HBS Attorneys Selected to the 2025 Mid-South Super Lawyers and Rising Stars Lists

HBS is proud to announce that several of our distinguished attorneys have been selected for the 2025 Mid-South Super Lawyers® and Rising Stars lists. This prestigious recognition reflects their exceptional legal skill, deep experience across complex practice areas, and unwavering commitment to client service.

Super Lawyers, part of Thomson Reuters, identifies outstanding attorneys from more than 70 practice areas who have achieved a high degree of peer recognition and professional accomplishment. Fewer than 5% of attorneys are selected to the Super Lawyers list each year, and no more than 2.5% are chosen for Rising Stars.

2025 Mid-South Super Lawyers Honorees

Todd Wooten — Little Rock (Super Lawyers) – General Defense

Todd focuses his practice on aging services, construction, medical malpractice, and professional malpractice and ethics matters, in addition to a broad range of business disputes. He has served as first chair in numerous complex cases in state and federal courts, secured multi-million-dollar verdicts in breach of contract matters, and successfully defended high-exposure wrongful death and injury cases. Todd has also tried two original jurisdiction matters before the Arkansas Supreme Court involving proposed constitutional amendments.

Misty Wilson Borkowski — Little Rock (Super Lawyers) – Immigration Business

Misty concentrates her practice on immigration law, including H-2A visas, DOL audits, E-1/E-2 treaty visas, L-1A/L-1B matters, and H-1B visas. She represents employers and physicians in the J-1 Visa Waiver process—including Conrad 30 and Delta Regional Authority pathways—as well as EB-2 sponsorship and PNIW matters. Misty also advises individuals on family-based immigration and naturalization. She was appointed by the Arkansas Supreme Court to the Criminal Practice Committee and served over a decade on the Criminal Justice Act Panel for the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas.

Jason Hendren  —  Rogers (Super Lawyers) – Medical Malpractice Defense

Jason represents hospitals, physician groups, clinics, insurers, and healthcare professionals in complex medical malpractice litigation. His work also includes Emergency Medical Treatment & Labor Act (EMTALA) claims, HIPAA matters, and a wide range of health-care-related disputes. Jason maintains a specialized dental litigation practice representing dentists, hygienists, oral surgeons, orthodontists, and other dental providers. In addition, he advises companies of all sizes on general liability, products liability, and governmental relations.

Karl Braun  —  Nashville (Super Lawyers) – Intellectual Property

Karl focuses on entertainment litigation and transactional matters, drawing on more than 15 years of experience as a professional musician and songwriter. He has deep experience in intellectual property, entertainment law, and international business litigation. His practice also includes insurance coverage, construction litigation, products liability, family law, and appellate matters. Karl is admitted to practice in both Tennessee and Georgia.

2025 Mid-South Rising Stars Honorees

Joseph Kraska — Little Rock (Rising Stars) – Employment & Labor

Joseph represents employers in a full range of labor and employment matters, including collective bargaining, RC petitions, unfair labor practice charges, labor arbitrations, OSHA compliance, and federal and state discrimination claims. He also provides day-to-day employment counseling for organizations throughout the region.

Abtin Mehdizadegan — Little Rock (Rising Stars) – Employment & Labor

Abtin represents employers in complex labor and employment law matters and has extensive experience handling class and collective actions, wage and hour litigation, labor grievance proceedings, NLRB matters, EEOC proceedings, DOL audits, unemployment appeals, business disputes, products liability defense, and constitutional law litigation.

Kyler Garmen — Memphis (Rising Stars) – General Defense

Kyler practices civil litigation in state and federal courts, representing businesses, governmental entities, and individuals in high-exposure matters. He has significant experience in business disputes, construction litigation, general liability claims, medical malpractice cases, and product liability matters. Kyler has represented numerous Fortune 500 companies and also defends professionals – including accountants, architects, physicians, and engineers in malpractice litigation.

About Super Lawyers

Super Lawyers, part of Thomson Reuters, is a rating service of outstanding lawyers from more than 70 practice areas who have attained a high degree of peer recognition and professional achievement. The annual selections are made using a patented multi-phase process that includes a statewide survey of lawyers, an independent research evaluation of candidates and peer reviews by practice area. The result is a credible, comprehensive, and diverse listing of exceptional attorneys. The Super Lawyers lists are published nationwide in Super Lawyers magazines and in leading city and regional magazines and newspapers across the country. Super Lawyers magazines also feature editorial profiles of attorneys who embody excellence in the practice of law.

The full list of this year’s recipients can be found on the Super Lawyers website.

About Hall Booth Smith

Established in 1989, Hall Booth Smith, P.C. is a full-service law firm headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. Experienced across a wide range of legal disciplines, HBS attorneys pride themselves on providing knowledgeable, proactive, client-specific counsel to individuals, domestic and international corporations, state and federal agencies, and nonprofit organizations. The firm’s promise: “Serving to Achieve Excellence.”