E.B. (Chip) Chiles IV

Chip Chiles litigates business-related disputes at trial and on appeal.  As lead counsel, he recently represented investors accused of breaching a multimillion-dollar contract to invest in a nutritional-supplement business in California.  A federal jury in Los Angeles not only rejected the claim for over $21 million against the investors but awarded the investors $5 million in compensatory and punitive damages for securities violations and fraud by the party who sued them.  The court later awarded the investors over $1.3 million in prejudgment interest and over $800,000 in attorneys’ fees and costs.  In 2024, Mr. Chiles orally argued the appeal in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which affirmed the judgment for over $7.1 million in his clients’ favor two weeks later.

Later in 2024, Mr. Chiles represented a group of online travel companies appealing from a $34 million judgment for state and local gross receipts and tourism taxes.  Two weeks after his oral argument, the Arkansas Supreme Court unanimously held that the taxes did not apply to the online travel companies and their services and reversed the judgment completely.

In another recent victory as lead trial and appellate counsel, Mr. Chiles successfully challenged waste-management regulations that subjected his clients to competing demands by two solid waste management districts.  The trial court agreed with him that these regulations exceeded the enacting district’s statutory authority, and the Arkansas Court of Appeals affirmed that decision three weeks after his oral argument.

A month before that decision, Mr. Chiles presented oral argument in the Arkansas Court of Appeals on behalf of a bank for which he had secured dismissal of a complaint by former customers asserting numerous contract and tort claims.  Two weeks after his oral argument, the Arkansas Court of Appeals affirmed the dismissal in his client’s favor.

Mr. Chiles is a Fellow of the International Academy of Trial Lawyers, whose membership is limited to 500 active trial lawyers from the United States.  As lead counsel in other recent jury trials, he successfully defended a convenience-store owner/operator against a former employee’s allegations of malicious prosecution and won a trial for a family-owned business against former employees and their new employer on contract and tort claims.  He has served on successful trial teams in numerous multiweek jury trials, including defending herbicide formulators against farmers’ product-liability claims and defending a publicly traded computer company against its competitor’s defamation and conspiracy claims.

Mr. Chiles is also a Fellow of the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers, whose membership is capped at 500 appellate lawyers.  His other successes as appellate counsel include reversal of a $2.5 million judgment against an international product manufacturer due to lack of personal jurisdiction, reversal in two different cases due to the failure of the trial judge to recuse because of the appearance of bias, and affirmance of summary judgments in precedent-setting decisions about the requirements for a serious health condition under the FMLA and the fair-report privilege in Arkansas defamation law.

The Best Lawyers in America® recognizes Mr. Chiles in nine practice areas:  Bet-the-Company Litigation, Appellate Practice (2020 Little Rock Lawyer of the Year), Commercial Litigation, Employee Benefits (ERISA) Law (2017 Little Rock Lawyer of the Year), Litigation – ERISA, Litigation – Labor & Employment, Mass Tort Litigation / Class Actions – Defendants (2022 Little Rock Lawyer of the Year), Personal Injury Litigation – Defendants, and Product Liability Litigation – Defendants (2016 Little Rock Lawyer of the Year).  Chambers USA’s Guide to America’s Leading Lawyers for Business cites him as a leading lawyer in Arkansas in Commercial Litigation and Labor & Employment.  Super Lawyers identifies him as one of the Top 50 Super Lawyers in Arkansas.  Benchmark Litigation recognizes him as a Local Litigation Star and a Labor & Employment Star – South.  He is rated AV Preeminent® by Martindale-Hubbell.

Mr. Chiles graduated from Harvard Law School cum laude and Hendrix College summa cum laude and with distinction in English.  He received the highest score when he took the Arkansas Bar Examination.  He clerked for the Honorable G. Thomas Eisele, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas.  He is an Elected Member of the American Law Institute.

Admissions

State of Arkansas
State of Tennessee
United States Supreme Court
United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
United States District Courts for the Eastern and Western Districts of Arkansas
United States District Courts for the Western and Middle Districts of Tennessee
United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas
United States District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri