Arkansas

Arkansas’ Quattlebaum Grooms & Tull defends clients against all types of employment-related claims, ranging from discrimination and wrongful termination to allegations of hostile work environments and breach of contracts. The firm’s attorneys assist employers with the challenges of the employer-employee relationship in and out of litigation. 

E.B. (Chip) Chiles IV of the Little Rock office frequently represents employers facing a variety of employment claims and allegations. Chiles successfully assisted a family owned business, Today’s Office, in a complex matter alleging that the former president of the client breached the restrictive covenants in their employment contract, in addition to other tort claims. Chiles represented the client in court and obtained a jury verdict on six causes of action in the client’s favor.

Regional law firm Quattlebaum Grooms & Tull provides a full range of services out of their Little Rock and Springdale offices. Founded in the summer of 2000, the firm has experienced rapid growth behind a solid litigation team. One client describes the firm’s talents, “QGT provided great representation from providing an accurate picture of what we could expect in the entire process to evaluate if litigation was the right path for our company to pursue. Once we decided litigation was our only option, the team did a great job of learning and understanding our business and its unique nuances and sizing up our case. QGT was very thorough in the discovery process to effectively support our case.”

Managing member Steven Quattlebaum continues to serve as the lead attorney in one of the bellwether trials in Dallas, Texas before the District Court for the Northern District on the products liability multidistrict litigation trial team for Johnson & Johnson alleging defective artificial hip implants. Quattlebaum also leads the representation for Entergy Arkansas in a number of cases arising from a major accident at a nuclear power plant caused by the collapse of a crane, resulting in personal injury, including one death and approximately $100 million in damages to the client. He is defending the personal injury actions, and prosecuting a breach-of-contract and negligence action for the client. The case is scheduled for trial in October 2018. Quattlebaum and E.B. ‘Chip’ Chiles IV, who is described as having “an outstanding courtroom presence [who] can communicate clearly his case to judge and jury,” were lead attorneys representing a subsidiary of McKesson, a pharmaceutical and medical supply distributor in its effort to prevent the state of Arkansas from using its drug to execute eight death-row inmates in Arkansas in April 2017. McKesson was granted a preliminary injunction after a contested hearing in the Circuit Court of Pulaski County, Arkansas, after alleging the Arkansas Department of Correction misled a McKesson employee to obtain 100 vials of vecuronium bromide - the state uses in lethal injections by using a medical license - to place a telephone order for the drug and asking that it be shipped to a department address where medical supplies for non-execution purposes had been previously delivered. The Arkansas Supreme Court stayed the circuit court’s preliminary injunction, but McKesson’s claims are still pending. Chiles, who serves as lead appellate attorney, was praised by a client who states, “Chip Chiles served as our team lead and primary litigator during our jury trial. He has an uncanny ability to stay on point and will not be taken off course by the opposition. [He has a] very solid temperament that will not be shaken.” The client continues to mention, “QGT came highly recommended by many of their peers in the legal community. Our due diligence and experience with the firm confirmed the recommendation.” Managing member Michael Shannon was lead counsel representing Entergy Services in a dispute with a software provider. The software in question allowed the client and its related companies to provide online access to electric bills to their customers. After the provider threatened to disable the software unless an access fee of $4.9 million was paid, the firm sought and obtained a preliminary injunction prohibiting the provider from taking such actions and ensuring that the software continued to operate. Clients speak highly of Quattlebaum, Chiles, and Shannon, stating, “I have personally worked with Steve Quattlebaum, John Tull and Mike Shannon for almost 14 years. They provide an outstanding level of service. They are each talented trial lawyers with an uncanny ability to understand and explain complex issues in simple terms.” Founding member John Tull III has participated in more than 100 jury trials. “John Tull is one of the finest trial lawyers I have ever worked with,” opines a client, adding that he provides, “keen analysis, great people skills, [and is] a problem-solver.” He is lead counsel representing a defendant/counter-plaintiff in a matter concerning the proceeds of three annuity policies issued by Jackson National Life Insurance Company. The policy owner requested a change of beneficiaries on all three policies prior to this death, but Jackson National did not properly process the requests. Upon the death of the policy owner, Jackson National received competing requests for the same annuity policy funds, leading Jackson National to file a complaint for interpleader requesting permission to pay into the registry of the court and the proceeds of each of the three policies. The client subsequently filed a counterclaim against Jackson National for negligence and breach of contract. The policy owner’s children and the client filed competing motions for summary judgment on two of the three annuity policies, and the court awarded judgment to the client on both policies in an amount exceeding $1 million. Tull also prevailed on the motion for fees and penalties on the two policies awarded to the client.