Douglas D. D’Arche is a trial lawyer and practices in the areas of complex business and commercial litigation, including business torts, contract disputes, creditors’ rights, oil and gas, and construction. Mr. D’Arche has extensive experience litigating in federal and state courts and before arbitration panels. His experience includes first-chair trials in federal district court, as well as state district, county and probate courts. He has also practiced in the family courts.
His experience includes representation of clients before Texas administrative agencies, such as the Board of Public Accountancy and the Board of Professional Engineers. Mr. D’Arche has considerable experience in litigating contract disputes on behalf of major energy companies and representing defendants in class actions as well as mass tort litigation. His trial experience includes obtaining both defense and plaintiffs’ verdicts in a number of contract and business tort actions.
Within the complex business and commercial litigation area, Mr. D’Arche has represented numerous corporations litigating breaches of complicated commercial contracts, including partnership, franchise, employment, insurance, oil and gas agreements. He has litigated claims including business fraud, unjust enrichment, tortious interference, fraudulent inducement, antitrust, bad faith violations, conversion, and product liability. His representation has included litigation concerning violations of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, federal restrictions on unsolicited facsimiles and professional licensure issues.
Mr. D’Arche’s recent trial victories include favorable jury verdicts and/or judgments in cases involving bad faith pooling of oil and gas leases, partnership disputes, industrial construction standards and corporate vicarious liability. He also won dismissal of an administrative proceeding against a professional organization and its contractors by successfully arguing that state law was preempted by the National Flood Insurance Program.
Mr. D’Arche has vast experience in representing oil, oil service and energy-related companies in complex commercial matters. In addition to representing these clients in numerous commercial litigation matters, his work in this area also includes arbitrations before the AAA and the International Court of Commerce.
Within the construction litigation area, Mr. D’Arche has represented owners, general contractors and subcontractors in connection with construction-related disputes. These disputes have often included significant use of constitutional and statutory lien laws in the State of Texas. Many of the matters he has dealt with have involved voluminous documentation necessitating proficiency in utilizing technology to organize and analyze mass quantities of information in an efficient and cost-effective manner. His experience in working with large amounts of information has enabled him to obtain positive results for his clients by efficiently utilizing available technology.
Within the creditors’ rights area, Mr. D’Arche has represented numerous creditors collecting trade debts in diverse industries including healthcare, construction, consumer goods, technology services, equipment financing, professional services, venture capital, and many more. He has also represented creditors and creditors’ committees in bankruptcy court. Over his career, he has handled numerous cases involving the use of pre-judgment remedies, such as garnishment, sequestration, and writs of attachment. His experience also includes other significant pre-judgment techniques, such as the use of Texas mechanics’ and materialmen’s liens and the non-judicial foreclosure of security interests. He has extensive experience in post-judgment collection techniques and extraordinary remedies, such as garnishment, sequestration, receivership, writs of execution, and foreclosure of judgment liens.
Prior to becoming licensed to practice law, Mr. D’Arche worked in various capacities within the technology industry. Because of this experience, Mr. D’Arche is comfortable in using available technology to enhance the services provided to his clients. He has utilized various presentation technology during trial, including PowerPoint, Summation, Sanction II, Elmo and others. He also works with outside vendors to create effective and persuasive trial graphics. He regularly uses technology to organize and analyze evidence during the discovery process and to efficiently and quickly communicate with his clients and opposing counsel, as well as the courts.
Mr. D’Arche served four years on the Board of Directors for the Texas Young Lawyers Association. He was awarded the Outstanding Director Award due, in large part, to his efforts on the technology committee. He is also a past recipient of the President’s Award of Merit. Through activities with this organization, Mr. D’Arche has been involved in numerous projects, including Lawyers as Leaders, the Secrets to Success seminars, the Elder Law seminars and the VoTexas program. Mr. D’Arche is active with the Houston Bar Association and has volunteered for several programs including Legal Lines, Trash Bash, Lawyers in Public Schools and the Mentor Program. He has volunteered with the Special Olympics, the Houston Food Bank and the Community Outreach program. Mr. D’Arche has been listed multiple times by Law & Politics and the publishers of Texas Monthly in their “Super Lawyers Rising Stars” editions and by H Texas Magazine as one of Houston’s Top Fast Track Lawyers. Mr. D’Arche serves as a “Big Brother” with Big Brothers and Big Sisters Organization.
Mr. D’Arche has authored and co-authored various articles for publication and is a frequent speaker at continuing legal education seminars. The areas he has written or spoken on include prejudgment remedies in Texas, surveyors’ liability, practice enhancement through the use of technology and covenants not to compete. In July 2010, Mr. D’Arche spoke on the topic of “Current Issues in Commercial Collections,” for a national teleconference sponsored by Lorman Education Services.