Business Litigation; Insurance Litigation

Mr. Whitaker’s philosophy of extreme thoroughness and total preparation at every stage of litigation has served his clients’ interests for over fifteen years. Since joining Figari & Davenport, Mr. Whitaker has represented insurers and other corporations in sophisticated litigation matters in a wide variety of areas in both state and federal court. Mr. Whitaker has handled hundreds of life, disability, and health insurance cases, including bad faith and deceptive trade practices claims and ERISA litigation. Mr. Whitaker has also handled shareholder and partnership disputes, wrongful termination and related employment matters, and a variety of other commercial matters. Mr. Whitaker practices at both the trial and appellate level.

• Mr. Whitaker was lead counsel, from the trial court through the Texas Supreme Court, in a case in which the Texas Supreme Court disapproved several of its prior decisions and affirmed the trial court’s summary judgment in his client’s favor.
• Mr. Whitaker obtained summary judgment on the merits, in a published opinion, at the district court level and then prevailed before the Fifth Circuit, on a procedural issue that arose post-judgment, in another published opinion.
• Based primarily on his investigative research, Mr. Whitaker turned a plaintiff’s claim for hundreds of thousands of dollars in disability benefits into a $600,000 judgment in his client’s favor on its fraud counterclaim.

JD, The University of Texas School of Law, with high honors, 1991

• Chancellors
• Order of the Coif
• Associate Editor, Texas Law Review, 1990-1991

BA, Southern Methodist University, summa cum laude, 1988

• State Bar of Texas
• Dallas Bar Association
• American Bar Association
• Life Fellow of the Texas Bar Foundation

Author, Rescission of Life Insurance Policies in Texas - Time to Correct Some Old Errors, Baylor Law Review, 2007

Author, Rescission of Life, Accident and Health Insurance Policies in Texas-The Rules Have Changed, 9:1 J. Tex.Ins. Law 2,(Spring, 2008)