HOUSTON – Cameron Byrd, Nathan Campbell, Jordan Warshauer and Kelsi Stayart White have been named partners at the trial and appellate boutique AZA.
“This class of new partners is wildly accomplished and deserving of their promotions,” said AZA co-founder John Zavitsanos. The lawyers will officially become partners on Jan. 1, 2024.
Mr. Byrd is a trial lawyer who represents plaintiffs and defendants in commercial and intellectual property disputes. As lead counsel, Mr. Byrd has won jury trials, bench trials and arbitrations. He has been recognized as a top young lawyer by such peer-reviewed publications as Best Lawyers in America’s “Ones to Watch,” Texas Super Lawyers’ “Rising Stars” and BTI Client Service All-Stars.
As an example of his work, Mr. Byrd took over an eight-year-old case on the eve of trial, examined six experts, delivered the closing argument and obtained a unanimous $42 million jury verdict in state court for two upstream companies with trespass claims against a midstream company for injecting acid gas into the subsurface.
Mr. Campbell is a commercial trial lawyer who has averaged one trial or arbitration victory per year in the first five years of his practice. Mr. Campbell has been honored by his peers as one of Best Lawyers in America’s “Ones to Watch” and Texas Super Lawyers’ “Rising Stars.”
In a recent six-week case involving the construction of Houston Midtown apartments, a Harris County jury awarded Mr. Campbell’s client Mid Main Properties LLP $32.5 million in a case against Patriot Contracting LLC, its owner and bond insurers Travelers. The award included about $17.5 million in punitive damages, $8 million in actual damages and $7 million in attorneys’ fees.
Ms. Warshauer focuses on commercial litigation. She has represented both plaintiffs and defendants in cases involving trade secret misappropriation and trademark infringement, employment and civil rights issues, including Fair Labor Standards Act collective actions, breach of contract and other complex disputes. Her clients include individuals, multinational chemical companies, publicly traded companies in the energy sector and medical practices and practitioners. She has been honored by her peers in Best Lawyers in America’s “Ones to Watch” and Texas Super Lawyers’ “Rising Stars.”
In a recent case that had already changed Texas sexual harassment law, a jury awarded $250,000 to Ms. Warshauer’s female firefighter client whose intimate video made for her husband was obtained by a supervisor, who secretly watched it for years. The jury awarded $80,000 in actual damages for mental anguish, $50,000 in punitive damages and $120,166 in attorneys’ fees.
Ms. White focuses on dispositive motions and appeals in state and federal court in all areas of commercial litigation. Before her focus on appellate work, she gained substantial trial experience, including trying multiple commercial cases to juries and the bench in both state and federal court, handling an international arbitration and seeking and defending temporary restraining orders and temporary injunctions.
As a large part of her practice, she supports AZA’s trial teams in presenting critical legal issues to judges and handling the jury charge and other appellate issues at trial, including in AZA’s $22 million federal jury trial win on behalf of the Port of Houston Authority in 2022 and its $32.5 million jury verdict in a complex, multi-party construction dispute in 2023. She also has been honored by Best Lawyers in America’s “Ones to Watch” and Texas Super Lawyers’ “Rising Stars.”
AZA, or Ahmad, Zavitsanos & Mensing, is a Houston-based law firm that is home to true courtroom lawyers with a formidable track record in complex commercial litigation, including energy, healthcare, intellectual property and business dispute cases. AZA is recognized by Chambers USA 2023 as among the best in Texas in commercial law and intellectual property; has been listed by Best Lawyers’ Best Law Firms as one of the country’s best commercial litigation firms for 12 years running; has been named Litigation Department of the Year by Texas Lawyer three times; and was previously dubbed a Texas Powerhouse law firm by Law360.