Professional Experience

Gordon Rather has been engaged in active trial practice throughout his extensive professional career. He consistently has been recognized as one of the state’s most effective trial lawyers. Other lawyers and clients have characterized him as a “great trial lawyer” who is “in touch with every detail of a case” in addition to being “thorough and extremely good with juries.” His practice centers on litigation, including complex commercial issues, class actions, product liability defense, toxic torts, admiralty and maritime matters, and insurance defense.

Gordon’s considerable experience includes:

• Lead trial counsel in defending personal injury and wrongful death litigation in State and Federal Court throughout the entire state of Arkansas over many years;
• Lead trial counsel in defending a complex commercial matter involving claims related to policy cancellation, bad faith and punitive damages;
• Lead trial counsel for a multi-state hospital system defending class actions;
• Lead trial counsel for the state’s largest health insurer defending claims involving network termination;
• Lead trial counsel for a major oil company defending oil field contamination and crude oil release claims;
• Lead trial counsel for a U.S. chemical manufacturer defending product liability claims;
• Lead trial counsel for a U.S. boat manufacturer defending product liability claims;
• Lead trial counsel in a wrongful death action involving allegedly defective electrical equipment; and
• Defense trial counsel in two maritime wrongful death actions arising from an accident that occurred while unloading a river barge.

As a former National President of ABOTA, Gordon works to preserve our civil justice system and the right to trial by jury for generations of trial lawyers to come.

Recognition

Gordon has been nationally recognized for and involved in the advancement of effective trial advocacy. Notably, he served on the faculty of the ABA-ABOTA Trial Academy at the National Judicial College in 2007 and 2010. He also served on the faculty for the ABOTA National Trial College conducted at Princeton in 2010 and on the faculty of the ABOTA National Trial College conducted at Harvard Law School in 2012, 2014 and 2016. He again participated in the ABOTA National Trial College at Yale Law School in 2018 and is scheduled to present the graduation address at the Trial College in June 2022.

His professional activities include:

• National President of the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA) in 1996;
• American College of Trial Lawyers;
• International Academy of Trial Lawyers; and
• Maritime Law Association of the United States (Proctor in Admiralty).

Gordon has been named to:

• The Best Lawyers in America© (in five litigation categories);
• Chambers USA (ranked first in litigation);
• Lawdragon 500 Leading Lawyers in America;
• Lawdragon Legends of the 500; and
• Mid-South Super Lawyers.

He has been named the Best Lawyers’ “Lawyer of the Year” in the fields of:

• Mass Tort Litigation / Class Actions – Defendants, Little Rock (2018); and
• Bet-the-Company Litigation, Little Rock (2010).

Gordon S. Rather, Jr. has received a 5.0 out of 5 AV® Preeminent™ Peer Review Rating. www.martindale.com/ratings