For over 35 years, I have successfully represented plaintiffs and defendants and first chaired cases to verdict. Like many law school grads joining the litigation department of a large law firm in a big city in the early 1980s, I began my professional career working on large cases with partners and on a handful of smaller “insurance defense” cases of my own. Intent on trying lawsuits, I asked for more responsibility and, within five years, I had sole accountability for 150 cases and had taken a number of them to trial.
Successfully resolving a large docket and working largely on my own during these early years taught me many lessons, including self-reliance, focus on core strategic issues and objectives, and how to relate to judges and juries in unfamiliar and sometimes hostile jurisdictions. These lessons serve me and my clients well today.
Board Certified in Civil Trial Law and Personal Injury Trial Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization and a Member of the American Board of Trial Advocates, my practice includes a broad spectrum of litigation matters, including complex business and commercial disputes and high profile tort litigation. I have successfully handled disputes involving complex corporate transactions, cases arising from pipeline explosions and releases, environmental/toxic tort cases, products liability cases, oil and gas/energy disputes, and construction litigation. I have also served as lead trial counsel (when paired with patent law specialists) for highly specialized patent infringement cases and handled nationwide litigation involving well-known products, statewide and national MDLs, and strategic coordination with lawyers all over the country. I have been recognized as one of the Best Lawyers in America by Woodward White, Inc. for over a decade and selected as a Texas Super Lawyer by Thomson Reuters for over 15 years.
In 2014, I left Vinson & Elkins LLP after three decades to fulfill a long-held dream of building a litigation-only firm. Copeland & Rice embodies that ideal. At Copeland & Rice we believe that through the boutique model we can most efficiently and effectively provide high quality trial counsel, while at the same time offering greater flexibility due to low overhead and fewer conflicts. Our great results and focus on listening carefully to our clients have earned us the privilege of representing leading companies across Texas and the nation.
Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.