About Joseph Gates

Joseph Gates is the founder and trial lawyer at Gates Law Firm PLLC in Little Rock, Arkansas. He leads the firm with a principle centered on accountability: if someone's negligence causes harm, they should make it right. Joseph handles major personal injury cases, including car wrecks, truck and 18-wheeler collisions, defective product claims, traumatic brain injuries, and wrongful death, building each case with precision and persistence. Joseph works closely with medical and forensic professionals, negotiates strategically with insurance companies, and is prepared to take cases to trial when a fair resolution cannot be reached through settlement.

He is a member of the American Bar Association, the Arkansas Bar Association, the Pulaski County Bar Association, the American Association for Justice, and the Arkansas Trial Lawyers Association. Joseph has been recognized by The National Trial Lawyers Top 40 Under 40 and as a Super Lawyers Rising Star. He is also a member of the Attorney Information Exchange Group (AIEG) and the AAJ President's Club.

Proven verdicts and settlements

$110.04 millionVerdictTop 20 in Arkansas · #3

On February 16, 2016 Daniel Ryals dropped his healthy 9-month-old son at Wendy Jo Strother's unlicensed in-home daycare in Mena, Arkansas. That afternoon Strother's daughter carried the baby into the local hospital with multiple skull fractures and bleeding in his brain. He is permanently blind and brain-damaged. Strother pleaded no contest to permitting child abuse and got probation. In November 2025 a Polk County jury awarded the family $110,000,000 plus $40,000 in punitive damages.

Polk County Circuit Court, Mena AR · 2025Premises LiabilityRead the full story →

Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Each case is unique and depends on its own facts.

Practice areas

Bar admissions & credentials

State Bar of Arkansas

Proven verdicts and settlements from other Little Rock firms

McMath Woods
McMath Woods
$17.6 Million Default Judgment After 911 Dispatcher Failed to Dispatch Water Rescue in Fatal Pond Emergency
Rainwater, Holt & Sexton Injury Lawyers
Rainwater, Holt & Sexton Injury Lawyers
$216 million · Arkansas Counties and Cities Win $216 Million Opioid Settlement Against 65 Pharma Defendants
Duncan Firm, P.A.
Duncan Firm, P.A.
$17 Million Verdict for Driver Hit by Dump Truck Merging Onto a 65 mph Highway Around a Road Grader
Reddick Law, PLLC
Reddick Law, PLLC
$15.71 Million Judgment for Woman Who Died of Bedsore Sepsis After Nursing Home Stopped Defending Case
Cearley Law Firm, P.A.
Cearley Law Firm, P.A.
$122.5 Million Verdict Against Doctor Who Taped a Hand Grenade to Medical Board Chairman's Spare Tire

Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Each case is unique and depends on its own facts.