I was born and raised in the oil fields of Baytown, Texas. As a kid I used to climb to the top of oil derricks with friends where we could see oil tankers coming in from the Gulf to deliver or pick up their loads along the Houston ship channel. It was a region of Texas which was heavily industrial and my friends and classmates came from predominantly blue-collar families.
I graduated from Texas Tech University School of Law in May, 1978. Shortly after completing law school I served as a felony prosecutor for the Harris County District Attorney’s Office in Houston, Texas. I accepted an invitation to join the forces of the Texas Attorney General’s Office in 1983, where I defended the State of Texas in civil litigation matters.
In 1987 I went into private practice and defended insurance companies with a large law firm in San Antonio, Texas. The cases I handled during that tenure ranged from Wrongful Death, to Product Liability, to Workers’ Compensation. I moved to Colorado in October, 1990 to raise my family in an environment that offered substantially more outdoor recreation. I wanted my children to be raised where they could see the mountains every day and enjoy everything the National Parks and wilderness had to offer. At that time I was still representing insurance companies, only now I was specializing in injuries falling under the purview of the Colorado Workers’ Compensation Act. To be perfectly frank, I hated it.
The work compensation law I was working with was substantially different from what I was accustomed to, and I was growing tired of tolerating the shenanigans of insurance companies. I made the leap from “insurance lawyer” to “worker’s lawyer” in November, 1993, and have not regretted the role reversal for a single second. Not only have I never regretted that change, but the feeling I had when I embarked on this new mission was almost euphoric, literally. Never again would I have to tolerate the condescension of the insurance company toward injured workers. Through my years of experience in working for insurance companies I had become equipped to serve the injured worker in ways most other attorneys had not. I knew insurance adjusters personally. I knew their biases, their prejudices, their strengths, their weaknesses, and their methods of operation. I had become an expert in the field of Workers’ Compensation, but even more than that, I had become an expert on how insurance companies handle their claims. Additionally, I was now motivated to represent the injured worker with a passion. Having this sense of purpose was extremely compatible with the values I was raised with and made me a much better representative for the common laborer, and a happier person.
Since 1990, I have handled thousands of cases under the Workers’ Compensation Act. I have handled the most serious injuries that can occur on the job, including death claims and quadriplegia. There is nothing under the Workers’ Compensation Act I can’t handle. And I truly enjoy standing up for the rights of working men and women everywhere. That’s a feeling I never had when I worked for the insurance companies.
That’s the nutshell. I’ll fill in the gaps for you if you want to talk about it during the free initial consultation. Remember, bring all your paperwork!