HOUSTON - Texas Lawyer recognizes AZA as a Texas firm that is thriving and “should be on everybody’s radar” both for its successful newly launched appellate practice and its diversity and inclusion.
“Texas Lawyer has recognized AZA as a litigation department of the year three times in various categories. We are pleased to see the legal news group’s new awards recognize us this year for our terrific appellate team and our wildly diverse group of lawyers overall,” said John Zavitsanos, co-founder of the firm.
The Texas Lawyer Watch List, which spotlights the accomplishments of firms with up to 250 attorneys, can be seen here.
In its first year, AZA’s appellate team won a remarkably high nine cases. The AZA team won in the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, the Texas Supreme Court and in the intermediate Texas appellate courts.
They won for a drilling company in an insurance case and for a tax services firm to protect confidential information. They won twice for a developer and twice for an injured worker. They won twice for the city of San Antonio in immunity cases and they won for a firefighter, making new employment law.
The AZA appellate team is headed by Jane Langdell Robinson, co-author of O’Connor’s Texas Rules * Civil Trials since 2018. Team member Judge
Daryl Moore, a former highly rated Harris County jurist, argued the two winning San Antonio cases in one day. JoAnn Storey, Kelsi Stayart White and Hilary
Greene round out the appellate team.
As for diversity, AZA’s approximately 50 lawyers speak 12 languages in addition to English. That includes Arabic, Bengali, Cantonese,
French, Greek, Hindi, Italian, Mandarin, Spanish, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu.
AZA was founded by Greek immigrant Mr. Zavitsanos and first-generation American Joe Ahmad. They often joke about AZA lawyers’ hard to pronounce names.
Partner and Pakistan native Shahmeer Halepota has spearheaded four Iftar dinners at the firm to build the strength of the Muslim legal community and further interaction between that community and the judiciary. In 2023, AZA fed more than 200 lawyers, judges and members of the Muslim community.
Attendees were provided a QR code to contribute to relief for earthquake victims in Turkey and Syria. “It’s like John Zavitsanos
says, we don't just preach diversity, we practice it,” Halepota said.
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 U.S. News – Best Lawyers’ Best Law Firms as one of the country’s best commercial litigation firms for 11 years running; has been named Litigation Department of the Year by Texas Lawyer three times, including for 2021; and was previously dubbed a Texas Powerhouse law firm by Law360.