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I'm a 20-year litigation attorney, who brings creative problem solving to complex legal issues. I was an engineer at Exxon before law school, and I understand how things work at jobsites. I spent more than a decade at big law firms, handling complex litigation for major companies. I have tried cases both large and small.
Having our own law firm, I now apply those skills to help people in need. It’s often a community service. People call with problems, and we help if we can. I’m passionate about law and serving others, and this practice lets me do both.
I bring an aggressive and strategic approach to cases large and small. I’ve built a record of experience in personal injury, wrongful death, and employment cases. I’ve gone to war over legal rights in all kinds of industries. Insurance companies know we have the leverage of going to trial if settlement isn’t reached, and that we can handle any kind of complex issue that arises.
Technology in Litigation
Commercial/business disputes often have Intellectual Property, technology, or know-how at issue. As companies transact business, grow or even split up, questions arise over technology ownership, trade names, or use of proprietary information. In this age of technology, it’s essential to know your technology rights when resolving disputes or making business deals. This is one of my core areas of expertise, and I am happy to help business owners find solutions. I am also licensed with the United States Patent and Trademark Office and am experienced with patent drafting as well as freedom-to-operate opinions.
Personal injury cases that arise out of the oil, gas, and chemical industries, and in particular toxic torts involving exposure to dangerous chemicals, involve complex scientific issues. Being a chemical engineer I understand complex scientific issues, as well as how industrial equipment and processes work in the places where injuries occur. When faced with scientific experts, I already speak much of their language.
Teamwork and Friendship
Joe and I have been friends since the first week of law school at the University of Texas. We worked together for three years in the 2000s, when we were trained as big firm litigators. Then we each became top litigation counsel at our respective firms, before teaming back up in this endeavor. We’re actual friends, doing what we love.
Our teamwork is efficient and effective. When you work with us, you will always have the benefit of a second set of eyes and ears, and the ability to divide and conquer. It’s teamwork done right.
Example Representations in Personal Injury
- Represented employee of adult daycare who was injured by client, due to failure of employer to have proper equipment to handle patients. Confidential resolution.
- Secured settlement for victim of hit-and-run tractor trailer wreck. Proved identity of the 18-wheeler driver and owner, and used a nuance of Texas law to force a trial date against an insurance company right before the company was scheduled to be liquidated for insolvency.
- Secured six-figure settlement for malicious prosecution for a customer at a bar after a security guard shot up his car and told a false story to police to have the customer arrested. Settled on eve of trial due to the security guard’s story not matching video surveillance.
- Nonsubcriber Arbitrations. Represented clients in personal injury at work claims when employers did not have a worker’s compensation policy.
- Wrongful death in mass shootings. We represent a number of plaintiffs and estates of those killed in mass shootings in Texas, with Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) suits against the military for negligence in handling soldiers who turn violent.
- Represented Plaintiffs in serious car wreck claims
- Voted rising star associate for both toxic tort and patent litigation. I received my first rising star, back when we had trial settings every week in the days before tort reform.
- See also Cases & Results, for representations at our law firm.
Example Representations in Business Litigation
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First chair trial attorney for group of defendants in three-week civil racketeering trial in the Southern District of Texas over failed investment of $25 million to develop the site of the former AstroWorld theme park in Houston. Secured complete dismissal of individual with the most financial connections.
- Managed and Litigated Business Splits. We call these business divorces, because of the need to divide assets and emotions and create legal solutions that allow people to move on with their lives and careers. Ownership of intellectual property must be determined as well.
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Led patent enforcement litigation for inventions in computers and biotech, including a suit against a major credit card company. Successful Markman rulings are reported at Source, Inc. v. American Express Co., 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 68248; Microbes, Inc. v. Espoma, 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 39705. Voted rising star attorney for work in patent litigation.
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Lead role in defending $14 million contractual indemnity claim for small business when three persons claimed injury that did not appear to be hurt, secured a settlement from a major refinery due to their destruction of evidence, after which the refinery sued the small business for indemnification of their bad acts.
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Investigated the Enron facts and wrote the motion that secured dismissal of all claims against the outside directors on Enron’s board in a shareholder derivative action, which at the time was the largest bankruptcy in U.S. history.
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Led team of patent attorneys for consulting and opinion project for Exxon investigating and analyzing patent rights in future oil technology.
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Led team of attorneys in patent analysis for Qualcomm that provided the first explainable defense theory and enabled settlement of the MicroUnity Systems Engineering case, a mass litigation over computer chip design against more than 20 of the tech heavyweights in the Eastern District of Texas. Completed similar opinion projects in other tech.
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Performed due diligence for Applied Materials mergers and acquisitions (M&A).
Personal
When not practicing law, I enjoy family activities with my wife and two children. We have participated in mission work in the U.S. and abroad.
