I did my first trial two weeks after I was licensed to practice law, and I was hooked.
I have always focused my practice on representing clients in personal injury law and employment law disputes, like those that arise from
• injuries caused by negligence,
• losses caused by employers who don’t follow the law,
• insurance carriers who refuse to pay what is due,
• and people or companies that just won’t take responsibility for their actions and do the right thing.
I also enjoy helping new business owners get their businesses started.
When I was a child growing up in Chicago, and then Longview, Texas, I wanted to be a lawyer. I came to Austin to go to college and when I graduated from the University of Texas in 1978, I decided to get into the real world before going to law school. I started a construction company and operated several other successful businesses.
After my children were born, I returned to UT to attend law school. After passing the Bar, I worked for other lawyers for a couple of years and then opened my own Austin law firm in 1998. I have been in my element ever since.
As an attorney, it is important to me to provide relief to my clients. At one point during my pre-law school career, I had a serious business dispute. I did something I had never done before – I went to see a lawyer. I remember walking into his office feeling the weight of the world on my shoulders and a sense of dread. The lawyer welcomed me and let me know that I was not the only person who had ever been in that situation. He offered several solutions, but what I remember most was the feeling of relief I had after meeting with him.
I want to do the same thing for my clients that that lawyer did for me. When I’m helping a client, I like to look at the situation and imagine all of the possible scenarios and outcomes. I have the ability to see situations from angles that others may miss and I believe in finding ways to deal with and get beyond issues that some may see as problems in a client’s case.
More than once I have obtained a large recovery for a client whose case other lawyers thought had insurmountable “bad facts” for the client. I enjoy mediation and believe an attorney can achieve a client’s goals through tough negotiation.
I see the law as a way to try to create fairness. That’s what drives me in the often hostile environment of litigation and dispute resolution – the idea that at the end, I can help my clients achieve a sense of justice through the work I do.
MEDIA COVERAGE:
• ABC News.com
• “America’s Premier Lawyers” as seen in Fortune® Magazine
• ABC Radio “The Law Business Insider”
• The Texas Lawyer
• Democracy Now
• The Nation magazine
• The London Times
• The Guardian (UK newspaper)
• KXAN News, Austin, Texas
• FOX News Austin
ORGANIZATIONS, HONORS AND PUBLIC SERVICE:
• American Board of Trial Advocates
• AV Preeminent® rating from Martindale-Hubbell® Peer Review Ratings™
• Certified in Mass-Tort MDL by the Bolch Judicial Institute of Duke University School of Law
• Chair of the Advisory Committee to the Institute on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault at the University of Texas at Austin
• Sponsor of the “No TXT Zone” public safety campaign with KEYE-TV
• Fellow of the Texas Bar Foundation
• Million Dollar Advocates (Life Member)
• National Employment Lawyers Association
• Taxpayers Against Fraud Education Fund
• American Association for Justice
• Texas Trial Lawyers Association
• Travis County Bar Association
• Capital Area Trial Lawyers Association
• Contributor to the Bloomberg BNA Fair Labor Standards Act, Third Edition, 2016 Supplement
