Litigation & Appellate Law
A substantial portion of our practice is in the area of litigation which encompasses a wide and diverse group of subjects. Our litigation experience ranges from commercial, environmental, product liability and personal injury to construction law, workers compensation, property damage, and OSHA litigation. Additionally, we have significant experience in representing both insurance companies and self-insured entities. We have served as lead counsel in multi-party toxic tort litigation, class action defense, and complex insurance coverage disputes. While a majority of our experience is from the defense side, we routinely represent plaintiffs, as well. Our multi-faceted background enables us to meet your particular needs.
We are fully licensed to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court, several U.S. Courts of Appeal, and all courts of the States of Arkansas, Texas, and Missouri. Through our various practice groups, we have appeared before the following regulatory bodies as well:
- Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality / Arkansas Department of Pollution Control & Ecology and its Commission.
- Arkansas Insurance Department.
- Arkansas Workers Compensation Commission.
- Arkansas Employment Security Division.
- Arkansas Public Service Commission.
- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
- Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
- U.S. Department of Labor.
We have represented Fortune 500 companies in major litigation, including, for example, Wright v. Willamette, 91 F.3d 1105 (8th Cir. 1996), where we successfully represented Willamette Industries in a toxic tort lawsuit; and Arkansas Peace Center v. Arkansas Department of Pollution Control & Ecology, et al, 999 F.2d 122 (8th Cir. 1993), where our representation of superfund contractor Morrison Knudsen Corporation resulted in the dismissal of a lawsuit challenging the operation of a dioxin incinerator at the Vertac Superfund site. Additionally, we served as common litigation counsel to the 500 member Diaz Refinery PRP Committee in multi-party cost recovery, and recovered over $1 million in costs from recalcitrant PRPs and over $1 million from the site owners' insurers.