Rey Flores represents clients in complex commercial disputes and wrongful death and catastrophic injury matters across the country and internationally.  His representations span a variety of business sectors including the oil and gas, construction, petrochemical, heavy equipment, healthcare, building materials, automation, and retail industries.

Rey’s current and recent cases include the following representative matters:

• Currently representing a major refining company in a lawsuit brought by a former executive and his family members arising from his arrest and detention by a foreign government.
• Currently representing a Fortune 500 petrochemical company in a breach of contract and declaratory judgment action relating to a chemical supply agreement.
• Currently representing one of the country’s largest healthcare providers in matter alleging anti-trust, breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duties, and tortious interference claims.
• Successfully represented a healthcare executive in related litigation in Delaware and Illinois involving the purported cancellation of vested equity shares and breach of contract and non-compete claims.
• Successfully represented a spoolable pipe company and one of the largest automotive repair companies in the country in actions alleging misappropriation of trade secrets, tortious interference, breach of employment agreements and fiduciary duties, and conspiracy.
• Successfully represented an oil and gas exploration and production company in a multi-party matter involving the release of hydrochloric acid at the company’s wellsite.
• Successfully represented a nationwide retailer in a hybrid FLSA collective action with multiple analogous state-law class actions and compelled over 150 named and opt-in plaintiffs to arbitration.

Among Rey’s clients are some of the largest foreign companies in the world and some of the largest U.S. companies operating internationally.  Examples of his cross-border dispute experience include the following:

• Currently representing a Fortune 500 client in an engineering, procurement, and construction dispute relating to the Olmeca Refinery in Dos Bocas, Tabasco, Mexico, a flagship project for the President of Mexico being administered by Mexico’s Energy Ministry (SENER).
• Obtained a take-nothing verdict for one of the largest refining companies in the world in an engineering, procurement, and construction case involving a project in Venezuela that implicated complex contractual and geopolitical issues and sanctions administered by the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control.
• Obtained a $30 million judgment for an international terminal company related to the construction of a subsea pipeline in the Caribbean.
• Obtained a multimillion-dollar judgment for an international construction materials company arising out of financing arrangements relating to material supply agreements.
• Part of a team that successfully represented a liquified natural gas company in an international arbitration seated in London under the ICC rules.
• Represented an affiliate of a national oil and gas company in a contractual dispute arising out of an import-export agreement.

Additionally, Rey frequently defends clients against wrongful death, survival, and catastrophic injury claims in state and federal courts.  Examples of his experience with these types of cases include the following:

• Obtained summary judgment in federal court for a Fortune 100 oil and gas exploration and production company against wrongful death and survival claims arising from an offshore platform incident implicating California state law and the federal Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act.
• Obtained dismissal of claims in Louisiana state court in a wrongful death and survival action on behalf of an industrial services company arising out of a fatality at a Louisiana refinery.
• Obtained summary judgment in Texas state court for a national heavy equipment manufacturer in a catastrophic injury case arising out of an industrial workplace accident.
• Obtained dismissal of claims in federal court for an industrial equipment manufacturer in a catastrophic injury case arising out of a workplace accident.
• Obtained summary judgment in Texas state court for an international oilfield services provider in a case alleging gross negligence arising out of a death at a wellsite in West Texas.
• Retained following the close of discovery to represent a refinery client at trial in a multi-plaintiff catastrophic injury case arising from a refinery fire, which settled on favorable terms within weeks of AZA’s entry.
• Currently representing a Fortune 100 refining company in a catastrophic injury matter arising out of crude cargo unloading and dock operations.

Rey is a Dean’s List graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and an Honors graduate of the University of Texas School of Law.  Before joining AZA, Rey served on active duty in the U.S. Army as an Armor and JAG Corps officer.  He received numerous awards for his military service including the Bronze Star for exemplary service in combat in Iraq.

Rey’s prior litigation experience includes work as both a prosecutor and criminal defense attorney, as a Special Prosecutor for the State of Texas, and as lead defense counsel in various high-profile cases with significant national security implications.

Rey is a Fellow of the Texas Bar Foundation, an honor reserved for 1/3 of 1 percent of Texas attorneys, is on the Advisory Board of the Hispanic Bar Association of Houston, and serves on Congresswoman Lizzie Fletcher’s Service Academy Nomination Panel.

EDUCATION

• The University of Texas School of Law, Austin, Texas
  • J.D., with Honors
• United States Military Academy, West Point, New York
  • Bachelor of Science, Economics, May 2002
  • Bachelor of Science, International Relations, May 2002
  • Engineering Sequence, Environmental Engineering
  • Dean’s List
• The Judge Advocate General’s Legal Center and School, Charlottesville, Virginia
  • U.S. Army Judge Advocate Officer Basic Course
  • “Commandant’s List” Graduate

ADMISSIONS

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

PRESENTATIONS AND SEMINARS

• Instructor, “Deposition Skills Seminar,” National Institute for Trial Advocacy (NITA), Houston, March 2019.
• Instructor, “Deposition Skills Seminar,” National Institute for Trial Advocacy (NITA), Houston, April 2018.
• Presenter, “Trial Strategy,” Texas Minority Counsel Program, Austin, October 2017.

LANGUAGES

• Spanish (fluent)

HONORS

• 2024 Lawdragon 500 Leading Litigators in America
• 2021  “Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch” for  commercial litigation.
• 2020 Texas Rising Star honors for business litigation, a list compiled by Texas Super Lawyers, a Thomson Reuters business

IN THE NEWS

• An Army Veteran Applies Martial Wisdom to Trial Practice
• AZA Wins Dismissal of California Wrongful Death Lawsuit Against International Energy Company
• AZA Energy Sector Client Sees Lawsuit Dismissed  
• Flores and McManis Named AZA Partners 
• Eleven AZA Associates Make US List of ‘Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch’  for 2021 
• Nine AZA Lawyers Earn 2020 Texas Rising Stars Accolades 
• Three More AZA Lawyers Elected Fellows of the Texas Bar Foundation
• AZA Lawyer Rey Flores Writes on His Hispanic Heritage and the Value of Mentors
• New AZA Attorneys