At Eldridge Brooks, we’re focused on serving as more than just your attorneys. We’re dedicated to being your partners. You and your business face a changing and challenging legal and economic landscape. Let’s confront and conquer those challenges together.
We bring decades of experience as lawyers, executives, private equity investors, entrepreneurs and in senior positions in the federal government. We understand solutions involve more than understanding the legal framework. We get that your first priority is protecting and growing your business. We are committed to partnering with you, facing your complex legal and business environment together, and seeing you succeed.
We’re ready to put our experience to work for you. Based in Northwest Arkansas, we serve clients in Arkansas, Texas and across the country. To talk further, please contact Conner Eldridge or Steve Brooks.
We’re excited to announce the addition of two new partners, J.D. Hays and Debby Winters. Their addition strengthens our team and expands the representation we offer our clients in the areas of litigation and intellectual property.
Mr. Eldridge is a founding partner of Eldridge Brooks and a former United States Attorney, Chief Executive Officer of a $1 billion Financial Institution, and United States Senate candidate. As United States Attorney for the Western District of Arkansas from 2010-2015, Conner served as Chief Federal Law Enforcement Officer, responsible for all federal criminal cases in 34 counties in Arkansas. In 2015, Conner was a member of the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee of the United States Department of Justice, which advises the Attorney General on behalf of the U.S. Attorney community. As U.S. Attorney, Conner was involved, locally and nationally, with a number of committees and issues including Budget, Child Exploitation, Cyber Crime and Security, Information Technology, Management, Terrorism and National Security, and White Collar Crime.
Conner chaired the Investment Review Board, which was responsible for approving and allocating substantial information technology expenditures and the Domestic Terrorism Executive Committee, a committee led by the Department of Justice and comprised of numerous federal agencies involved in domestic terrorism cases and issues. Prior to serving as U.S. Attorney, Conner worked in a variety of positions, including Chief Executive Officer, at Summit Bank and Summit Bancorp, a $1 billion community bank with over 20 branches and 300 employees. Summit sold to Bank of the Ozarks in 2014. Most recently, Conner ran for the United States Senate in the 2016 election. As a major party nominee, Conner ran an aggressive, dynamic campaign against a long-time incumbent. Conner also previously served as a law clerk to the Honorable G. Thomas Eisele in federal court in the Eastern District of Arkansas, and as a staff member for former United States Congressman Marion Berry (AR) and former United States Senator Blanche Lincoln (AR). A native of Lonoke and Augusta, Arkansas, Conner worked in family businesses growing up, including as a farm hand at J.E. Tull and Son farms and as a summer worker at Eldridge Supply Company, a CaseIH dealer.
Mr. Brooks is a founding partner of Eldridge Brooks and a former partner at Arkansas’ largest law firm. Most recently, Mr. Brooks was a partner at one of the state’s largest venture capital and growth equity investment firms overseeing various aspects of the firm’s investment activities and led investments in healthcare, software technologies, e-commerce, energy infrastructure and retail and e-commerce businesses. Mr. Brooks has 20 years of experience advising and investing in private capital funds, private companies, as well as advising limited partners and funds of funds. Mr. Brooks’ practice is rooted in his broad experiences working with emerging high growth companies, investors, and funds, both in business and as a lawyer.
Prior to forming Eldridge Brooks, Mr. Brooks was a partner at NewRoad Capital Partners, a venture capital and growth equity investment firm based in Bentonville, AR. Mr. Brooks worked extensively with the portfolio companies as well as the funds themselves and their co general partners, namely Kayne Anderson, based in Los Angeles, CA. Prior to NewRoad Capital, Mr. Brooks was a partner in the private equity and mergers and acquisitions practice group of Friday Eldredge & Clark, Arkansas’ largest law firm, from 2003 until 2013. Mr. Brooks represented lower middle market issuers across the U.S. in private offerings of securities; structuring private equity funds and offerings; acquisitions and divestitures, as well as partnership and corporate tax matters. From 1995 to 2000, Brooks practiced as a CPA in both the private and public sectors in the tax section of Frost PLLC, Arkansas’ largest public accounting firm and was senior tax accountant with Tyson Foods, Inc.
