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Best Lawyers in Arkansas, United States for Commercial Litigation
Practice Area Overview
Litigation increasingly occurs in various venues, from state and federal courts to private arbitrations and administrative hearings. Proceedings can involve business-to-business disputes or any number of government agencies. Understanding the motivations and outlook of each of the litigation participants is important for determining weak points to exploit and strong points that will persuade the audience in question. During the past decade, commercial litigators have seen a dramatic uptick in multidistrict and inter-disciplinary litigation, making the stakes higher, the cases more complex, the parties more numerous and the discovery more complicated and unwieldy. Firms that are able to develop and implement a creative legal approach to each individual problem, efficiently focus on the key legal and factual issues, and master and manage the various aspects of these complex matters will be the busiest in the years to come.
In the current challenging economic climate, commercial litigators are under increasing client pressure to keep costs in check, which has both sides testing the efficacy of alternative fee arrangements and the scope of reasonable discovery. Whether the “death of the billable hour” is ultimately realized, the keys to a commercial litigator’s success will continue to be strong client relationships, thought leadership, practical management skills, deep experience, and personal commitment.
Corporate Law & Commercial Litigation Legal Guide 2025
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John Alexander is actively engaged in a diverse litigation practice. He concentrates his practice in insurance defense, complex litigation and commercial litigation. He defends clients in matters involving allegations of abuse, negligence, fraud premise liability and violations of the Arkansas Deceptive Trade Practices Act. Previously, he was as an Assistant Attorney General working in the Arkansas Attorney General’s Consumer Protection Division overseeing charity regulation and the ant...
John Keeling Baker has extensive experience in successfully trying and appealing a variety of business tort, contract, real estate, taxation, and class action suits before state and federal trial courts, Arkansas appellate courts, and the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis, Missouri. He frequently works on behalf of clients on both sides of the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). He routinely advises governmental clients on open meetings and public records compliance require...
I have fifty years experience representing clients, both plaintiffs and defendants, in a wide variety of litigation matters from local court through the United States Supreme Court. The subject matter of cases include: Personal Injury and Wrongful Death Medical Negligence Product Liability Aviation Accidents Motor Vehicle Accidents Industrial Injuries Boating Accidents Medical Devices Directors and Officers Liability Contractual Disputes General Business/Corporate Issues Gas Royalty Disputes ...
Vicki Bronson is an experienced business, trial, and real estate attorney who focuses on achieving her client’s goals effectively and efficiently. Her trial practice includes complex commercial litigation, antitrust defense, class action defense, and environmental claims. Vicki is currently defending multiple high-stakes federal and state antitrust class action cases. In addition, Vicki has extensive experience in successfully representing corporate clients in the defense of environment...
Jason Campbell was born on November 25, 1975, in Los Angeles, California. He is a partner in the firm of Anderson, Murphy & Hopkins, L.L.P., and has been a litigation specialist at the firm since 2001 with emphasis on professional malpractice, design professional defense, construction law, and property and casualty defense. Jason is licensed to practice in Arkansas, the United States District Courts for the Eastern and Western Districts of Arkansas, and the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals...
Brandon Cate i s a litigation attorney based in the firm’s Northwest Arkansas office. His practice focuses on commercial litigation, including litigation involving ERISA, employment law, insurance coverage, real estate disputes, mortgage servicing, media law, and class action defense. Some of Mr. Cate’s no table successes include securing a declaratory judgment for landowners in a 27-acre adverse possession dispute near Harrison and securing a trial victory for Fayetteville homeow...
Meredith Causey’s practice focuses on electronic discovery and information governance, including the identification, preservation, collection, review, and production of electronically stored information. Ms. Causey also provides counsel to clients on a variety of technology-related issues, including software licensing agreements, cloud computing, and website privacy policies. Before joining the firm, Ms. Causey founded an electronic discovery company, where she counseled clients on elec...
Vince Chadick maintains a broad commercial law practice, representing corporate, public, and individual clients in litigation and regulatory matters. Over his three-decade career, he has litigated cases ranging from personal injury and class actions to business torts, governmental tax disputes, and international arbitration. Licensed to practice law in Arkansas and Oklahoma, Mr. Chadick has appeared before state and federal courts, as well as administrative agencies, in at least six states an...
