22-02-2025
Mama Justice wins Golden Gavel award for 'emotional' commercial
TUPELO – You've probably seen the commercials, from kids encouraging people to 'call their mama and then call Mama Justice,' to attorney Melissa "Missy" Wigginton – Mama Justice herself – talking about her real-life experiences before becoming an attorney.
Wigginton At the recent Trial Lawyers Summit in Miami, the MW Law Firm won the coveted Golden Gavel Award for its 60-second version of "The Letter."
"The commercial competed against all the law firms in the nation at the summit, and I didn't even know the commercial had been nominated," Wigginton said. "One of our lawyers had sent it in. Three law firms were picked, and we were competing with firms like Morgan and Morgan, a huge law firm, that won it last year."
Wigginton said she and her team that traveled to the summit were both shocked and thrilled to hear their name called.
The Golden Gavel Awards, presented by the National Trial Lawyers' A-List, celebrates "the pinnacle of legal marketing and advertising," and recognizes law firms that "excel in delivering outstanding legal services while maintaining an exceptional advertising presence."
The A-List features the Top 100 law firms excelling in national advertising. It recognizes their influence and success in legal marketing.
The MW Law Firm won its award for Film, Video and Sound – Best Regional/National TV Ad 60 Seconds. The ad was produced in-house.
"My husband is in charge of all of our marketing, and he worked with a producer out of Texas, and they wrote the script. We used our own client in the testimonials," Wigginton said, noting that this commercial was different that the rest of the others made for Mama Justice. "It focused on emotions and the injury and pain many of our clients face, rather than 'Pay me big money.'"
Her husband, Jerry Wigginton, is the idea generator, she said. In fact, he was the one who came up with the idea of the "Mama Justice" name when the law firm opened six years ago.
A Union County native, Wigginton was the first in her family to attend college and the first to go to law school. But she didn't immediately pursue a law degree.
"After I graduated, I was working for a large bank in town, and I was writing some large documents, and one of the lawyers for the bank said I should be a lawyer," she said. "I was older – I was 32 at the time – when I went to law school, and 35 when I got out."
She went back to the bank for 10 years following law school, but left to begin practicing law. However, she didn't have her own firm until she met and then married her husband.
"He said, 'You need your own business,' but I didn't want to do taxes or payroll," she said with a laugh. 'But he said, 'We'll take care of all that.' And so, when my kids were little and their friends came over to play, they called me Mama Missy because our house was the house they'd always hang out at. That's how Mama Justice evolved."
The brand, and the dedication of its employees, has driven the firm, Wigginton said. "I can't take all he credit because we have a staff who embody our core values that we live by. We know if we take care of our clients, everything else will fall I place. That's what mamas do."
MW Law has 45 employees and nine attorneys in offices in Tupelo, Jackson, Southaven and Columbus.
