Local attorney Joe Gibbs has been practicing law for 48 years and received one of his biggest honors in February with a lifetime achievement award from the Mississippi Defense Lawyers Association during the annual meeting at the Embassy Suites in Ridgeland.
The MDLA was formed between the mid and late 1960s with lawyers who primarily commit their practice to civil defense work and focus on issues such as insurance defense work, product liability defense work and personal injury.
Gibbs, a 1956 Yazoo City High School graduate, was working for Farm Bureau in his hometown after attending Ole Miss, but not graduating.
“Before I started practicing law, I was an insurance adjustor, so I guess I developed an interest and an affinity for it,” Gibbs said. “I was encouraged by some lawyers who befriended me to think about doing that.”
Gibbs was able to go back to school and receive his juris doctor from Ole Miss in 1971 without obtaining an undergraduate degree. He moved to Clarksdale that same year when taking a job with the law firm Holcomb, Connell & Fleming. He left after four years and started own practice in Clarksdale in 1975.
Gibbs has successfully defended clients before juries and in bench trials. One of his most memorable cases went to federal court in Oxford close to 25 years ago when a child on a bicycle was killed in a motor vehicle accident. He represented the driver of the automobile.
“The result of that was a long trial, longer than a week,” Gibbs said. “The result of that was a jury victory in favor of the plaintiff, but it was no more than we had offered to settle the case. I consider that to be a win.”
The MDLA has given out a lifetime achievement award for around a decade to someone actively involved in the association.
Gibbs said the MDLA executive director wanted to make sure he planned to attend the annual meeting in February. He said he planned on attending and was told about the award.
“I have been actively involved in that organization since I started practicing law,” Gibbs said. “I have served on the board and I have served as president of the MDLA and I have continued to be active in the organization and the programs they put on. I didn’t have anything to do with it. I had a surprise call one day that told me. They wanted to make sure I was coming to the annual banquet on Feb. 1, which I generally always attend.
“I was highly flattered and humbled and it certainly was not anything that I expected. It was totally unexpected.”
Gibbs has been active in Clarksdale was a district governor of Rotary International, a past president of the Clarksdale/Coahoma County Chamber of Commerce, has been on the Board of Industrial Foundation and a municipal judge for 23½ years. He is currently on the governing body of the First Presbyterian Church local congregation where he serves as the clerk and takes the meeting minutes.
