Anderson, Murphy & Hopkins relocated its office on September 24, 2021, to the Harbor District. Our new address is 101 River Bluff Drive, Suite A, Little Rock, AR 72202-2267.

Amelia Botteicher presented “Lawyer Professional Liability Claims, Trends and Post-Covid Landscape” at the annual meeting of the Arkansas Bar Association on June 15, 2021.

Debbie Denton has been elected as the President of the Arkansas Association of Defense Counsel. She began her service as President in August 2020.

Amelia Botteicher has been selected to serve as a member on the 2020-2021 Board of the Arkansas Association of Women Lawyers and is Chairing the Communications Committee.

Amelia Botteicher has received an invitation to join the Henry Woods Inn of Court.

Mariam Hopkins was inducted into the International Academy of Trial Lawyers in London, England, on April 12, 2019.

Caleb D. Lang joined the firm as an associate in 2019 after clerking with Justice Shawn Womack on the Arkansas Supreme Court for two years. During his clerkship, he attended numerous oral arguments and worked on a wide array of legal issues including tax issues, civil rights, capital cases, real property, constitutional law, appellate practice, family law, administrative law, and election issues. In law school, Caleb won the interschool moot court competition, served as Note and Comment Editor on the Arkansas Law Review, was a member of one of the traveling moot court teams, and was a member of the Board of Advocates. In his free time, Caleb enjoys spending time with his dog on the Buffalo River.

His practice will focus on general civil litigation and insurance defense.

Julie Hancock successfully defended a pediatric emergency room physician in a medical malpractice trial in Little Rock, Arkansas. The patient, an 18-year-old male, presented to the emergency department of a children’s hospital with a complaint of chest pain. The patient was examined, given pain medication, and an EKG was performed. He was discharged from the emergency department when no emergent problems were detected. He died two months later of an aortic dissection which was a complication of an undiagnosed, rare genetic disorder. Plaintiff alleged that if the emergency department physician had ordered a chest x-ray, the condition would have been diagnosed, the patient would have undergone a timely surgery, and the patient would have survived.

The defense presented expert testimony to demonstrate that a chest x-ray was not required by the standard of care under these circumstances and that it would not have revealed anything at the time of the patient’s presentation to the emergency department. Plaintiff argued that statistics supported her position that a chest x-ray would have been revealing and that it was a deviation from the standard of care to fail to order it.

The jury returned a verdict in favor of the defendant emergency room physician.

Mark Wankum and David Littleton successfully defended a clinical pharmacist in a multi-week medical malpractice trial in Jonesboro, Arkansas. The plaintiff and her husband alleged that the pharmacist recommended a contraceptive medication contraindicated by the FDA given her history of an arterial clotting disorder. The pharmacist had a brief curbside consultation with the plaintiff’s family physician, who subsequently prescribed a progestin-only injectable contraceptive. As a result of the injection, the plaintiff claimed that she sustained an acute clotting event that resulted in the amputation of her leg. The plaintiff was in her mid-20s.

In addition to the parties, the jury heard from leading experts in the field on hormonal contraception, clotting disorders, and injectable progestin-only contraceptives. Representatives of the pharmaceutical company also offered testimony regarding the contraindication contained in the package label. Much of the trial centered on the conflict between the package label approved by the FDA and recommendations from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the American Academy of Family Physicians. The case also presented issues of first impression under Arkansas law regarding duties owed by a clinical pharmacist in the context of a curbside consultation with a physician. Plaintiffs sought damages well in excess of $2 million based upon an extensive life care plan, permanent disability, and significant pain and suffering.

The jury returned a unanimous verdict in favor of the pharmacist.

Mariam Hopkins was recently named a fellow of the International Academy of Trial Lawyers.