Udall Shumway — Mesa, AZ

A NOTE TO READERS. This profile was researched and written independently by Awesome Attorneys’ editorial team. Udall Shumway PLC did not pay for, request, or review this article prior to publication, and placement on Awesome Attorneys’ editorial pages cannot be purchased. Case results described here are drawn from published court records and are attributed to that source. Nothing in this article is legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney–client relationship. Past results do not guarantee, warrant, or predict the outcome of any future case.

At a Glance

A Mesa Native’s Fifty-Year Trial Career

H. Micheal Wright was born and raised in Mesa, earned a business administration degree from Arizona State University, and graduated from the University of Arizona College of Law in 1975. He tried his first jury trial one week after being admitted to the Arizona bar. He began his career at a Mesa firm specializing in personal injury litigation, moved to Tucson in 1977 to work under prominent trial lawyer Paul G. Rees Jr., and returned to his hometown in 1981 to open his own practice. He joined Udall Shumway — itself founded in 1965 by David Udall (who helped draft the Mesa city charter) and Dale Shumway (a former mayor of Tempe) — as a partner in May 2001.

Over his career, Wright has handled product liability, medical malpractice, insurance bad faith, vehicular collision, defective premises, and defective highway design cases, developing particular expertise in brain and spinal injury, accident reconstruction, and hazard and risk assessment. He has served as an expert witness in legal malpractice cases and as a Judge Pro Tempore for the Superior Court, and was appointed to the American Board of Trial Advocates in 2003.

Practice Areas

Udall Shumway describes itself as founded more than 50 years ago “by a group of personal injury, medical malpractice & wrongful death attorneys,” and its personal injury team — which includes both Wrights alongside colleagues Danielle Olson, Clark R. Richter, and Joel Sannes — represents plaintiffs exclusively within that practice group, even though the broader firm also handles family, business, and corporate matters. Lincoln Wright has built particular expertise in nursing home regulations, standards of care, and Medicare lien issues within the practice.

The Employment Law Team: Representing East Valley Employees Since 1965

Alongside its personal injury practice, Udall Shumway maintains a dedicated employment law team representing employees — not employers — across Mesa, Tempe, Chandler, Gilbert, Scottsdale, and the broader Phoenix metro area, a genuinely separate practice group from the personal injury attorneys profiled above. The team handles discrimination cases (race, gender, age, disability, religion, sexual orientation), wage and hour claims for unpaid overtime under the Fair Labor Standards Act, wrongful termination challenges, retaliation cases protecting whistleblowers, and severance agreement review with specific attention to Arizona’s restrictive covenant (non-compete) standards. The firm’s own employment practice materials cite the Arizona Civil Rights Act (A.R.S. § 41-1463) directly and discuss implied-contract theories arising from employer handbook language, a level of statutory specificity consistent with genuine subject-matter depth in this practice area rather than a generic firm-wide service listing.

The Family Law Team: Sheri Shepard and a 60-Year Practice History

Udall Shumway’s family law practice is a separate, longstanding department distinct from both the personal injury and employment teams profiled above. Current family law leadership includes Sheri D. Shepard, who brings nearly two decades of family law experience in divorce, child custody, spousal maintenance, and asset division cases; the firm’s own materials describe her approach as “strategic, compassionate representation” tailored to “each family’s unique circumstances.” The department handles the full range of domestic relations matters, including complex property division involving family businesses, commercial property, and trusts — an area where the firm’s own materials note its integrated business and litigation teams provide “immediate, strategic insights” not every solo family law practice can offer. The firm’s family law practice pages cite specific Arizona statistics (over 17,000 divorces recorded statewide in 2022, per the Arizona Department of Health Services) and address prenuptial and postnuptial agreements, domestic violence intersections with custody proceedings, and division-of-assets matters with named subject-matter depth — consistent with a genuinely active, ongoing practice rather than an incidental service line.

Track Record

Lincoln Wright won Clark v. Renaissance West, LLC at the Arizona Court of Appeals in 2013, a published decision making it easier for nursing home residents to challenge mandatory arbitration agreements and preserve their right to sue if a nursing home injures them. In 2018, he wrote the winning appellate briefs in Kopp v. Physician Group of Arizona, Inc., in which the Arizona Supreme Court overturned nearly 75 years of precedent in a hospital negligence case. Both are matters of public appellate record.

ABOUT THESE RESULTS. The case citations above are drawn from published Arizona appellate decisions. Past results do not guarantee, warrant, or predict the outcome of any future case; every matter turns on its own facts and law.

In Clients’ Words

Awesome Attorneys did not locate detailed, individually attributable client reviews for H. Micheal Wright or Lincoln Wright specifically on major platforms as of the research date; FindLaw’s listing for H. Micheal Wright shows no reviews posted.

Beyond the Courtroom

H. Micheal Wright was honored as a Lifetime Advocate for Civil Justice by the Arizona Association of Justice, an award the firm describes as recognizing his career-long commitment to obtaining justice for clients. Lincoln Wright is a member of the American Association of Justice and the Arizona Association of Justice. The firm’s founders remain of counsel and, per the firm, continue to set an ethical and professional standard for the practice.

Recognition

H. Micheal Wright has been included on the Super Lawyers list for several consecutive years and is a certified specialist, per Attorney at Law Magazine’s profile of the firm. His American Board of Trial Advocates membership (since 2003) and Lifetime Advocate for Civil Justice honor are peer- and organization-conferred recognitions distinct from paid marketing awards. The firm holds an AV rating from Martindale-Hubbell.

Arizona Legal Backdrop

The firm’s nursing home litigation practice intersects with a body of law beyond ordinary negligence: nursing home admission agreements frequently include mandatory arbitration clauses, which Clark v. Renaissance West addressed directly, and nursing home negligence claims often proceed under Arizona’s Adult Protective Services Act in addition to the standard framework above.

The Awesome Attorneys Assessment

Udall Shumway’s personal injury practice benefits from H. Micheal Wright’s fifty years of trial experience and a genuine appellate track record through his son Lincoln, including a published nursing-home-arbitration decision and appellate work that produced an Arizona Supreme Court reversal of decades-old precedent. The father-son continuity within the same practice group is a distinctive, verifiable feature.

The honest caveat: Udall Shumway is fundamentally a full-service firm — family law, business, and corporate matters sit alongside the personal injury team — so this profile reflects the injury practice group specifically rather than the firm’s full identity. Awesome Attorneys also could not locate individual client reviews for either Wright, which limits independent verification of client experience beyond the appellate record and peer recognitions documented here.

Methodology & Sourcing

This profile was researched using udallshumway.com (firm site, H. Micheal Wright biography PDF, Lincoln M. Wright attorney page, personal injury practice page), Super Lawyers, FindLaw, LinkedIn, and Attorney at Law Magazine’s firm feature. All statutory citations were checked against the Arizona Revised Statutes as published by the Arizona State Legislature. No compensation was sought or received from the firm, and the firm was not contacted prior to publication of this profile.

Publisher Disclosure & Independence Notice

This profile is an independent editorial article published by Awesome Attorneys. Awesome Attorneys does not endorse, recommend, or warrant any lawyer or law firm profiled on this site, and inclusion in this series is not paid placement. “Awesome Attorneys” is a brand name only; it is not a rating, ranking, or claim that any profiled firm is superior in any legal category. Awesome Attorneys maintains a separate attorney directory; only listings there marked “Sponsored” or “Ad” reflect a paid relationship. Facts in this profile are current only as of the research date and are subject to change; readers should confirm any detail directly with the firm.