Practice Areas

The Firm’s experience includes appellate work in the Courts of Appeal and Supreme Courts of Texas and the United States. Its attorneys have made appearances before Texas Courts of Appeal, the Texas Supreme Court, federal appellate courts, and the United States Supreme Court.

The firm represents debtors and trustees in bankruptcy cases under Chapters 7, 11, 12 and 13 of the United States Bankruptcy Code. We have extensive experience in handling complex Chapter 11 cases. We also take pride in offering personal and professional representation for individuals who need to file bankruptcy. Attorneys with the Firm also represent financial institutions, creditors and other parties in interest who have claims against bankruptcy estates. We also represent receiverships and can serve as receivers.

The Firm has represented many of its core business clients for a number of years. This continuity brings stability and expertise to clients’ business needs. Serving as clients’ general counsel makes up a significant portion of the Firm’s business. Our attorneys are active in advising the Firm’s clients on the formation of new business entities. This includes the formation of corporations, limited and general partnerships, limited liability companies, limited liability partnerships, professional associations and joint ventures. Our attorneys will develop a plan of action for the new entity and work with that entity on an ongoing basis with its business strategies and needs. We also advise our clients on the duties and responsibilities of directors and officers in relation to their fiduciary duties to the entity, as well as drafting and implementing policies and procedures for the new entity.

The Firm offers a full range of legal services to clients involved in commercial transactions, oil and gas, and real estate. In addition to assisting our clients with their complex commercial transactions, we are able to provide more specialized services such as securing equity based working capital and private placements. The Firm has substantial experience in structuring and developing projects and developments such as commercial and residential developments, hotels, golf courses, dairies, oil and gas ventures, hospitals, surgery centers and numerous other projects.

The firm provides a variety of services for our clients in the fields of estate planning and probate, including, but not limited to, general probate matters, wealth and tax planning, elder law and trusts. In the estate planning practice, attorneys plan for transfers of personal wealth during life and after death, and provide legal advice about income, estate, gift and inheritance taxes. In addition to preparing wills and trusts, we also provide legal advice regarding estate planning through the use of inter vivos gifts, insurance planning, various “estate freezing” techniques and charitable gift planning. The firm also provides representation to trust departments as well as to executors in probating wills, and provides a broad array of legal services relating to transactions arising during estate administrations.

Family law blends its own unique features with litigation, property law, commercial law, taxation, and other specialty areas. Attorneys in the Firm effectively represent clients in this specialty which requires the exercise of legal skills in the context of the cultural and psychological factors that are often present.

The Firm is general counsel to several financial institutions. Our representation includes banks, bank holding companies, related non-bank subsidiaries, credit unions and credit card companies. In addition to daily representation and counseling to the lending and trust departments, we are regularly involved in more complex and specialized areas, such as officer and director liability, lender liability, mergers and acquisitions, environmental issues, banking regulation compliance, work out agreements, collections, employment and employee benefits. We also represent individual customers in their dealings with financial institutions and governmental agencies such as the SBA and FmHA.

While some attorneys in the Firm limit their practices to specialized areas, several others are available to handle the general office practice for the benefit of individual, corporate, and institutional clients who have less specialized, yet no less important, legal matters to be resolved. The Firm strives to serve all of the legal needs of the clients, and has almost 90 years of history of doing so.

The Firm’s attorneys represent a broad spectrum of health care providers, including hospitals, physicians and physician organizations, long term health care providers, joint venture entities, surgery centers, clinics, and medical foundations. Our attorneys have extensive expertise in representation of health care clients and the unique legal issues they confront, including their start up, day to day activities, and the handling of all forms of litigation related to the entities and groups. Our attorneys further serve as general counsel for many of our health care clients.

Intellectual property deals with protecting the rights of those who create original works. It covers everything from original plays and novels to inventions and company identification marks. The purpose of intellectual property laws are to encourage new technologies, artistic expression and inventions while promoting economic growth. At the firm, our attorneys have a wealth of experience and knowledge when dealing with trademarks, copyrights and patent research and applications.

This practice area encompasses the implementation and development of employment policies and procedures, as well as representing both employees and employers in employment disputes. Our representation of clients in employment disputes has been in areas including discrimination and harassment claims, retaliatory compensation and wage claims, in addition to claims involving covenants not to compete. Our attorneys further handle EEOC and TCHR claims and Department of Labor investigations.

The Firm enjoys a substantial civil litigation practice. Our attorneys practice before state and federal courts; local, state, and federal governmental bodies and administrative agencies; arbitration panels; and routinely handle mediations and other alternative dispute resolution mechanisms for our clients. Our litigators both prosecute and defend claims in a broad range of commercial and tort actions. Attorneys from the Firm regularly litigate commercial and business disputes in such areas as corporate law, property damage, oil and gas law, corporate transactions, employment discrimination, banking and financial transactions, utility regulation, contract disputes, and other commercial matters. As to tort based litigation, our attorneys handle personal injury, product liability, professional malpractice, railroad, all aspects of insurance-based litigation, libel and slander, and other business tort litigation.

The Firm offers both its print and broadcast media clients a full range of legal services. We advise clients concerning legal problems with libel and slander, invasion of privacy, the Open Meetings Act, the Open Records Act, and the Federal Freedom of Information Act. We represent these clients in business matters, in prepublication review of articles and stories, and in post-publication and post-broadcast disputes.

For our oil and gas clients, we offer an extensive working knowledge of the industry and its related problems from those involving the mineral owners, surface owners, and investors to the more difficult legal problems of the operator, such as gas contracts, gas balancing agreements, unitization agreements, and environmental and other regulatory problems. The Firm is active in both oil and gas transactions and litigation.

Intellectual property deals with protecting the rights of those who create original works. It covers everything from original plays and novels to inventions and company identification marks. The purpose of intellectual property laws are to encourage new technologies, artistic expression and inventions while promoting economic growth. At the firm, our attorneys have a wealth of experience and knowledge when dealing with trademarks, copyrights and patent research and applications.

While we are not lobbyists on a regular basis, the Firm has represented clients before the Texas Legislature, state and federal agencies, and county and municipal governmental units. Our work runs the gamut from counseling of clients on the governmental processes and procedures to drafting of proposed legislation. We are familiar with the procedural and political pitfalls in a variety of municipal law situations, and recognized drafting specialists.

The Firm handles commercial, residential, and farm and ranch real estate related matters from a simple lease or foreclosure to major real estate acquisitions, development, condemnation, loans, financing and other complex real estate matters. Attorneys in the firm also handle all aspects of title work and other related matters for our clients.

The Firm helps companies of all sizes protect their intellectual property through trademark and copyright registration. This includes registering trademarks, negotiating trademark licenses and developing trademark protection strategies. The continued growth of the internet as a marketplace has made it increasingly challenging to guard against trademark and copyright infringement and unfair competition. We have extensive experience in the area of trademark and copyright laws, and we use considerable skills and knowledge to protect our clients' interests.