 IN THIS NEWSLETTER  AZA once again was included on a national list of “Most Feared” law firms. The list features firms that legal decision-makers say are the top firms they do not want to see on the other side of a lawsuit. The trial boutique AZA is listed among a sea of mostly national and international law firms. The 2025 list was compiled by BTI Consulting, a group that annually interviews top legal clients about the most important law firms in the nation. AZA has made BTI lists in the past dozen years as the most fearsome or as “Awesome Opponents” or as “Client Service A Team” achievers. No wonder. AZA also made the lists released this year of The National That verdict was one of two Top 50 Texas Verdicts for AZA. The other was a Fort Bend County unanimous jury verdict of $9 million against a prominent Odessa businessman and others involved in a conspiracy against DistributionNOW (DNOW), a leading global supplier of AZA, which has already been to trial 16 times this year with a few more trials to come, frequently makes top-verdict lists and may do so again before the end of the year. A sample of wins that are public from this year includes:
Our Impressive New Hires AZA’s 2024 hires come with formidable skills, superb credentials and experience in courtrooms and even on battlefields. Several come from leading global law firms, and others arrive after success at prestigious law schools. They strengthen AZA’s bench, including our commercial litigation, intellectual property, appellate, energy and construction law practices.  Tyler Adams – A trial lawyer and graduate of the University of Virginia School of Law, Mr. Adams saw before law school, active duty as a Medical Service Corps officer in the U.S. Army, including a combat deployment to Afghanistan. Read more here.
Michael Andrews – A trial lawyer joining AZA from a leading global law firm, before law school, Mr. Andrews was in the U.S. Air Force, where he was awarded two Aerial Achievement Medals and an Air Medal for acts of heroism. Read more here.  Matt Davis – A senior attorney at AZA, Mr. Davis focuses on complex commercial litigation and has experience in energy litigation, construction defect claims, employment litigation and commercial real estate disputes. Read more here. Sean Healey – An intellectual property and trial lawyer, Mr. Healey is an honors graduate of Harvard Law School. During his second year as a summer associate, he argued and won a key motion in Texas district court that kept an AZA client from arbitration. Read more here Davis Metzger – A trial lawyer who received the second-highest score among 3,299 individuals on the July 2024 Texas Bar Exam, Mr. Metzger is a graduate of the University of Virginia, where he won first place in a national moot court competition. Read more here. Matthew Micik – Joining AZA from a leading global law firm, Mr. Micik is a trial lawyer with experience in mergers and acquisitions and venture capital for a diverse array of industries, including renewable energy, life sciences and healthcare. Read more here. Antonio X. Milton – An appellate lawyer, prior to joining AZA, Mr. Milton clerked for the Hon. Carl E. Stewart of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and for the Hon. Nannette Jolivette Brown of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana. Read more here. Alfredo Montelongo – Mr. Montelongo focuses on complex construction litigation and joined AZA from a leading construction litigation firm where he advised clients on complex matters, including issues related to large pipeline construction projects. Read more here.  Spencer Packard – With a focus on intellectual property and commercial litigation, Mr. Packard joined AZA from a leading global firm where he worked on trademark and patent infringement. He is licensed to practice before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Read more here. An Unflappable and Stylish Bridge Builder – Sammy Ford IV Those who know him agree that if Godzilla were ripping the roof off the building, Sammy Ford IV would remain calm, help allay others’ fears and do it all with style. He does that in court, he does that while sipping the best wines and he does that when vacationing at the beach with his wife and twin daughters, “We put together a trial team like picking from 31 flavors. He’s the perfect complement to about every other personality, including those who are tightly wired,” said AZA co-founder John Zavitsanos. Partner Todd Mensing said nothing knocks Sammy off balance. “As anyone who tries cases knows, trial can be complete chaos. Things always happen that you could not account for. Sammy is the coolest customer I have ever worked with in these situations.” Video – We’ve Got the Power  You know we love to celebrate AZA’s talents in videos. Here we explore why, because AZA goes to trial monthly, if not more than once a month. The firm has the power to win trials and the power to motivate opponents to settle as well. We live at the courthouse, thrive at the courthouse and have the firepower to help our clients win at the courthouse. Game – Strands – Letter of the Law Puzzle addicts know that Strands has been this year’s trendy game. The challenge is to find the theme and the six clues that fall within that theme. The theme and the six clues can have more than one word. Enjoy.  The awards keep piling up for AZA. Most of these honors are based on positive feedback from clients and other lawyers. Here’s a sampling of what our clients told the prestigious Chambers USA this year:  A Selection of Our Recent Awards Chambers USA, the gold standard, gave AZA top ratings in Texas for commercial litigation and intellectual property practice areas and for five individual lawyers. It’s the 11th year of recognition for the litigation group. Best Law Firms recognized AZA for the 13th year, honoring the firm as a Tier 1 Houston firm for its appellate work and in five categories of litigation – commercial, intellectual property, employment law for management, construction and personal injury litigation for defendants. Best Lawyers in America named 29 AZA lawyers, more than half of the firm, as Best Lawyers or Ones to Watch this year. Twenty-four AZA lawyers were honored by Texas Super Lawyers as Super Lawyers or Rising Stars. Founding partners Joe Ahmad and John Zavitsanos were once again named top 100 in Texas. Benchmark Litigation honored Messrs. Ahmad and Zavitsanos along with intellectual property group head Jason McManis as among the best. Among the 2024 awards from Lawdragon were 11 AZA lawyers as Leading Litigators, six as Next Generation Leading Lawyers, Messrs. Ahmad and The internationally prestigious IAM World’s Leading Patent Professionals once again named AZA among the top patent trial firms in Texas and highly ranked two of the firm’s partners. And Vault’s 2025 Career Guide puts AZA among the top midsize firms in the U.S. and Texas. AZA was also ranked in the guide  |