 David C. Mullin
Amarillo, Texas
Partner
| | phone | (806) 372-5050
| | fax | (806) 372-5086
| | email | Email Me
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David is a partner in the Amarillo office. David's entire practice is devoted to trial practice. His track record in the courtroom involves a wide variety of cases including:
Professional malpractice. When one of the nation's largest publicly traded thrifts failed, the FDIC, after being mired in years of litigation, suffered a summary judgment against itself on most of its claims. Then, the FDIC hired David Mullin. David assembled a team of trial lawyers from Mullin Hoard & Brown and before the same judge who had previously issued numerous rulings against the FDIC, pursued a legal malpractice claim against one of the world's largest law firms. This litigation produced a series of victories that culminated in a $13.5 million settlement for the FDIC, and an agreement by the trustee of the thrift holding company's bankruptcy to pay all of the FDIC's attorney's fees.
A bankruptcy trustee for a failed Mississippi trust company pursued a legal malpractice claim against the state's largest law firm. The Trustee decided to change law firms and after dismissing the major Chicago law firm previously retained, he hired David Mullin. After two years of bitter litigation, Mr. Mullin won several major pre-trial rulings and successfully settled the case for $4.9 million.
Business disputes. In a recent case, a property owner adjacent to a real estate development project refused to comply with his prior agreement to dedicate roads. This action prevented the developer from completing an ongoing development. David, on behalf of the developer, asserted claims in district court, and obtained a verdict of nearly $2,000,000 for his client. Then Mr. Mullin negotiated a settlement and his client obtained not only the land needed for the roads, but also over 160 acres of prime development property and over 960 acres of farmland.
Free Speech claims. In a local political controversy involving cost overruns on a jail construction project, a citizen (in a letter to the editor) referred to the Randall County Commissioners' Court Judge as "the shifty judge," and said "there was not an engineer or architect who believed the new jail could be built for $13 million and the (commissioners') court was told this fact." Judge Wood sued Pattilou Dawkins claiming she libeled and slandered him in the letter, which had been published in the Canyon News, and in interviews on KGNC Radio concerning the construction costs of the new jail. Ms. Dawkins turned to Mullin Hoard & Brown, L.L.P. for her defense. Mullin Hoard & Brown partners David Mullin and Wolf Puckett obtained summary judgment on all claims, and then obtained affirmance of that summary judgment in the court of appeals.
Debt collection. When one of the largest thrifts in Kansas failed, the Resolution Trust Corporation called on Mullin Hoard & Brown to pursue recovery from the officers, directors and other professionals of the thrift. Through 3 different lawsuits, David Mullin's team of Mullin Hoard attorneys, recovered for the RTC more than $45 million. In doing so, Mr. Mullin successfully instituted an asset freeze against the thrift's former officers and directors, their family members and friends who were helping to hide assets. Mr. Mullin's work laid the ground work for the Tenth Circuit Federal Court of Appeals' seminal opinion in RTC v. Cruce that upholds the use of asset freeze actions to recover money owed to the RTC and FDIC.
In 1995, the FDIC was ready to settle its claims against two former directors of a failed savings and loan association for $10,000. The FDIC hired David Mullin and Mullin Hoard & Brown to analyze the potential settlement. In the course of the investigation, David's team located nearly $12 million hidden by the two directors in a maze of family limited partnerships, nominee corporations, and spendthrift trusts in the United States and the Cayman Islands. Despite the fact that many U.S. attorneys who represent creditors consider assets in the Cayman Islands unreachable, David Mullin and his team successfully recovered for the FDIC not only $5 million of the directors' domestic assets, but also $4 million of their Cayman assets.
Environmental claims. Property owners sued a nearby feed yard for allegedly polluting ground and surface water. The feed yard turned to David Mullin for a defense. David Mullin hired leading experts on water pollution and animal health, and conducted a thorough investigation of the claims. Using this information, David obtained a summary judgment in favor of the feed yard dismissing all of the plaintiffs' claims. The summary judgment was affirmed by the Amarillo Court of Appeals.
Condemnation proceedings. The City of Amarillo offered the trustee of a charitable trust $350,000 for a tract of land on the southeast edge of Amarillo. The trustee refused to sell and the City sought to condemn the property. David represented the trustee and obtained a jury verdict awarding nearly $1 million to the charitable trust for the property.
- Litigation
- 100% of Practice Devoted to Litigation
- Board Certified, Civil Trial Law, Texas Board of Legal Specialization, 1984
- New Jersey, 1978
- Texas, 1979
- U.S. District Court Northern District of Texas, 1979
- U.S. District Court Western District of Texas, 1985
- U.S. District Court Southern District of Texas, 1993
- U.S. District Court Eastern District of Texas, 2000
- U.S. Court of Appeals 5th Circuit, 1980
- U.S. Court of Appeals 10th Circuit, 1992
- U.S. Court of Appeals 9th Circuit, 1998
- University of Chicago Law School, Chicago, Illinois,
1978
J.D.
- Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA,
1974
B.A.
Honors: Magna Cum Laude
- Grant Thronton, LLP. v. F.D.I.C., 297 F.Supp.2d 880
(S.D.W.Va. 2004)
- Wood v. Dawkins, 85 S.W.3d 312
(Tex. App. 2002)
- Hess v. McLean Feedyard, Inc., 59 S.W.3d 679
(Tex. App. 2000)
- McClure v. Attebury, 20 S.W.3d 722
(Tex. App. 1999)
- In re Guardian Trust Co., 242 B.R. 608
(Bankr.S.D.Miss 1999)
- In re Imperial Corp. of America, 174 F.R.D. 475
(S.D.Cal 1997)
- F.D.I.C. v. Cheng, 832 F.Supp. 181
(N.D.Tex. 1993)
- RTC v. Cruce, 972 F.2d 1195
(10th Cir. 1992)
- Cattle Finance Co. v. Boerdery, Inc., 795 F.Supp. 362
(D. Kan. 1992)
- Commercial Credit Equipment Corp. v. West, 677 S.W.2d 669
(Tex. App. 1984)
- Cox v. Bancoklahoma Agri Service Corp., 641 S.W.2d 400
(Tex. App. 1982)
- Sam Attebury
- Roy Martin
- Jay O'Brien
- Rob Robinson
- Richard Gill
- Kent Satterwhite
- Derek Henderson
- Joy Phillips
- Joe Kennedy
- Claire McGuire
- FDIC Legal Division Training Conference,
1997
- FDIC/RTC Professional Liability Section Training Conference,
1991
- Whittenburg, Whittenburg & Schachter, Associate,
1978
-
1981
- Whittenburg, Whittenburg & Schachter, Partner,
1982
-
1990
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