Emmett B. Chiles IV

Mr. Chiles has appellate experience across a broad range of issues, including the differences between state and federal wage-and-hour laws, the propriety of class certification, the enforceability of arbitration provisions, the admissibility of expert testimony under Daubert, the jurisdiction of state regulatory bodies, the constitutionality of punitive-damage awards, the sufficiency of the evidence in sexual-harassment and retaliation cases, the qualifications of candidates for elective office, the correction of a jury’s error transmitting a verdict to a trial court, and attacks on sanctions for discovery abuses.

He 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 experience as amicus counsel in the Arkansas Supreme Court and has litigated petitions for extraordinary relief in that court. He has been responsible for petitions to the United States Supreme Court for writs of certiorari and briefs in opposition to such petitions and has assisted with merits briefing and preparing for oral argument in the United States Supreme Court. He has argued multiple times in the Eighth Circuit, the Arkansas Supreme Court, and the Arkansas Court of Appeals. He is a member of the drafting committee for Handling Appeals in Arkansas, published by the Arkansas Bar Association, and has been a frequent speaker regarding appeals in Arkansas and the Eighth Circuit.

In addition to appellate work, Mr. Chiles has an active trial practice and regularly defends class actions. His clients have included insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, providers of wireless telephone services, food companies, financial institutions, and retailers. Mr. Chiles routinely handles complex business litigation and represents manufacturers and distributors in products-liability cases, employers in employment-related cases, and insurers in ERISA, coverage, and bad-faith litigation.