After years of success in state and federal appellate courts, AZA announced its formal appellate practice group in 2021. In addition to traditional state and federal appellate work, AZA’s appellate team provides trial support on key legal issues and the jury charge, allowing AZA trial lawyers to do what they do best: try the case. Whether you need to hold onto a victory or get creative to reverse a loss, AZA’s appellate team brings AZA’s well-known out-of-the-box thinking and energetic approach to appellate issues.

AZA’s appellate lawyers have been busy. In the first full year of the formal practice group, AZA garnered nine wins in the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, the Texas Supreme Court and intermediate Texas appellate courts. This success earned AZA’s appellate group a place on Texas Lawyer’s “Watch List” for 2023.

The practice group’s successes include:

• In 2024, before the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, AZA successfully argued that the Class Action Fairness Act did not permit removal of a class action brought against hospitals who used tracking pixels to share patients’ private health information with third parties. In early 2025, the Eighth Circuit affirmed the district court’s decision to remand the plaintiffs’ claims.
• In 2023 before the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, AZA reversed a federal district court’s affirmance of an adverse agency ruling concerning the protection of its client’s confidential information in response to a FOIA request. Ryan, LLC v. Dep’t of the Interior, No. 22-10373.
• Also in 2023 before the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, AZA’s appellate team successfully held onto a summary-judgment victory that AZA’s trial team had obtained in favor of AZA’s client FMC Technologies, Inc. in a Fair Labor Standards Act case. Hebert v. Technip FMC, No. 22-20562. AZA convinced the Fifth Circuit to reject the plaintiffs’ argument based on recent United States Supreme Court precedent, Helix Energy Solutions Group, Inc. v. Hewitt.
• In 2022, AZA successfully argued at the Texas Fourteenth Court of Appeals that a local court was correct to toss a contractor’s frivolous attempts to use Texas’ anti-SLAPP law to delay an impending trial setting. AZA then defeated the contractor’s attempt to seek review at the Texas Supreme Court. This case is a poster child for the growing criticism that lawyers are using interlocutory appeals to simply delay cases. Upon remand, AZA’s trial lawyers obtained a decisive trial victory against the contractor with a $ 32.5 million jury verdict. Patriot Contracting, LLC and Stephen J. Friedman v. Mid-Main Properties, LP, 2017-19892, 650 S.W.3d 819 (Tex. App.—Houston [14th Dist.] 2022, pet. denied).
• Also in 2022, the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in Melinda Abbt v.City of Houston reversed a hostile work environment summary judgment order in a Houston firefighter’s case, setting two new precedents in hostile work environment cases. Abbt v. City of Houston, 28 F.4th 601 (2022).
• In a single day in 2021, AZA appellate partner Judge Daryl Moore argued back-to-back governmental immunity cases for the City of San Antonio before the Texas Supreme Court. In early 2022, the Court ruled in favor of San Antonio, reversing the intermediate appellate court and dismissing both cases. City of San Antonio v. Armando D. Riojas, 640 S.W.3d 534 (Tex. 2022); City of San Antonio v. Jimmy Maspero, 640 S.W.3d 523 (Tex. 2022).
• Also in 2021, AZA reversed an erroneous trial court ruling at the Texas Second Court of Appeals and convinced the Texas Supreme Court to affirm the appellate court regarding the scope of an arbitration provision in a dispute between the seller and buyer of oil and gas assets for the costs of environmental contamination. Wagner v. Apache Corporation, 627 S.W.3d 277 (Tex. 2021).
• AZA convinced the Texas Supreme Court to become the first state high court to recognize that communications between nonlawyer patent agents and inventor clients are protected by the attorney-client privilege. In re Silver, 540 S.W.3d 530 (Tex. 2018).

The appellate group is headed by AZA partner and former Harris County Judge Daryl Moore, a seasoned trial and appellate lawyer who also earned recognition as one of Harris County’s best judges when he served on the bench in the 333rd District Court. He was named Trial Judge of the Year for 2018 by the Texas Association of Civil Trial and Appellate Specialists (TACTAS). He has prosecuted more than 100 appeals in state and federal courts and is Board Certified in civil appellate law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization.  He served on the Texas Pattern Jury Charge Committee (Green Book) and is a past President of TACTAS. He served as chair of the Civil Appellate Board Certification Committee from 2008 to 2011. He was chair of the Appellate Practice sections of both the State Bar and the Houston Bar Association and a director of the Litigation Section of the Houston Bar Association. Judge Moore has also taught trial and appellate law at three Texas law schools.

The group’s newest partner, Kelsi Stayart White, has spent her entire career at AZA after clerking for Judge Leslie H. Southwick, a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Ms. White first gained substantial trial experience before specializing in appellate work. Because of that experience, she brings a trial lawyer’s practical perspective and communication skills to high-stakes motions and appellate briefs. Ms. White was named to the 2021 list of “Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch” for commercial litigation. She is a graduate of the University of Texas School of Law. During law school, Ms. White served as associate editor of the Texas Law Review.

Of Counsel JoAnn Storey focuses on appellate law and has been Board Certified in Appellate Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization since 1987. She is the past chair of the State Bar of Texas Appellate Section and past chair of the Houston Bar Association’s Appellate Practice Section. Ms. Storey  was a long-time member of the Texas Board of Legal Specialization’s Civil Appellate Law Examination Committee and Civil Appellate Law Advisory Commission. She is adjunct faculty at the University of Texas School of Law teaching appellate advocacy. She has an AV Preeminent rating from Martindale-Hubbell. Since 2005 she has been named to the Texas Super Lawyers list, a division of Thomson Reuters. And she is a Life Fellow of the Texas Bar Foundation.

Emily Adler is an appellate lawyer whose background in trial work brings a unique, common-sense perspective to briefs and oral arguments. Emily’s practice includes dispositive motions and appeals in both state and federal court, as well as assistance at trial with legal issues, pre- and post-trial motion practice, the jury charge, and other appellate issues. Emily’s recent wins include defending the district court’s decision to remand a class-action suit brought against hospitals using tracking pixels to share patients’ private health information with third parties in the Eighth Circuit and obtaining affirmance of the trial court’s denial of a special appearance in the Fourteenth Court of Appeals.  

The group’s newest associate, Antonio X. Milton, is an appellate lawyer and a graduate of Tulane University Law School, where he was the Editor-in-Chief of the Tulane Law Review. During law school, Antonio interned at the 15th Judicial District Public Defender’s Office in Lafayette, Louisiana, where he conducted research to prepare appeals seeking relief for individuals convicted by non-unanimous jury verdicts. 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.