Chip Chiles is a Fellow of the International Academy of Trial Lawyers and the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers and a Member of the American Law Institute. He litigates business-related disputes at trial and on appeal in Arkansas and in other states. Chip has represented some of the world’s leading companies in the insurance, pharmaceutical, chemical, finance, communications, food and beverage, financial, and retail industries. His business-litigation practice has included defending...
Tony A. DiCarlo III is a Partner in our Little Rock office where he specializes in business litigation, personal injury defense, and medical malpractice defense along with a vast array of property and casualty related matters. He is also a licensed mediator. Prior to joining HBS, Tony practiced at reputable firms in both Arkansas and Louisiana where he developed a growing civil litigation defense practice. Tony holds a Juris Doctor and a Bachelor of Music from Loyola University New Orleans.
John Elrod's practice focuses on litigation and dispute resolution. Mr. Elrod has over 40 years experience representing companies and individuals in a variety of matters, including recently defending a major poultry producer in environmental litigation brought by the Oklahoma State Attorney General. He has extensive experience in federal and state courts both in Arkansas and Oklahoma. Mr. Elrod has handled a number of large cases involving defense of claims brought under the federal CERCLA an...
Mr. Falasco has extensive trial experience across a range of complex legal matters, focusing on business and real estate litigation, product liability, class actions, and appeals. Mr. Falasco was the lead appellate counsel who won a reversal and dismissal of a $10 million dollar judgment in a construction litigation matter. He has successfully represented a health insurance company through appeal in connection with claims prosecuted through the Arkansas Insurance Department. He has served as ...
Karen Freeman is a native Arkansan who spent 14 years in Washington D.C. and Houston at a top AmLaw 100 global firm, where she was an equity partner in the firm’s litigation group. While in Houston, she also gained valuable corporate experience serving as Associate General Counsel to the Houston Rockets and Houston Comets organizations as well as Toyota Center. Since Karen has returned to Arkansas and joined Mitchell Williams, she has handled a wide range of litigation matters from comp...
Will Griffin represents major manufacturers nationally in product liability and other litigation. His work also includes the defense of medical malpractice and general liability cases. Will has handled cases in nearly every state in the United States, having tried more than 80 jury trials. He has been a lead counsel in the defense of manufacturers in lawsuits brought by dozens of municipalities and handled one of the most significant matters litigated before the Consumer Product Safety Commis...
Audra Hamilton has more than 20 years of experience representing employers in all phases of litigation, arbitration and administrative conflicts. Her extensive experience includes representation of companies of all sizes in the energy, health care, construction, public utility and service industries. In addition to her private practice experience, Audra has been the in-house employment counsel and executive in charge of human resources for a publicly traded energy company, giving her internal...
Michael B. Heister is a managing member at Quattlebaum, Grooms & Tull PLLC, with extensive experience in regulatory, environmental, and complex commercial litigation. Mr. Heister’s practice focuses on electrical utility regulatory proceedings, environmental enforcement/compliance, and defending clients who do business in highly regulated industries. His recent experience includes: Advising and representing clients in matters before the Arkansas Public Service Commission, including e...
Christopher Heller works primarily in the areas of Commercial Litigation, Labor and Employment Law and Education Law. The majority of his practice consists of trial and appellate work. He primarily represents businesses and public entities in class actions and other cases involving natural resources, insurance, trade secrets, employment, civil rights, education, contracts and other issues. Chris is listed in The Best Lawyers in America for Commercial Litigation, Bet-the-Company Litigation, La...
Judy Simmons Henry has been engaged in an active business litigation practice for 27 years and serves in management of the firm as its business litigation chair. Her practice centers on complex litigation including fiduciary and trust matters, bankruptcy, banking and class action litigation. Henry is a National Football League Players Association Certified Contract Advisor and is the firm's Sports Law Group leader. Henry’s recent experience includes: Lead local counsel for national shoe...
