Taylor, Pigue, Marchetti & Blair, PLLC

Focus and practice areas

Taylor, Pigue, Marchetti & Blair, PLLC runs a general civil practice out of Nashville, Tennessee. The firm handles civil litigation, corporate and governmental representation, and bankruptcy and creditors' rights. It appears in both state and federal courts.

Much of the caseload involves defending actions brought against corporations, insurers, and the people those insurers cover. That defense orientation shapes the rest of the list. Insurance defense and coverage work sits alongside general liability, property damage, personal injury, product liability, and premises liability matters.

The firm also takes on workers' compensation, labor and employment, construction disputes, eminent domain, and real estate. On the creditor side, it represents both secured and unsecured creditors. Those matters bring in the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, the Fair Credit Reporting Act, and the Uniform Commercial Code.

Who the firm represents

The client list published by the firm covers financial institutions, utility districts, insurance companies, not-for-profit organizations, municipalities, credit unions, businesses, and private individuals. That is a wide mix, and it tells you something about how the work arrives. Institutional clients tend to send repeat matters over years.

Municipalities and utility districts are a particular signal. Public entities usually retain counsel through a formal selection process, and they carry their own rules about open records, sovereign immunity, and budget approval for settlements. A firm that names them as clients is doing work with those constraints in view.

Credit unions and financial institutions point toward the creditors' rights side. In my opinion, the pairing of insurance defense with creditor representation is the more interesting thing about this firm's shape. Both are volume practices where procedure matters more than argument, and both reward a team that knows the local courts well.

How the team is built

The website names six attorneys: L. Gino Marchetti, Jr., Keith W. Blair, Matthew C. Pietsch, Charles S. Michels, Antonio J. Aguilar, and Jackie Sharp, Jr. Two of those names, Marchetti and Blair, appear in the firm name itself. The site does not state titles, law schools, or years of admission for any of them.

Six lawyers covering that many practice areas means individual attorneys carry more than one type of matter. That is normal at this size. It also means a client usually deals with the same lawyer from the first meeting through resolution, since there is no deep bench to hand a file down to.

What the size implies for staffing a case

Insurance defense panels often set expectations about who works a file and at what rate. Smaller firms tend to compete on the point that a named partner stays on the matter. The firm publishes no staffing policy, so this is context on how such arrangements generally work, not a claim about its practice.

Two offices, two counties

The firm keeps its main office in Nashville and a second office in Smithville, in DeKalb County. Smithville sits about an hour east of Nashville, in a much smaller county seat. Having a physical presence in both places gives the firm a footing in two different court cultures.

Davidson County courts handle a heavy commercial docket. DeKalb County is rural, with fewer judges and a different rhythm to scheduling. Lawyers who work both learn that motion practice, jury pools, and continuance habits vary by county in Tennessee, and that local knowledge is worth real money to an insurer defending a claim in an unfamiliar venue.

The firm states that it serves Nashville, Davidson County, and locations throughout Tennessee. Statewide coverage from two offices is achievable in civil defense work, where much of the pretrial phase happens by filing and deposition.

What the record shows

The firm and its predecessors have provided legal services since 1954. That is a long stretch for a Tennessee civil practice, and it means the current partners inherited relationships built by earlier generations of the firm. Institutional clients like utility districts and insurers rarely change counsel without reason.

Taylor, Pigue, Marchetti & Blair holds an "AV" rating from Martindale-Hubbell. That rating comes from confidential peer review by other lawyers and judges, who score legal ability and ethical standards. It is one of the few third-party markers in the legal industry that a firm cannot buy, which is why a directory built on evidence pays attention to it.

As a reviewer, I would note the limits of what the site publishes. There are no case results, no reported verdict figures, and no individual attorney biographies on the pages examined. The firm describes its work and its clients, and it leaves the rest to peer rating and time in practice.

How specific matters tend to proceed

Readers weighing whether these practice areas match their situation may find the general procedure useful. What follows describes how such cases usually run in Tennessee, drawn from ordinary civil practice rather than from anything the firm has published about its own files.

Workers' compensation

Tennessee handles workers' compensation claims through the Bureau of Workers' Compensation, with a mediation step before a case reaches a judge. Medical proof usually comes from a treating physician chosen from a panel offered by the employer. Disputes often turn on causation and on the impairment rating assigned once the worker reaches maximum medical improvement.

Eminent domain

A condemning authority files a petition and deposits its appraised value with the court. The property owner can withdraw that deposit and still contest the amount. Valuation becomes a battle of appraisers, and the measure of damages includes any loss in value to land the owner keeps.

Creditors' rights

A secured creditor in a bankruptcy files a proof of claim and often moves for relief from the automatic stay to pursue collateral. Unsecured creditors line up behind, and payment depends on what the estate holds. Fair Debt Collection Practices Act questions arise when a debtor alleges improper contact or misstated balances during collection.

Premises liability

These claims rest on notice: what the property owner knew about the hazard, and when. Tennessee applies modified comparative fault, so a plaintiff who bears half or more of the responsibility recovers nothing. Defense work concentrates on incident reports, inspection logs, and video from the hours before the fall.

Reading the listing

The picture the firm presents is a mid-size civil defense and creditors' practice with deep Tennessee roots and a client base weighted toward institutions. The six named attorneys cover a broad range of civil matters from two offices. In my opinion, that combination suits a business or insurer looking for counsel who already knows the courts in Middle Tennessee.

Individuals also appear on the client list, and the firm offers a free initial consultation. Someone with a personal injury or real estate question can therefore get an assessment before committing. The firm's public materials describe the work and name the lawyers doing it, and its Martindale-Hubbell rating and 1954 starting date supply the outside markers.