Practice Areas
John Zavitsanos is a highly regarded trial lawyer who loves trying cases and loves winning. He has achieved success for a multitude of clients – both defendants and plaintiffs, from big energy companies to lone whistleblowers battling the odds.
He has tried more than 100 cases to verdict in litigation that runs the gamut: financial services, oil and gas, construction, complex commercial disputes, director and officer liability, non-compete and trade-secret disputes, real estate development, and defamation/business disparagement. He is the primary author of O’Connor’s Texas Rules * Civil Trials 2018-2026, the premiere civil trial rules guide for Texas lawyers and judges and a contributing author of the ALM 6th Edition of Texas Business Litigation 2026.
He has learned from every jury trial by surveying the jurors after the case and learning what conventional wisdom has outlived its usefulness. That’s a lot of input, since he has tried more than a dozen cases in just the last few years
And his willingness – delight, actually – at trying a case with confidence has impressed numerous heavyweight clients. As one happy customer put it, “I find that many large law firms are willing to capitulate too quickly and pressure me to settle too soon.” He said he knows that Mr. Zavitsanos is “serious about going to trial.”
When interviewed by Chambers USA, clients described Mr. Zavitsanos as “a master of cross-examination.” Another noted, “I like his trial instincts and confidence. Not a lot of lawyers out there try cases as frequently as he does, and it shows. John loves being in the courtroom.” Thomson Reuters recognized him as a 2026 Stand-out Lawyer based on client feedback including: “He’s very creative, skilled, and he wins. He looks at a problem and he finds solutions that other people don’t find and ways to look at it that other people don’t see.” One client added, “He is one of the best trial lawyers in America.”
Mr. Zavitsanos’ considerable talents have been recognized by every possible legal rating service and his peers have recognized him as one of the premier trial lawyers in the state. For 25 consecutive years, he’s been listed by Best Lawyers in America. He is recognized for his General Commercial Litigation work in Texas by the highly respected Chambers USA. He is one of only a handful of lawyers in Texas to achieve a Band 1 ranking in both commercial litigation and trial expertise by the London based Chamber and Partners. In 2023, the National Law Journal identified Mr. Zavitsanos as one of the top 10 plaintiff lawyers in the USA. He was also named a Benchmark Litigation Star in 2016-2025. He is a Litigation Counsel of America (Senior Fellow) and was named on Lawdragon 500 leading lawyers in America lists for 2021- 2026 with a focus on commercial litigation, intellectual property, and securities.
He has achieved the highest possible peer rating, AV Preeminent, by Martindale-Hubbell for his Business Litigation practice. He’s been named by his peers as one of the top 100 Texas Lawyers on the annual Texas Super Lawyers list for more than a decade. He is board certified in civil trial law by both the Texas Board of Legal Specialization and the National Board of Trial Advocacy, an accomplishment held by less than 2 percent of all practicing lawyers in the state of Texas.
Career
Mr. Zavitsanos co-founded the firm with Joe Ahmad in 1993 in a creaky building with a leaky roof. From that beginning, they built a firm that was dubbed a “Texas Powerhouse” by the national online legal publication Law360.
In growing his firm to more than 60 lawyers, Mr. Zavitsanos has hired carefully. Many on his hardworking team are self-made people like himself, who had to work their way through school and managed to graduate from some of the best law schools in the country.
Early on, it was clear that Mr. Zavitsanos would be a trailblazer. In 1998, he tried to verdict in what is believed to be the first same sex harassment case, recovering more than $1 million in damages and fees for his client. In 2002, he won a month-long business tort case involving 1,000 exhibits that he managed to turn into a “paperless” trial by using the latest technology. It was the first such complex 100 percent paperless case in the Dallas district courts.
Since then, the firm has stacked up increasingly bigger wins in disputes involving hundreds of millions or billions of dollars. A particularly tangible example of the firm’s success came in 2009, when the general counsel of National Oilwell Varco, a company that had lost a trial to Zavitsanos a year earlier, hired the firm.
Mr. Zavitsanos is a member of the national council of the Order of St. Andrew. Mr. Zavitsanos was recognized as an Archon of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of the Greek Orthodox Church in 2004.
