Washington, D.C.

The Houston office has experienced significant growth since its opening in January 2007. With the beginning of 2008, 12 new partners joined our Houston office, along with two of counsel and several associates, increasing our size to 45 lawyers.

As part of an effort to better serve our clients in the south and central United States, our expansion included the addition of several partners from the Houston offices of prominent national firms, allowing us to better respond to business growth and expanding client needs in both the United States and abroad.

Lawyers in our Houston office focus on intellectual property and patent litigation, commercial litigation, product liability and toxic tort, mergers and acquisitions, international/cross border transactions, and insurance recovery.

Drawing upon the vast resources of one of the nation's largest firms, our Houston office is uniquely positioned to provide current and prospective clients with a wide range of legal services, from our lawyers based in Houston and across the firm's 22 offices around the world.

Our lawyers in the Intellectual Property Practice handle litigation relating to patent, copyright, trademark, trade secret, and unfair competition disputes in both trial and appellate courts throughout the nation. Joining a Litigation Practice that spans 18 offices worldwide and with more than 700 litigators, our Houston attorneys add depth and breadth to the firm's growing Litigation and Intellectual Property Practices. Together they cover a full spectrum of industries, with decades of experience representing Fortune 100 companies and large multinational clients.

Our Commercial Litigation Practice represents many well-known companies in a wide range of matters, from single-issue disputes to complex, multiparty cases and "bet the company" class action litigation. We frequently represent the energy and financial services industries and have successfully handled major fraud and corporate disputes.

Our Appeals and Special Issues Practice recently expanded into Texas with the addition of Houston partner Ted Cruz, the former Solicitor General of Texas. Our appellate lawyers have not only litigated before the Supreme Court of the United States, but also regularly appear before federal and state appellate courts across the country. They have advised clients on many issues involving numerous practice areas, including antitrust, bankruptcy, business and commercial litigation, energy, insurance, intellectual property, labor, securities, and tax.

Our Product Liability and Toxic Tort Practice draws upon the substantive knowledge of more than 60 lawyers across the firm who have worked in this area for many years. This practice offers clients developed and recognized knowledge in a variety of industries and a wide range of products, including pharmaceuticals, chemicals, asbestos, blood products, carpets, lead, latex, breast implants, contaminated food products, medical devices, building and construction products, and automatic fire sprinklers.

Within Morgan Lewis's Business and Finance Practice, our multinational Merger and Acquisition Practice's industry experience is exceptionally broad, covering virtually every significant regulated and unregulated industry in the United States and many abroad. Within our Houston office, we are specially qualified to handle these types of transactions in Latin America.

Our international Merger and Acquisition lawyers advise clients on a broad range of transactions, including negotiated purchases and divestitures by public and private companies, tender offers, leveraged buyouts and "going private" transactions. We also handle cross border M&A transactions, representing multinational clients in stock and asset acquisitions and sales in the United States and elsewhere.
 
Our Insurance Recovery lawyers manage liability by maximizing and preserving the value of insurance assets in a cost-effective manner. We also advise on the procurement of insurance, the creation of captives and finite risk vehicles, and the insurance aspects of mergers and acquisitions, corporate restructurings, and reorganizations.

Firmwide, our Business and Finance Practice is composed of more than 300 lawyers who focus on mergers and acquisitions (including joint ventures, spin-offs, and strategic alliances), private equity, private investment funds, finance, restructuring, capital markets, corporate governance, emerging business matters, outsourcing, and tax.

Our Business and Finance attorneys in Houston provide counsel to clients in a diverse range of industry sectors, including life sciences, technology, media and entertainment, financial services, energy, shipping, and retail, to name just a few.

Our Labor and Employment Practice team members are well known in the Texas legal community for their achievements in areas such as wage and hour counseling and litigation, ERISA litigation, complex employment litigation, Sarbanes-Oxley whistleblower cases, labor relations, and workforce change issues. Their clients encompass a broad range of industries, including energy, oil and gas, mining, transportation, technology and telecommunications, construction, and manufacturing.