Meet Marshall Cornblum

To understand the litigation surrounding Smoky Mountain Country Club, it is important to first understand the individual who drafted the governing Declaration and who has directed much of the legal strategy behind the development for decades.

Marshall Cornblum introduced himself to the membership of Smoky Mountain Country Club on August 3, 2024 (full transcript), not simply as an interested observer, but as one of the architects of the community.

According to Cornblum:

"My name is Marshall Cornblum... I am the father of Michael Cornblum, who basically has been the person most responsible for the development of the Smoky Mountain Country Club."

He then described his legal career:

"I have been a practicing lawyer in California, licensed, for over 57 years. I have successfully tried a number of high profile cases, and in the early 1990s, I was selected to be the chief trial lawyer in the United States for the largest mass tort in our history at that time, which was the breast implant litigation."

Cornblum explained that his professional background centered on real estate law and development:

"I dealt with real estate law. I dealt with real estate development. I dealt with security transactions in the real estate market... and I tried one hell of a lot of cases successfully."

He also acknowledged that he personally drafted the governing Declaration for Smoky Mountain Country Club:

"I was also the person who drafted the declaration. So, I have some sense of what it says and what it was intended to do."

Cornblum further explained why he, a California attorney, prepared the governing documents for a North Carolina planned community:

"I did come up here to try and find lawyers up here who could either draft or aid in the drafting of the declaration... I did not find any who had the experience or knowledge, in my opinion, sufficient to aid. I had more experience in a planned community."

He also described his financial interest in the development:

"I'm here because Michael and I made a decision to have a development called Smoky Mountain Country Club... the largest two single investors in this whole development are Michael and me, so I have a substantial interest to protect."

Throughout his presentation, Cornblum made clear that he views himself not merely as outside counsel or a former developer, but as the principal author of the governing documents, a major investor, and the individual responsible for explaining what those documents were intended to accomplish.

This website examines the litigation that followed those decisions. It presents the court filings, judicial opinions, recorded documents, and other evidence so readers can compare Mr. Cornblum's own statements with the public record and the decisions of the North Carolina courts.