Lawdragon profiles Hare Wynn attorneys S. Shay Samples and D. Leon Ashford. Lawdragon is one of the most respected legal publications in the country and a trusted source for rankings and profiles of the nation’s leading attorneys.
Published in August 2026, the piece explores how two of Alabama’s most experienced medical malpractice attorneys built careers around taking on cases that most lawyers would not touch and why they have no intention of stopping.
Read the full Lawdragon feature, “The Last Hope”.
Five Decades of Fighting for Alabama Families
Shay Samples and Leon Ashford each bring more than fifty years of experience to the courtroom. Leon joined Hare Wynn in 1980 after a chance conversation with the firm’s managing partner and a scholarship arranged by University of Alabama coach Bear Bryant that got him into law school in the first place.
Shay joined in 1994, bringing with him a practice built almost entirely around medical malpractice at a time when defendants were winning ninety to ninety-five percent of those cases.
Neither attorney was drawn to the easy path. After all, medical malpractice cases are among the most complex, expensive, and emotionally demanding in civil litigation.
Both Shay and Leon have spent their careers making that argument in courtrooms across Alabama, often in communities where the defendant (a local doctor, a beloved hospital, or a trusted nurse) was the most respected person in town. They have won cases that would change the course of their clients’ lives forever.
Cases That Made a Difference
The Lawdragon profile highlights several recent cases that reflect the kind of work we do and the families we fight for.
In 2024, we secured a $6 million jury verdict for the family of Anne Davis, who died after an undiagnosed infection following gallbladder surgery led to sepsis. The case was a reminder that what looks like a routine procedure can become a tragedy when warning signs are missed.
We also secured a $21 million verdict against two physicians and a nurse practitioner at Jackson Hospital in Montgomery County for the death of a fourteen-day-old baby who was misdiagnosed and sent home with an intestinal obstruction visible on X-ray (a condition that would have been straightforward to treat if a surgeon had seen the images in time).
And in a case that demonstrates what justice can look like beyond a courtroom verdict, we negotiated a settlement providing lifelong care for Libby Hagan, a child who received one hundred times the prescribed dosage of insulin while in a hospital NICU, sustaining brain damage and permanent disabilities. Her family’s story is one we carry with us.
These are examples of the commitment we bring to every birth injury and catastrophic injury case we take on. You can see more in our case results.
What It Means to Be the Last Hope
Perhaps the most striking part of the Lawdragon profile is how Shay and Leon describe the families who come to us. Oftentimes, they have already been turned away elsewhere, are navigating the worst moments of their lives, and are looking for someone who will take them seriously and fight without backing down.
“We’re most often the last hope that these clients have,” Shay told Lawdragon.
“To handle these cases correctly, you have to invest the time and effort and money to do right by the clients. And we do that; we make that commitment.”
Leon speaks about the relationship between an attorney and client in similarly personal terms, describing our approach as a team effort that looks more like family than litigation, where the good news and the bad news are always shared honestly and where no family is ever left to piece things together alone.
Both attorneys also speak about something that goes beyond winning cases. The belief that holding negligent providers accountable makes healthcare safer for everyone. In real life, where real people are affected at the hands of people they trusted, the work we do changes how a hospital administers medication, monitors a patient, or trains its staff, which can prevent the next tragedy from happening at all.
Talk to Our Team
If you or someone you love has been harmed by medical negligence in Alabama, our attorneys are ready to listen and fight for you, just as we have fought for families like the Hagans. For more than 135 years, our firm has represented individuals and families throughout Alabama. Reach out and tell us what happened.
