Steven Knight

Practice Areas

Appellate Law

Commercial Litigation

Insurance Law

Career

Steve Knight is a Shareholder in the Houston Litigation group and is Chair of the Appellate Law section at Chamberlain Hrdlicka.

Throughout his career, Mr. Knight has successfully represented clients at every phase of the appellate process, from handling critical phases of the trial to assure error preservation, through briefing and arguing appellate cases in the Texas Supreme Court, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, and intermediate appellate courts throughout the state. Mr. Knight has prepared and filed countless winning appellate briefs, achieving successful results in the vast majority of his appeals.

Mr. Knight frequently consults with trial attorneys, both within the firm and outside of the firm, to provide guidance on important and complex matters, including error preservation, preparing customized jury charges, handling jury charge conferences at trial, crafting successful arguments for dispositive motions and briefs, and handling mandamus and interlocutory appellate proceedings to better position the case for success at trial. Most recently, Mr. Knight’s appellate victories have included: reversing a significant adverse judgment in a complex intellectual property dispute following a jury trial; affirming a favorable bench-trial verdict in a significant construction law dispute; affirming a summary judgment in a high-profile work-place shooting case. Other notable appellate cases handled by Mr. Knight are listed below.

In addition to his appellate practice, Mr. Knight has significant experience in both state and federal courts successfully handling many other areas of civil litigation and dispute resolution, including matters involving insurance, contracts, employment, products liability, warranties, premises liability, consumer protection, and personal injury.

Mr. Knight is a member of the Houston Bar Appellate Section and the Texas State Bar Appellate Section, where he currently serves as the co-chair of the Appellate CLE Committee.

Work Highlights

Significant Appellate Cases:

UATP IP, LLC, UATP Management, LLC v. Kangaroo, LLC, 2022-2047 (Tex. 2024) The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit reversed a preliminary injunction entered against Kangaroo, LLC, concluding the district court abused its discretion by failing to make the requisite findings to support its grant of the preliminary injunction and that UATP failed to prove it was likely to succeed on the merits of its patent infringement claim.

City of League City v. Jimmy Changas, Inc., 670 S.W.3d 494 (Tex. 2023) The Texas Supreme Court affirmed the trial court and court of appeals’ decision that the city did not have governmental immunity from the restaurant’s claim that the city is liable for breach of contract.

Trafigura Trading LLC v. United States, _ F.4th _ (5th Cir. 2022) (The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit affirmed the district court’s tax refund judgment and struck down a federal tax on crude oil exports because it violates the Export Clause of the United States Constitution).

Other Noteworthy Appellate Cases:

Hamdan v. Hamdan, No. 14-16-00548-CV, 2017 WL 4930933 (Tex. App.—Houston [14th Dist.] Oct. 31, 2017, no pet.)

Silva v. The City of Pasadena, No. 14-15-00062-CV, 2016 WL 1043135 (Tex. App.—Houston [14th Dist.] March 15, 2016, no pet.).

Taylor v. Langham, et al., No. 09-14-00193-CV, 2015 WL 1540981 (Tex. App.—Beaumont April 2, 2014, no pet.)

Fagerberg v. Steve Madden, No. 03-13-00286-CV, 2015 WL 4076978 (Tex. App.—Austin July 3, 2015, pet. denied)

Professional Memberships

Texas Bar - Appellate Section

Houston Bar Association - Appellate Section

Defense Research Institute - Appellate Committee Member

Co-Chair of the Texas State Bar Appellate Section CLE Committee

Publications

Article text for "Mastering the Offer of Proof at Trial," Texas Lawyer, April 7, 2022

"Update on Texas Supreme Court in Texas Bar Journal," Texas Bar Journal, September 2021

"Options You Have When A Trial Suddenly Goes Bad," May 24, 2019

"Six Ways to Avoid the Most Common Mistakes Trial Lawyers Make on Jury Charges," Texas Lawyer, February 2019

“Movin’ on Up – the Nuts and Bolts of Mandamus and Interlocutory Appeals,” April 2016

The Unintended, Unworkable, and Counterintuitive Application of Article 21.55 of the Texas Insurance Code in the Context of Third Party Insurance Claims

Statutory Claims – What Has Changed? – A Review of Chapters 541 and 542 of the Texas Insurance Code

Education