2011 News Archives

Click here to view a holiday greeting from QGTB.

John E. Tull III was inducted as a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers at its recent annual meeting in La Quinta, California. The American College of Trial Lawyers is composed of the best of the trial bar from the United States and Canada and is widely considered to be the premier professional trial organization in America. Fellowship is limited to the top one percent of the total lawyer population of any state or province and is extended only by invitation, after careful investigation, to experienced trial lawyers who have mastered the art of advocacy and whose professional careers have been marked by the highest standards of ethical conduct, professionalism, civility, and collegiality. Lawyers must have a minimum of 15 years of trial experience before they may be considered for Fellowship. Founded in 1950, the College is dedicated to maintaining and improving the standards of trial practice, the administration of justice, and the ethics of the profession.

Quattlebaum, Grooms, Tull & Burrow PLLC is pleased to announce that 13 of its attorneys were recently selected by their peers for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America® 2012.  The firm was also top-listed in a number of practice areas for Little Rock and the State of Arkansas.  Details on these rankings can be found at the top of this page.  Inclusion in Best Lawyers® is based on a peer-review survey in which leading attorneys vote on the legal abilities of other lawyers in their practice areas. In addition, Tim Grooms and John Tull received particularly high ratings by earning a high level of respect among their peers for their abilities, professionalism, and integrity, and have been named 2012 Lawyers of the Year by Best Lawyers®.

QGTB is pleased to announce that Amber Davis-Tanner has joined the firm as an Associate in the Little Rock office. Ms. Davis-Tanner graduated with high honors in 2011 from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock William H. Bowen School of Law as the top-ranked student in her law school class and served as Executive Editor of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review. She received the highest score on the Arkansas Bar Examination in the summer of 2011. Ms. Davis-Tanner graduated magna cum laude from Hendrix College in 2005 where she received a Bachelor of Arts in History and became a member of Phi Beta Kappa. Ms. Davis-Tanner’s practice will focus on litigation.

QGTB is pleased to be a participant in the recently announced partnership to provide legal services to Arkansas Children’s Hospital patients and their families at no charge.  Known as a medical-legal partnership, or MLP, the pro bono corporate initiative is the first of its kind in the country.  Under the partnership, Legal Aid of Arkansas and Walmart will provide legal assistance to patient families at clinics set up at Arkansas Children’s Hospital, as well as during inpatient visits.  A number of QGTB attorneys have committed to volunteer their services for this program.  Direct access to legal services will help many families address obstacles to good health and continuing recovery.  MLPs now operate in more than 250 clinical sites across the U.S., bringing lawyers into hospitals and health centers to connect low-income and chronically ill patients to benefits and protections including disability income, adequate nutrition, and safe and affordable housing.  Endorsed by the American Bar Association and the American Medical Association among other health and law leaders, medical-legal partnership is undergoing a rapid expansion in both rural and urban settings.  The Arkansas MLP is poised to be a leader in applying MLP in a rural setting.

The 113th Annual Meeting of the Arkansas Bar Association was held June 8-11, 2011, in Hot Springs, Arkansas. Cliff McKinney received the Golden Gavel Award for his work as the Annual Meeting Chair and a number of attorneys from the firm participated as presenters at the meeting, including Steve Quattlebaum, Tim Grooms, John Tull, Patrick Burrow, Kristine Baker, Chip Chiles, Charlie Schlumberger, Al Eckert, Geoff Treece, Nathan Tyler, Joey Price, and Clarke Tucker.

The Spring 2011 issue of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review has been published and contains a couple of items authored by QGTB attorneys. Cliff McKinney co-authored the article Adverse Possession and Boundary by Acquiescence in Arkansas: Some Suggestions for Reform, 33 U. Ark. Little Rock L. Rev. 199 (2011). Amber Davis-Tanner, an associate with the firm, wrote Affirmative Acts and Antitrust: The Need for a Consistent Tolling Standard in Cases of Fraudulent Concealment, Note, 33 U. Ark. Little Rock L. Rev. 331 (2011).

Two QGTB attorneys were recently appointed to the Board of Directors of the Arkansas Association of Women Lawyers for the 2011-2012 year. After previously serving two terms as Development Chair, Jennifer Merritt will serve as Scholarship Chair for the upcoming year, and Jamie Dempsey will serve as Vice Chair for the Development Committee. AAWL is a nonprofit organization dedicated to furthering the interests of women lawyers and their service to the legal profession.

Tommy Williams was recently elected to a three year term with the House of Delegates, the policy making body of the Arkansas Bar Association. The House of Delegates works closely with the Board of Governors to define policy, business and management of the Association.

Quattlebaum, Grooms, Tull & Burrow PLLC recently participated in the Pulaski County Corporate Trivia Challenge, an annual fundraising event for Economics Arkansas. Each year, local community leaders and businesses around Arkansas participate in this fun-filled event where teams compete to match one another’s wit and trivia knowledge. The QGTB team of Joel Carter, Joey Price, Clark Jennings, and Amber Davis-Tanner prevailed through three rounds to claim Third Place in the 2010 competition. Economics Arkansas is a private, non-profit, non-partisan, educational organization founded in 1962 to promote economic literacy in Arkansas.

Chip Chiles spoke at the Arkansas Bar Association 2011 Mid-Year Meeting held on January 28, 2011, in Memphis, Tennessee. Mr. Chiles presented Using Technology at Trial. He identified and addressed available technology for lawyers, highlighting ways to use technology to improve performance at trial. This presentation can also be found on our Articles page.