Mr. Brooks graduated from the University of Arkansas School of Law (Fayetteville), Cum Laude, and the University of Arkansas’ Walton College of Business. Mr. Brooks is a member of the Arkansas and Texas Bar, is admitted to the United States Tax Court and has served as Associate Justice on the Arkansas Supreme Court, and is ranked in Chambers USA as one of America’s leading lawyers – Mergers and Acquisitions.
Debby Winters puts her years of work as an intellectual property attorney and a Ph.D. in biochemistry and molecular biology to lead Eldridge Brooks’ intellectual property practice, offering clients assistance in handling a wide variety of intellectual property and business matters, including patents, trademarks, and copyrights. It is critical that businesses protect their intellectual property, and Debby is dedicated to helping clients do just that.
Dr. Winters has a varied background that includes teaching at the college level and practicing intellectual property and business law. She has practiced in an intellectual property law firm, served as in-house counsel for emerging start-up companies and most recently ran a sole legal practice focusing on the startup community.
Debby is a licensed patent attorney with a passion for working with inventors to help them turn their ideas into inventions and form companies around these inventions. As an intellectual property attorney, she not only files and prosecutes patents, she helps her clients with their trademark branding and copyright protection. She designs and manages intellectual property portfolios and is involved in marketing inventions and pursuing licensing opportunities. She helps clients protect their intellectual property and facilitates brainstorming sessions to identify new invention areas. She enjoys helping her clients reach their goals of successful entrepreneurship. Her practice also includes working with minority-owned businesses, where she helps these companies realize unique opportunities in the business world.
Debby received her Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the University of Georgia. She pursued scientific research while teaching at both The Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City and The University of Arkansas, before turning to law. She received her J.D. from the University of Arkansas Law School, where she graduated magna cum laude and was on the Arkansas Law Review.
In addition to teaching college, medical and law students, she holds workshops for interested entrepreneurs in her community. She combines her training in science and law in the blog IPConcerns, where she keeps her followers up-to-date on important IP issues relevant to everyone. You can check it out at http://ipconcerns.wordpress.com/
When she’s not helping clients in their legal endeavors, she’s an exercise enthusiast and avid runner who has completed both national and international marathons. She is also actively involved in the world of rescuing dogs who are looking for the perfect forever home.
Her work with charity organizations include the Alzheimer’s Association, the Heart Association, and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
J.D. Hays joins Eldridge Brooks with significant experience in civil litigation and strengthens the litigation expertise that we offer to our clients, including individuals and businesses and including both plaintiffs and defendants. Mr. Hays is a nationally recognized trial lawyer. He handles all aspects of litigation, represents individuals and families in serious injury and wrongful death cases, and provides high-end litigation services to local businesses in commercial disputes. He has been the lead attorney in over 300 litigations and has represented over 800 people in injury and wrongful death cases.
J.D. was awarded the “2013 Young Trial Lawyer of the Year” by the Arkansas Trial Lawyers Association (ATLA). He now serves on the Board of Governors for ATLA and is their representative to the American Association for Justice (AAJ) Board of Governors. He is a graduate of AAJ’s prestigious Leadership Academy, and he was elected to be an officer of its 5,000-member New Lawyers Division. He is a graduate and faculty member of The Trial Lawyer’s College, serves on the Board of Directors for the Public Justice Foundation, and has received “Top 40 Under 40” recognition from the National Trial Lawyers Association.
J.D. is a sought-out national speaker, sharing his litigation skills and experience with other lawyers at seminars across the country. He has chaired over and presented at seminars in over a dozen states and internationally. He also provides formal trial consulting to lawyers and clients as a partner in the Focus Firm®. The Focus Firm uses focus groups, case workshops, and trial strategy methods to evaluate, develop, and prepare litigation files and their lawyers for upcoming jury trials.
J.D. remains involved with his local community, speaking in schools about distracted driving, judging law student trial competitions, and helping coach a local high school mock trial team. He also serves on the Board of Directors for the Peace at Home Family Shelter, in Fayetteville, AR.