Meet Joseph M. Schreiber

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As a former jail guard and amateur boxer, I’m not afraid of a fight and I don’t back down. As a former teacher of high school special education – as part of Teach for America – I like to speak in front of people and am good at taking complex ideas and making them understandable to people of a variety of backgrounds and education levels. As a volunteer tutor for inner city kids, I have compassion and patience.

I spent my first decade practicing law working for and being trained by some of the largest and most prestigious law firms in Houston and the United States, including Fulbright & Jaworski, LLP (now Norton Rose Fulbright) and Bracewell LLP.

I wasn’t just sitting in the office billing hours. I tried lawsuits in state and federal courts and in front of arbitration panels. I took hundreds of depositions and presented clients, fact and expert witnesses in depositions and at trial. I worked on huge cases with millions of pages of documents and made them easy to understand, and represented individuals and small businesses with the same effort and attention to detail. My experience included product liability litigation, mass torts, business litigation, bankruptcy litigation and construction law, among others. I advised individuals and small businesses as well in the drafting of their contracts and assisted them in negotiations. (Representative experience listed below.)

In January 2014, I left the large law firms and started a boutique law firm serving both individuals and smaller businesses. At Schreiber | Knockaert, PLLC, our motto is Law Done Right. This applies to how we treat our clients and how we practice law. We believe first and foremost that our clients’ interests come first and we are here to serve. We offer the skill and expertise that clients expect from large law firms and provide the personal service associated with a boutique law practice.

My Experience Working With Erik Knockaert

Erik Knockaert and I have been friends since the first week of law school at the University of Texas, where we both graduated with honors. We worked together in the 2000s when we were trained as big-firm litigators. Each of us is a capable first-chair attorney with the humility and personal relationship to support each other in all that we do.

Representative Career Personal Injury Experience:

• Federal Tort Claims Act lawsuit on behalf of the survivors of a soldier massacre of his wife and neighbors, after being reported for domestic abuse. Suit against the U.S. Army for negligently undertaking a duty to his wife to provide domestic violence protection services, pursuant to DOD regulations, and not following them.
• Lead trial counsel in personal injury arbitration tried to verdict on behalf of a truck driver who suffered permanent injuries to his elbow in fall due to defective trailer door.
• Lead trial counsel for truck driver permanently injured due to defective winch bar. Reached a favorable settlement in personal injury arbitration.
• Representing customer of a club who had his car shot up by the armed security guard, trying to hit him, and who then lied to the police, and was backed up in those lies by the bouncer. Malicious prosecution and assault suit against club and security company.
• Representing elderly customer against office supply store. Our client was viciously assaulted and beaten by the store manager, who pled guilty.
• Wrongful death lawsuit against prison guards and the state of Texas for preventable inmate suicide, when an inmate was not given mental health treatment or medical care after expressing suicidal intent, from being extorted inside the prison.
• Lead counsel in oxygen-fed fire case against hospice company and doctor who gave multiple mind-altering drugs and oxygen to a disabled veteran with a long history of smoking.
• Lead trial counsel in serious auto and workplace injury claims.
• Handled hundreds of toxic tort claims involving premises liability and products liability.
• Handled multiple claims for injury due to truck wrecks tire tread separation.

Representative Career Business Litigation Experience:

• First-chair trial lawyer in a multi-part business-fraud case in bankruptcy court involving alleged fraudulent transfers between businesses.
• Co-trial counsel in jury trial defending claims of breach of partnership agreement, breach of contract and unjust enrichment.
• Co-trial counsel to three-judge arbitration panel winning valuation dispute involving recycled aggregates, including cross-examining other side’s expert and key fact witnesses and presenting client’s key fact witness and expert at arbitration trial.
• Co-trial counsel to three-judge arbitration panel winning dispute in a post-closing purchase price adjustment in the sale of a construction company, including presenting and cross-examining key witnesses at arbitration trial.
• Defended multiple property developers against claims of fraud, breach of contract and RICO for failed re-development of large parcel of property in Houston, Texas.
• Trial counsel defeating injunction and forcing dismissal of $11 million business tort claims regarding sale and disputed ownership of real estate.
• Successfully represented trucking company facing loss of DOT operating authority.
• Successfully represented health-care company in enforcement action with the State of Texas, maintaining license and significantly decreasing proposed fine.
• Handled multiple construction litigation claims for owners and contractors.

Representative Career Employment Litigation Experience:

• Successful representation of male administrative employee sexually harassed by female boss.
• Represented jail officer wrongfully terminated by the sheriff after the tragic death of a prisoner in politically charged case.
• Successful representation of multiple oilfield workers wrongfully denied overtime.
• Successful representation of oil field worker terminated in retaliation for participating in unpaid overtime lawsuit.
• Successful representation of male employee harassed by male supervisor and defamed by supervisor.
• Represent employees wrongfully terminated due to race, age, and sex.