Chris Akin is a partner in the firm's business litigation section. While he has handled a wide variety of commercial litigation disputes, he has substantial experience in securities litigation and directors and officers liability lawsuits. Mr. Akin's securities experience includes playing an important role in Carrington Coleman's representation of the former CEO and Chairman of the Board of a company whose bankruptcy filing was, at the time of filing in 2001, the largest in history. He has also played a key role in defending securities lawsuits filed against the outside board of director members of a Texas-based company that was previously one of the largest grocery wholesalers in the United States. In the area of directors and officers liability, he recently represented the former officers and directors of a high profile start-up company against breach of fiduciary duty claims brought by a bankruptcy trustee seeking to recover approximately $25 million in outstanding creditor claims. Over the course of his career, Mr. Akin has also handled a wide variety of commercial litigation, including complicated oil and gas disputes, commercial banking disputes, claims involving breach of contract, fraud, breach of fiduciary duty, deceptive trade practices, and many others. Mr. Akin has achieved successful results for his clients in jury trial, bench trial, and arbitration settings. In addition, he successfully presented oral argument to the Dallas Court of Appeals in XR Co. v. Block & Balestri, P.C., 1999 WL 544728 (Tex. App. - Dallas July 28, 1999) and Air Park-Dallas Zoning Committee v. Crow-Billingsley AirPark, Ltd., 109 S.W.3d 900 (Tex. App. - Dallas 2003, pet. denied). Mr. Akin was licensed to practice in Texas in 1995, and he has been admitted to practice and is in good standing in the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and the United States District Courts for the Northern, Southern, Eastern and Western Districts of Texas. In 2005, 2006and 2007, Mr. Akin was named by Texas Monthly magazine as a "Rising Star" in Texas law. |