Attorney Profile

Brian Johnson
Partner

Phone: 713-860-0509

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PROFILE

Brian’s trial practice involves a mixture of product liability, mass tort, commercial, medical malpractice and personal injury litigation. He has served on the national trial team for a major pharmaceutical company in mass tort litigation and frequently serves as regional counsel. Brian has extensive trial experience throughout the state of Texas and has been involved in litigation for clients from New York to California, and numerous other states across the country. He has successfully defended product cases, wrongful death claims, brain-damaged baby cases, as well as challenging nursing home cases against some of the top trial lawyers in Texas.

Brian's impressive litigation skills, along with integrity and respect garnered by his colleagues in the legal community, are recognized year after year by his inclusion as a Texas Super Lawyer.

Below is a summary of some of the more challenging defense verdicts he has obtained over the years:

-Products Liability Litigation:

Wellcome Animal Health Division of Burroughs Wellcome retained Brian to defend the company in a case involving the death of a two-year-old following the ingestion of a teaspoon of a flea dip for animals. The plaintiff mother claimed that the flea dip was too lethal and had not been properly packaged in a child-resistant closure. After Brian and his team investigated the circumstances leading up to the child ingesting the flea dip, he presented that evidence to the jury, who concluded that the child’s death was, unfortunately, due to the negligence of the mother in failing to supervise her child.

-Pharmaceutical Litigation:

Brian successfully defended GSK down in South Texas, Cameron County, in a wrongful death case, when the Plaintiff claimed that her husband died because GSK failed to advertise that one of its product used in treatment for similar conditions had a safer profile for kidney-related side effects. Interestingly, the presiding judge was later sentenced to prison for taking bribes from plaintiff attorneys around the time this case was tried.

-Nursing Home Litigation:

The resident of a nursing home was found in the early morning hours with imported red fire ants crawling out of her mouth, nose, and ears, as well as from her perineum region. She had thousands of bites all over her body. The charge nurse, who had an undisclosed criminal record, reported the patient’s condition to the assistant director of nursing, who had falsified his service record with the United States Air Force. The nursing home facility had a long history of survey violations with the Texas Department of Health. Plaintiffs argued for $25 million in punitive damages. The jury reached a defense verdict, based on our argument that there was no medical evidence to indicate that the ant bites had caused the resident’s death. There was, however, significant evidence in the medical record that the family had denied the resident hydration and nutrition once she was transferred to the hospital.

-Medical Malpractice:

In a $77 million dollar case, Plaintiffs argued that a Houston anesthesia group systematically denied epidurals to indigent patients, which in this case, allegedly led to the delivery of a brain-damaged baby. We presented evidence that the anesthesia group did not engage in discriminatory practices and that, in this instance, the mother would not have been a candidate for an epidural. Defense verdict.

-Medical Malpractice:

Plaintiffs sought $100 million in punitive damages against a nationwide hospital company that one of its hospitals in Lufkin, Texas had negligently credentialed a doctor to manage and deliver high-risk pregnancies at the hospital. We reviewed all of the doctor’s deliveries at the hospital since he joined the staff, as reflected in the OB delivery log, and put together a chart reflecting that over a roughly 15 year period of time, at least 20% of his deliveries involved “high-risk” pregnancies. Defense verdict.

ADMITTED TO PRACTICE

State Bar of Texas
U.S. District Court, Eastern, Western, Northern and Southern Districts of Texas
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit

EDUCATION

B.A. in Economics, graduated Cum Laude, University of Texas (1978)

1978 Outstanding Student (Cactus Yearbook)
Omicron Delta Kappa Leadership Society
Friar Society (UT’s oldest honorary society)

J.D., University of Houston Bates College of Law (1981)

State Moot Court Team

ASSOCIATIONS

Honored by America’s Best Lawyers, 2009-2019
Honored as “Texas Super Lawyer”, 2005-2019
- Texas Monthly
Honored as Best Lawyer of the Year, 2013
- Medical Malpractice Law Defendants, Houston
- America’s Best Lawyers
Texas Board of Legal Specialization, 1987-Present
Certified in Personal Injury Trial Law
IADC Trial Academy Faculty at Stanford, 2006
- Law School
Fellow, American Board of Trial Advocates, 2000-Present
International Association of Defense Counsel - Member
Defense Research Institute - Member
State Bar of Texas - Litigation and Health Law Sections
Texas Bar Foundation - Life Fellow
Houston Bar Foundation - Life Fellow