ’80s. Then the realization began to dawn on me that, hey, they already know I’m a woman. It’s not a secret. Maybe we ought to revisit that issue. As it’s evolved, I think it’s true in this area as it is in everything — people have to be who they are.”

Hicks said she has been told through her nearly 20 years of practicing law that she is adept at helping calm agitated clients.

“I didn’t really notice that, but to me, it says, ‘attorney and counselor at law,’ and I do take the ‘counselor’ part very seriously,” she said. “I love being able to solve people’s problems and they know that I care.”

One of her favorite possessions is a box full of thank-you cards and small gifts given to her by doctors she had represented in Florida.

“They knew I really cared about their case,” Hicks said, then related a story about the first doctor she represented.

“I had him sitting in my waiting room, waiting for me. I can honestly say that I let him sit an extra five minutes for, you know, revenge for all those times I had to wait,” she said with a laugh. “Then we shook hands and I realized the hands were sweaty and cold and clammy, that this was a human being who was just as nervous on that side as I had been as a patient many times. We developed a human connection.”

Hicks said she also has much experience in insurance defense. For example, after Hurricane Andrew hit Florida, a lot of people couldn’t get their insurance payments to begin rebuilding. Hicks said she, with many other attorneys, was involved with the state’s department of insurance to get laws in place on behalf of those clients.

Changes coming

Hicks said laws and statutes are always evolving and advances in technology have made it possible for a lawyer to practice and to respond to clients no matter where they may be. The face of law school is changing, as well.

“If you look at most law schools now, I think the ratio or percentage of women is probably just over 50 percent,” she said. “But what’s interesting is, when you look at five and 10 years (after graduation), how little the percentages seem to change. So, in some ways, it hasn’t changed as much as I expected or thought it would. How many women, for instance, do we have on our Supreme Court at this time? Blount County hasn’t had its first woman judge yet. But it will happen.”

In the next five or 10 years, Hicks aspires to be one of the first female judges in this county, if not the first. “I hope we have somebody before five years passes, but I would certainly like to be considered for that privilege,” she said.

The counselor no longer seeks a mentor but sees herself becoming the mentor to those coming along behind her.

“I can always learn from anyone, but as far as having a role model or mentor myself, at this point it’s just learning and being comfortable with attorneys regardless of their gender,” she explained. “So many times I would be the only woman at the table, and I was so used to that, it wasn’t an issue.”

Her message to the women of Blount County is this: “You can aim high, and don’t let anyone take your dreams away. If you keep on it long enough, look at what you want and what you deserve — What you think you want might change a little bit as time goes by. But don’t give up.”

Hicks attends New Providence Presbyterian Church where she sings in the choir and, since she is fluent in Spanish, participates in the Hispanic ministry. She is also involved in other community pursuits, including plans of Blount County Humane Society to build a no-kill animal shelter. She enjoys the agricultural influence of Blount County and owns horses, dogs and cats at her five-acre Blount County home. Her family includes her parents, who also live in Blount County, and two children, both of whom are opera singers.

The forerunner of Goddard & Gamble, Attorneys at Law, was Gamble, Crawford & Goddard, formed circa 1920, according to A.B. Goddard. His father, Homer A. Goddard, was the original “Goddard” of that firm, joining circa 1918. He graduated law school in 1915.

The law firm, which represents County Mayor Jerry Cunningham, Blount Memorial Hospital and The Daily Times, among others, includes partners A.B. Goddard, Carl McDonald, who joined in 1974, and Rob Goddard, son of A.B. Goddard, who joined in 1978.