Stephen Hester is an award-winning attorney with a focus on civil litigation. He concentrates his practice on Business and Commercial Litigation, Tort Litigation, and Business Transactions. As a litigator, Stephen has successfully represented individuals and businesses of all types including banks, manufacturers, hospitals, and nursing homes. He has represented architects, engineers, and lawyers in malpractice litigation. He has significant experience with litigated bankruptcy matters, fraudu...
Ben Jackson is a litigation and trial attorney who defends corporations, institutional clients and insurance companies in catastrophic personal injury and death cases, primarily including products liability, toxic tort and medical injury. He has worked as lead trial counsel on numerous catastrophic injury cases and regularly serves as local counsel assisting out-of-state defense attorneys in Arkansas litigation. Ben is recognized as one of JD Supra Readers' Choice Top Authors in Products Liab...
Jamie Huffman Jones is a partner in the Litigation Practice Group and a member of the Firm’s Management Committee. Jamie advocates for clients in jury and bench trials involving a variety of claims, including mass tort, catastrophic injury, wrongful death, business and commercial disputes, class actions, and automotive commercial disputes. Jamie handles FELA and regulatory litigation for the largest Class One freight railroad in the country and Section 1983/Constitutional litigation for...
For over 50 years, Robert L. Jones, III (Bobby) has dedicated his practice to advocating his clients’ interests in the courtroom and more recently, at mediations. While primarily defending major corporations, he has assisted Arkansans in a broad range of matters. Bobby has had considerable success in the courtroom trying over 300 jury trials, as well as over 1,000 nonjury trials and over 100 mediations. He is a leader with the use of technology in the courtroom, having started this tria...
Sarah Keith-Bolden has broad litigation experience across a variety of complex civil matters, including business tort, breach of contract, real estate and environmental, insurance coverage, products liability, and negligence claims. She represents clients in all stages of litigation, from pre-suit investigation through trial and appeal. She represents employers in a wide range of employment-related matters, with particular experience enforcing restrictive covenants, including non-solicitation...
Kerri Kobbeman works primarily in the litigation, labor and employment, and corporate practice groups. Ms. Kobbeman has been engaged in a broad range of labor and employment matters, including the defense of wrongful discharge and discrimination actions as well the enforcement of contractual covenants relating to employment obligations. Ms. Kobbeman has defended clients in a number of FLSA class/Collective actions, a WARN Act class action, and multiple single-plaintiff retaliation and discrim...
Steve Lancaster has a commercial litigation practice, primarily in the areas of breach of contract litigation, trust litigation, engineer and architect defense, gaming regulation, title insurance litigation and general commercial dispute resolution. Lancaster is the Chief Operating Officer for Wright Lindsey Jennings and has been with the firm his entire legal career. Lancaster’s more recent experience includes: Counsel for an international oil and gas company in litigation resulting fr...
As a former in-house counsel for a Fortune 500 company, Todd Lewis is no stranger to representing major clients and brands in high-stakes, complex litigation. Todd is an accomplished litigator with over 28 years of experience. His effectiveness in handling complex matters is matched only by his dedication to his clients, which includes companies of all sizes in the banking, real estate, insurance, health care, manufacturing, food processing, and construction industries. Todd has built his pra...
Kathy McCarroll joined the firm in 2014 as a member of the Litigation Group. Her practice focuses on business litigation, personal injury defense, railroad law, products liability defense and appellate advocacy. In 2019, Mid-South Super Lawyers listed Kathy as a “Rising Star.” Prior to law school, Kathy enjoyed a successful career in communications with an emphasis on speechwriting. Kathy got her start in speechwriting while working on a U.S. presidential campaign. She later becam...
Stuart Miller is a distinguished trial lawyer with extensive experience defending catastrophic injury suits, professional liability claims and suits for wrongful death. His practice focuses on complex high-stakes commercial litigation, defense of class actions and catastrophic personal injury and wrongful death defense. In addition, he has an established practice in areas involving insurance coverage matters and bad faith claims. Stuart's clients represent a wide spectrum of business and indu...