He is on the national legal committee of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America. In 2014 he was on a five-lawyer international team that represented the Ecumenical Patriarchate in the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France. The Ecumenical Patriarchate successfully sued the government of Turkey and reclaimed an orphanage it had owned since 300 A.D. just outside of Istanbul. The victory over this largest wooden structure in all of Europe was unanimous and precedent setting. He is also a member of a select committee established in 2019 by the American Hellenic Educational Progressive Association, a group originally formed to combat the KKK.
Publications
Mr. Zavitsanos’ authorship and presentations at seminars include:
Primary author of O’Connor’s Texas Rules * Civil Trials 2018-2026
“The Other Top 10 Mistakes Lawyers Make at Trial,” Houston Bar Association Litigation Section, January 2026
Contributing author of ALM 6th Edition of Texas Business Litigation 2026
“The Art of Business Litigation: A Conversation,” Innovate Driven, September 2024
“How to Use and Defend Against the Reptile Theory,” Houston Bar Association Civil/Appellate Bench Bar Conference, April 2024
“Voir Dire and Preserving Error,” Houston Bar Association Civil/Appellate Bench Bar Conference, April 2023
“The Art of Business Litigation: A Conversation (Business & Ethics) & CLE,” March 2023
“How to Screw Up Your Voir Dire,” Houston Bar Association Litigation Section CLE, October 2022
“How to Command a Room: Impactful Presentations to Juries and Clients,” Houston Bar Association seminar, February 2022
“Strategies from Trial Titans: Trying a Case to the Modern Jury of the 2020s,” Texas Association of Civil Trial and Appellate Specialists, September 2021
“Civil Case Update,” Texas Center for the Judiciary Spring Regional Conference, May 2021
“Live Jury Trials in the Time of Covid: Lessons from the Front Lines,” Litigation Counsel of America webinar, November 2020
“How the Pandemic is Impacting the Future of Jury Trials in Texas,” Texas Lawbook webinar, Houston, October 2020
“The Art of Business Litigation: A Conversation,” ALM’s Texas Business Litigation CLE presentation, Houston, March 2020
Contributing author of Texas Business Litigation 2019, published by Texas Lawyer
“The Art of Business Litigation,” University of Houston Law Center CLE, Houston, November 2019
“Opening Statements in David vs. Goliath,” America Bar Association, Litigation Section, New York City, May 2019
“Tactical Considerations in Business Trials,” Houston Bar Association, Litigation Section, Houston, April 2019
“Mining for Silver: Discovery Update,” 2019 HBA Civil/Appellate Bench Bar Conference, Houston, April 2019
“Voir Dire Panel Perspective – Effective Voir Dire and Opening,” Texas Bar CLE, Houston, October 2017
“Lies in Business and Under Oath” CLE course in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Bar Institute, December 2016
“Punitive Damages in Commercial Litigation: Pursuing and Defending Claims – Leveraging Pretrial Motions, Discovery and Trial Strategies, Navigating Constitutional Restraints” webinar, Strafford Publications Inc., April 2014
“Witness Credibility in Trial and Depositions,” Texas Lawyer’s In-House Counsel Summit, April 2014, November 2013, May 2012
“Witness Credibility at Depositions and Trial – Do’s and Don’ts,” State Bar of Texas – Texas Minority Counsel Program, 18th Annual Conference, September 2010
“Lessons Learned from Trying a Breach of Fiduciary Case,” Houston Bar Association, Litigation Section, December 2008
“Cross Examination,” University of Houston Law Foundation, Civil Litigation, February 2008
Credibility and Impeachment – University of Houston Law Foundation; Advanced Evidence and Discovery, November 2007
Witness Credibility – How To Prepare, Achieve, And Destroy It; Lorman Education Services, June 2006
Preparing Your Witness for Deposition and Trial, Houston Bar Association, March 2006
Types of Claims and Their Values, Houston Bar Association, September 2005
Preparing Your Witness for Deposition and Trial, Houston Bar Association, November 2004
Witness Credibility – How To Prepare, Achieve, And Destroy It, Lorman Education Services, September 2004
Credibility and Impeachment: Fundamentals of Direct and Cross- Examination, University of Houston Law Foundation – How to Offer and Exclude Evidence, September 2002
Preparing Your Witness for Deposition and Trial, University of Houston Law Foundation, June 2002
