David “Chips” Pruet's client-first philosophy is the cornerstone of his business litigation practice.
Chips focuses on commercial litigation for both corporate plaintiffs and defendants. Handling complex business disputes across industries, including healthcare, energy, banking, private equity, securities, manufacturing, construction and commercial real estate. Chips is often called upon to represent closely held entities ranging from well-established family businesses to startups.
With over 20 years of commercial litigation experience, Chips is seasoned in navigating clients through matters ranging from large-scale corporate recovery to preliminary injunctions to complex damage claims. He is particularly skilled in defending and prosecuting claims involving an array of financial issues, including shareholder rights, corporate and trustee fiduciary duties, trade secrets and non-competition agreements. In the past five years alone, Chips’s work for corporate plaintiffs has secured more than $50 million in recoveries.
Chips’s effectiveness and client-centric focus have cultivated long-term relationships with a wide-ranging client base. His portfolio includes a large national department store chain, which he has represented throughout a longstanding dispute for more than four years in four different courts. Recent examples of his work include:
- Securing a $9 million settlement for a construction dispute.
- Obtaining a defense verdict in a zoning dispute that allowed a local developer to complete the construction of a 100,000-square-foot mixed-use shopping center.
- Defending a corporation’s attempt to enjoin its bondholders from seeking accelerated payments on more than $2 billion in debt.
- Obtaining summary judgment, affirmed on appeal, in a commercial dispute involving an eight-figure damages claim asserted by a contract manufacturer of computer circuit boards.
- Negotiating a favorable settlement for a major retailer in a condemnation proceeding involving allegedly blighted property.
- Securing appellate relief in connection with numerous injunctions and discovery orders.
- Securing dismissal of a trade secret claim asserted against a defense industry contractor involving the alleged transmission of protected information to overseas entities.
By leveraging his considerable trial experience, Chips regularly advises clients on a range of issues to steer clear of the courtroom altogether. He has, for example, helped clients negotiate or renegotiate contracts involving hundreds of millions of dollars, including stock purchase and long-term supply agreements. His keen understanding of how and why disputes happen and the impact of litigation on a company’s operations enables clients to choose language and provisions that effectively mitigate risk and liability ahead of issues.
Chips’s practice has been built around a fundamental appreciation for a client’s right to receive candid and reliable advice. At the onset of each case, he establishes clear litigation objectives, identifies potential solutions and executes a calculated strategy for achieving the desired outcome through steadfast advocacy both in — and out — of court.
When not engaged with his cases, Chips plays a vital role on Team Lightfoot. For over a decade, he has served as the partner responsible for Lightfoot’s paralegals, acting as a crucial liaison between staff and attorneys.
Chips consistently receives recognition for his work in business litigation from organizations such as Thomson Reuters' Super Lawyers and Martindale Hubbell. His dedication to client success was further acknowledged when he was named to the 2024 “Best of the Bar” by the Birmingham Business Journal. In 2015, he was selected for membership in the International Association of Defense Counsel. Chips was also named a 2024 “Lawyer of the Year” for Birmingham in the Litigation-Construction category by Best Lawyers. He also authored a chapter titled “Making the Kitchen Hotter: Effective Use of Motions to Compel,” in a 2018 book on trial strategies published by the American Bar Association.
Chips has been an active participant on the junior and regular boards for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and was named runner-up for their Man/Woman of the Year campaign in 2013. He was also a founding member of the Arthritis Foundation’s junior board. Chips is a proud husband and father of three children. He and his family attend the Cathedral Church of the Advent.