Elizabeth Robben Murray heads the firm’s Labor and Employment Practice Group and serves on the firm’s Management Committee. Her litigation experience is extensive and includes matters such as product liability, natural gas litigation, discrimination law suits, covenants not to compete, commercial contracts and trade secrets misappropriation. Betsy also represents clients in matters regarding legislation, initiated acts and constitutional amendments. Prior to joining the firm, Bets...
Marshall S. Ney is a member of the firm's Management Committee and serves as litigation counsel to businesses, insurance companies, school districts and individuals in most types of complex and commercial disputes, employment claims and insurance coverage issues. His litigation experience is extensive and includes class action litigation, noncompetition agreements, trade secrets, corporate dissolutions, discrimination suits, business contracts, bankruptcy discharge challenges, insurance contr...
Clifford W. Plunkett began his career with Friday, Eldredge & Clark working in the Little Rock office for several years before moving to the firm’s Northwest Arkansas office in Fayetteville. Cliff handles a broad range of civil litigation, including class actions, professional liability defense in the medical, legal and insurance fields, commercial litigation, product liability, construction, motor vehicle (auto and tractor-trailer) and intentional torts. He has tried more than 20 c...
Joey Price is an experienced litigator and focuses his practice on civil litigation, representing clients in matters involving breach of contract, negligence, fraud, defamation, products liability, eminent domain, the Freedom of Information Act, the Administrative Procedures Act, and OSHA compliance. Mr. Price has extensive trial experience, including a defense verdict in a multimillion-dollar partnership dispute involving allegations of breach of contract, fiduciary duty, fraud, and conversi...
Steve Quattlebaum is an experienced litigator representing clients ranging from Fortune 500 companies to privately held businesses and individuals in class actions, multi-district litigation, and other complex civil litigation in jurisdictions across the country. He is widely recognized for his courtroom leadership and strategic litigation skills. Mr. Quattlebaum focuses his practice on complex business litigation, toxic torts, and products liability. He has served as lead trial counsel in mo...
Gordon Rather has been engaged in active trial practice for more than 40 years. Year after year, he has been known as one of the state’s most effective trial lawyers. Clients have characterized him as a “great trial lawyer,” who is “in touch with every detail of a case” in addition to being “thorough and extremely good with juries.” His practice centers on litigation, including complex commercial issues, product liability defense, toxic torts, admiral...
John M. Scott’s practice focuses on complex commercial, construction, corporate and general civil litigation matters. He further counsels his business clients in a wide range of legal issues. Mr. Scott has successfully represented owners, contractors, subcontractors, material suppliers and lenders in construction project disputes; telecommunications providers; wholesalers and retailers; and many other commercial industries. He works closely with clients to identify the important legal a...
Mike Shannon has over 30 years of experience in complex commercial litigation, with a practice that includes eminent domain, class action defense, products liability, e-discovery, toxic torts, medical malpractice defense, bid protests, and issues affecting the outdoor advertising industry. He has represented a broad range of clients—from multinational manufacturers and financial institutions to closely held businesses and high-net-worth individuals—across various matters, includin...
John Tull has served as lead counsel in more than 100 jury trials, representing individuals, small businesses, and major corporations across a broad spectrum of complex litigation. Clients rely on his deep courtroom experience and strategic approach to resolve high-stakes legal challenges effectively. Mr. Tull’s trial experience includes matters involving business torts, breach of contract, product liability, toxic torts, environmental litigation, securities fraud, franchise disputes, t...
David B. Vandergriff has practiced law for over 40 years and concentrates his practice on business, banking, and insurance issues in a variety of transactional and litigation contexts. He has participated in transactions and tried lawsuits all over central and western Arkansas , mainly representing corporate defendants in personal injury cases, banks and businesses in general commercial litigation, and creditors in bankruptcy matters. He is licensed to practice law in the states of Arkansas a...
Our Methodology
Recognition by Best Lawyers is based entirely on peer review. Our methodology is designed to capture, as accurately as possible, the consensus opinion of leading lawyers about the professional abilities of their colleagues within the same geographical area and legal practice area.
The Process
Best Lawyers employs a sophisticated, conscientious, rational, and transparent survey process designed to elicit meaningful and substantive evaluations of the quality of legal services. Our belief has always been that the quality of a peer review survey is directly related to the quality of the voters.