Posts Tagged ‘ahmad zavitsanos’
AZA’s $78.5 Million Patent Infringement Win Among 2025’s Top 10 National Patent Verdicts
HOUSTON – AZA’s East Texas jury win over Samsung Electronics Co. made Law360’s The Top Patent Damages in 2025 (subscription required). In September 2025, a federal jury awarded AZA’s client Anonymous Media Research Holdings the full $78,512,999 requested from Samsung for infringing on two patents. The jury in U.S. District Judge Rodney Gilstrap’s Eastern District of Texas court heard […]
AZA Partner Shahmeer Halepota Awarded Fourth Rising Star Honor in Six Months
HOUSTON – Partner Shahmeer Halepota has once again been honored by a legal group as a rising star in the profession. The National Association of Muslim Lawyers (NAML), a 30-year-old organization, named Mr. Halepota as its Rising Star Award recipient at the group’s annual conference in Irvine, Calif., this month. The NAML award is […]
AZA Co-founder Joe Ahmad Named a Lawdragon Leading Corporate Employment Lawyer 2026
HOUSTON – Name partner Joe Ahmad, co-founder of AZA, was named once again to the Lawdragon 500 Leading Corporate Employment Lawyers list. The 2026 edition marks the third year Mr. Ahmad has been on this list. He was again cited for his expertise in executive representation. Lawdragon says the Leading Corporate Employment Lawyers list is […]
Twenty-Five AZA Lawyers Named 2025 Texas Super Lawyers & Rising Stars
HOUSTON – Twenty-five AZA lawyers earned 2025 recognition by Texas Super Lawyers as Super Lawyers or Rising Stars for excellence, largely in business litigation, intellectual property and appellate work. Firm co-founders Joe Ahmad and John Zavitsanos were once again listed among the Top 100 lawyers in Texas and in Houston. Mr. Zavitsanos is listed for […]
AZA Partner Shahmeer Halepota Speaks at The United Nations
UNITED NATIONS – AZA partner Shahmeer Halepota served on a five-person panel at the United Nations on Sept. 11, discussing a water crisis in Pakistan and the ramifications and rights created under an international water rights treaty. Mr. Halepota, who has substantial international law experience, was asked to analyze methods that the Indus Waters Treaty […]
AZA Favorably Resolves Multi-Million Dollar Litigation for UFC Champion Khabib Nurmagomedov
NEW YORK – Undefeated Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) mixed martial arts champion Khabib Nurmagomedov resolved his breach of contract lawsuit against Legionfarm Inc.—a gaming service which specializes in non-fungible tokens (NFTs)— under a confidential settlement agreement that AZA brokered. Mr. Nurmagomedov, a world-famous athlete and entrepreneur with a 29-0 UFC record, sued Legionfarm in 2023 […]
Vault’s 2026 Career Guide Again Puts AZA among Top Midsize Firms in Texas
HOUSTON – AZA was once again highly rated by associates responding to the Vault 2026 survey and was named in the top 10 midsize firms to work for in Texas. AZA was also rated nationally in the top 10 for career outlook, inclusion and compensation and in the top 20 for: best to work for, […]
Prestigious Chambers USA Ranks AZA for 12th Year and Honors Seven Firm Lawyers
HOUSTON – Chambers USA, the gold standard of legal ratings, gave AZA top ratings in Texas for two practice areas and ranked seven lawyers. This is the12th year AZA was rated in the general commercial litigation category and the fifth year for its intellectual property (IP) practice. “The firm sets the bar for excellence in […]
Eleven AZA Lawyers Named Lawdragon Leading Litigators
HOUSTON – Eleven partners at AZA were named by Lawdragon among the 500 top litigators in the nation, who they have called “the advisors you want to send into battle.” Lawyers named in the 2025 Lawdragon 500 Leading Litigators in America were selected based on journalistic research, submissions and vetting. Lawdragon said of these top […]
Jury Says No Back Wages for Former First-Year Associate Pfeiffer
HOUSTON – It took a Harris County jury only an hour, including lunch, to find that Justin Carl Pfeiffer, a former associate at the Houston firm of Berg & Androphy, was not owed any of the back pay he so contentiously claimed. At trial, Mr. Pfeiffer demanded $50,000 in back pay. He claimed he was […]
Jury Refuses to Find Against Odessa Pumps; Awards It $2.4 Million
HOUSTON – A Harris County jury awarded AZA client Odessa Pumps $2.4 million in attorneys’ fees in a breach of contract case against GR Energy and its affiliates over a 2021 asset purchase. GR Energy sought approximately $30 million but took nothing. This is AZA’s 17th trial this year. In winning this case, it has […]
AZA Client Wins Multimillion Arbitration Award for Breach of Contract
DALLAS – An arbitration panel has awarded $3.4 million to MMWKM Advisors, which does business as Retirement Planners of America (RPOA), a Plano-based investment advisory firm, from former employee Joseph Dowdall, a Plano-based financial planner. The three-arbitrator panel for the American Arbitration Association found that Mr. Dowdall breached his contractual and fiduciary duties […]
Todd Mensing Named to Lawdragon’s 500 Leading Lawyers in Environmental Law
HOUSTON – AZA partner Todd Mensing has been named to Lawdragon’s list of the 2023 Green 500 Leading Lawyers in Environmental Law. In announcing their honorees, Lawdragon’s editors said they selected this year’s “remarkable group from our time-honed process of journalistic reporting, nominations and vetting with peers and experts in environmental law.” Mr. Mensing […]


