AZA Partner Shahmeer Halepota Recognized by State Bar of Texas Group
April 8, 2025
HOUSTON – AZA partner Shahmeer Halepota received the 2025 Best Lawyers Under 40 award from the Asian Pacific Interest Section of the State Bar of Texas.
From Ben & Jerry’s to the Republic of South Sudan, high-profile clients trust Mr. Halepota with their most important complex commercial disputes. His sole focus is achieving the most favorable outcome for them. Mr. Halepota’s broad litigation and arbitration experience covers a wide range of disputes, including those in the energy, healthcare, telecommunications, construction, intellectual property, and auditing and accounting sectors.
The Asian Pacific Interest Section of the State Bar of Texas has been connecting Asian and South Asian legal professionals, as well as lawyers interested in promoting issues of justice, equity, and opportunity impacting Asian and South Asian communities, since 1995. The group supports its members by providing mentorship, networking and professional development opportunities.
Mr. Halepota has received many other honors as well. He was named to the 2022-2025 list of Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch for commercial litigation. This is a national peer review award developed by The Best Lawyers in America to target associates for outstanding professional excellence early in their careers. He was named on the Texas Rising Stars lists for 2021-2024 for excellence in civil litigation. Rising Stars, which is compiled by Thomson Reuters’ Texas Super Lawyers, honors leading attorneys aged 40 and younger and those who have been in practice no more than 10 years.
AZA co-founder John Zavitsanos told Texas Lawbook that Mr. Halepota has “developed quickly into a leader, he is always in the HOV lane, always full throttle and has an infectious sense of optimism. His remarkable salesmanship, almost that of a hostage negotiator, got opposing lawyers to drop several construction cases just by talking them out of it.”
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 2024 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 13 years; has been named Litigation Department of the Year by Texas Lawyer three times; and was previously dubbed a Texas Powerhouse law firm by Law360.