E.B. (Chip) Chiles IV
Managing Member
Complex Business Litigation, Appellate Practice, Class Action Litigation, Products Liability Litigation, Employment Litigation
Mr. Chiles’s practice focuses on business-related litigation. He is recognized in Commercial Litigation in Chambers and Partners’ America’s Leading Lawyers for Business, in Appellate Law, Bet-the-Company Litigation, and Commercial Litigation in The Best Lawyers in America, and in Business Litigation in Mid-South SuperLawyers.
Mr. Chiles’s jury-trial experience includes:
- the representation of a publicly traded waste-hauling company in a breach-of-contract and wrongful-discharge case,
- the representation of the developers of subdivisions in contract disputes with general contractors,
- the representation of a publicly traded computer company in a suit by a competitor alleging Internet defamation, and
- the representation of a publicly traded waste-hauling company in a suit alleging tortious interference with contract and deceptive trade practices by a competitor.
Mr. Chiles has also successfully tried jury cases involving allegations of sexual harassment and medical malpractice.
In addition to his jury-trial experience, Mr. Chiles has served as counsel in a variety of non-jury trials, including the defense of candidates in cases challenging their qualifications for state office, the representation of a group of cotton-ginning companies in a suit involving the constitutionality of certain regulations of the Arkansas State Plant Board, and the representation of a law firm in a dispute with another lawyer regarding the division of a contingency fee.
Mr. Chiles has recently been involved in the defense of a number of putative class actions.
These matters include:
- the representation of pharmaceutical companies in putative class actions alleging deceptive trade practices,
- the representation of a publicly traded company in putative class actions alleging company-wide race discrimination,
- the defense of a provider of wireless telephone services in a putative class action alleging deceptive trade practices, and
- the representation of title-insurance companies in putative class actions alleging the unauthorized practice of law.
Mr. Chiles has also represented chemical manufacturers in products-liability cases and CERCLA actions and companies in employment-related breach-of-contract, discrimination, retaliation, and wrongful-termination cases.
Besides his practice in trial courts, Mr. Chiles has an active practice handling civil appeals. He has served as appellate counsel in over 50 matters. He has handled appeals both in cases in which lawyers with the firm acted as trial counsel and in cases in which we were retained after the proceedings in the trial courts. He has appeared as appellate counsel on a variety of issues, including:
- the fair-report privilege in defamation law,
- the recusal of judges due to the appearance of bias,
- the jurisdiction of state regulatory bodies,
- the constitutionality of a punitive-damage award,
- the sufficiency of the evidence in sexual-harassment and retaliation cases,
- the qualifications of candidates for elective office,
- a jury’s error in the transmission of a verdict from the jury to the trial court, and
- sanctions for discovery abuses.
Mr. Chiles has handled appeals in the United States Courts of Appeals for the Sixth and Eighth Circuits, the Supreme Court of Arkansas, the Arkansas Court of Appeals, the Mississippi Court of Appeals, and the Georgia Court of Appeals. He has also been responsible for petitions to the United States Supreme Court for writs of certiorari and briefs in opposition to such petitions. He is a member of the drafting committee for the 2007 edition of Handling Appeals in Arkansas and is a frequent speaker regarding appeals in Arkansas and the Eighth Circuit.
After graduating from Harvard Law School, Mr. Chiles was a law clerk to the Honorable G. Thomas Eisele, United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas, from 1996 to 1998. He received the highest score on the Arkansas Bar Examination in the summer of 1996, the year he was licensed to practice law. He is now also licensed to practice law in the State of Tennessee and in the United States Supreme Court, the United States Courts of Appeals for the Eighth and Sixth Circuits, the United States District Courts for the Eastern and Western Districts of Arkansas, the United States District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee, and the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.
Education
Harvard Law School (J.D., cum laude, 1996)
Hendrix College (B.A., summa cum laude and with distinction in English, 1993)
Publication
A Hand to Rock the Cradle: Transracial Adoption, the Multiethnic Placement Act, and a Proposal for the Arkansas General Assembly, 49 Ark. L. Rev. 501 (1996)
Associations and Affiliations
Elected Member, The American Law Institute; Fellow, Litigation Counsel of America; Member, International Association of Defense Counsel; Former Chair, Federal Practice Committee, Eastern District of Arkansas; Charter Member, Bar Association of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit; Member, Defense Research Institute; Barrister, Henry Woods Inn of Court; Sustaining Member, Arkansas Bar Association; Member, American Bar Association; Member, Pulaski County Bar Association; Fellow, Arkansas Bar Foundation.
Charitable Organizations
Arkansas Lighthouse for the Blind, Board of Directors