John E. Chapoton, Jr.
Partner
T: 713.357.9711
F: 713.3579690
Biography
John E. Chapoton, Jr. specializes in complex litigation, general corporate and business transactions, and creditors' rights. In complex commercial matters, he represents both plaintiffs and defendants. He has been included in Super Lawyers Rising Stars 2004 and 2005, as well as Super Lawyers from 2011 through 2016.
John has experience representing clients in a broad variety of complex commercial matters that involve federal securities laws, class action matters, limited partnership and related commercial investment disputes, trade secret matters, employment, real estate investment and development disputes, lease disputes, investor arbitration matters (AAA, NASD, and JAMS), federal tax opinion related claims, regulatory actions and investigations, civil RICO claims, and statutory insurance fraud claims. In litigation matters, John has had extensive hands-on experience including: trial counsel in a multi-million dollar alter ego action against a Fortune 500 company, trial counsel for tax planning issues in five-hundred million dollar, six-month jury trial concerning estate and fraudulent transfer matters; first-chair trial counsel in a multi-million dollar real estate dispute; first-chair trial counsel in complex four-month arbitration action resulting in a $9.8 million judgment in favor of client, and upheld through numerous appeals; defense team member in multiple hundred million dollar class action investors suits involving a Fortune 500 company, including defeating class certification; and first-chair trial counsel in matters resulting in favorable results for clients, including arbitrations, jury trials, and bench trials. He also has significant experience advising and counseling clients on contractual interpretation issues, real estate development problems, trade secret and employment issues, financial disclosure matters, and partnership dissolution issues, including: eight-year representation of Texas corporate assets of billion dollar foreign trust in numerous business and litigation matters; advising founders of start-up telecommunications company on trade secret and competition issues; advising clients on antitrust issues such as retail price maintenance matters; assisting in negotiation of commercial real estate transactions; assisting in negotiation of water development deal and involvement in related regulatory issues.
John graduated cum laude and a Distinction in Public Policy Sciences from Duke University in 1988, and received his law degree from the University of Texas School of Law in 1991. He began his law career at Fulbright & Jaworski, LLP. There he worked on the Antitrust and Complex Commercial Litigation Team, specializing in complex securities, class action, and antitrust matters. In his fourth year he was lead counsel in a twelve week arbitration and won a ten million dollar judgment. These skills later proved useful when John became the father of triplets. It also contributed to the philosophy underlying Chapoton Sanders Scarborough LLP, which takes big law firm know how and combines it with flexibility, cost efficiency, advanced technology, and highly skilled lawyers.