Exceptional Results

Lean. Fast. Creative. We founded Watts Law Firm to do things differently. Not to employ rooms full of lawyers billing you by the hour but to get to the quickest trial setting possible, reach the heart of a case at the beginning, and apply pressure until the lawsuit is settled on your terms or won in court.

And we have won. For large companies, small companies and individuals. We've recovered verdicts and settlements for people and businesses in all sorts of cases throughout the United States.

We've won groundbreaking trials for individuals catastrophically injured by defective products and drugs. People who have been maimed or killed by defective Firestone tires and unstable Ford Explorers -- work that helped lead to Congressional hearings in 2001 and the recall of millions of Firestone ATX and Wilderness tires. People like Galvan Castro, who survived combat in Kosovo but was paralyzed when his pickup truck rolled over and its defective roof crushed him. People like Margie Sanchez, whose liver was destroyed by the diabetes drug Rezulin and who was received a significant jury award in the first Rezulin trial in the nation. People like Naomi Bonorden, Helen Rupp and Lillian Sallinger, who received an award from Sulzer Medica in the first trial of its kind for defective hip implants requiring painful extraction surgeries. We've beaten the largest and most powerful corporations in America, yielding substantial verdicts and settlements and, more important, greater consumer safety for everyone.

We've also won for companies and business owners. People like Russell Grigsby, the CEO of a nationwide securities trading firm forced out by his partners who later sold their company for $150 million. Called in shortly before trial, we dedicated weeks to help present Grigsby's case to a panel of arbitrators who then awarded him $43 million* for his partners' securities fraud and minority shareholder oppression. Corporations like BNP Petroleum, sued for $99 million for allegedly defrauding much larger gas companies in the exploration of a profitable well. BNP counterclaimed and, in a case tried without a jury, we persuaded the court to award damages. Companies like B-C Equipment Sales, the largest crane company in the world; our work ensured the continuation of a vital dealership agreement and B-C's business. And Williams Wholesalers, denied the right to sell its beer distributorship by a national brewer. After a few months of litigation, Williams Wholesalers recovered a substantial sum in a confidential settlement. We've found that winning for businesses fighting for their lives is no different than winning for individuals -- it takes fast, efficient, relentless lawyering. *Grigsby: Attorney Fees: $12,274,249.79; Expenses: $977,466.04

Sometimes, we receive what we think is a lawyer's ultimate compliment -- when someone we opposed hires us in a future case. For example, a company with whom we settled a substantial workplace accident case later hired us to represent it in high value tax litigation, and a lawyer on the losing end of a drilling dispute hired us as co-counsel to represent his client in a shareholder battle.

We're gratified that our results have been noticed. National Law Journal named us to its "Hot List" of the top plaintiffs' firms in the United States in 2003, 2004 and 2005. In 1997, 1998 and 2003 our verdicts were listed among National Law Journal's top ten for the year. For three years in a row, Texas Monthly has named Mikal Watts one of the top 100 lawyers in Texas. The Wall Street Journal called him "a rising star of the Plaintiffs' bar."

Of course, we don't always win. Taking on some of the biggest and most complex cases in the country guarantees that. Although we ultimately obtained settlements for people who took Bayer's widely prescribed anti-cholesterol drug Baycol and developed the degenerative muscle condition rhabdomyalysis, Bayer prevailed when we tried the first Baycol case in America. When we sued six giant energy companies on behalf of Texas Commercial Energy for cornering Texas' energy market in 2003, the courts held that TCE's antitrust claims were preempted by federal law and dismissed them. We lost the case but helped to change questionable energy industry practices in Texas. Likewise, we can't promise to win your case.

What we do promise is some of the most aggressive and direct representation available to plaintiffs anywhere. The results speak for themselves.