HOUSTON – AZA was once again named by Texas Lawyer magazine as the best boutique-sized litigation department in Texas. The firm won the title Litigation Department of the Year in 2015 and won a specialty practice award from the magazine in 2017.
AZA won the 2019 Litigation Department of the Year award for firms with fewer than 50 lawyers. The annual honor recognizes the Texas-based litigation groups that have excelled during the previous year based on courtroom results.
“This list recognizes lawyers who have made their mark on the legal profession in the Lone Star State and beyond,” the magazine said in publishing a list of honorees in various categories in a news story July 2. See a list of Texas Lawyer 2019 professional excellence honorees here (subscription required), who will be feted at an event Sept. 18 in Dallas.
“It is exciting to earn Texas Lawyer honors for the third time in five years, looking each time at a year’s worth of our litigation wins,” said John Zavitsanos, who co-founded the firm in 1993 with partner Joe Ahmad.
In 2018, AZA tried 15 cases to conclusion in trial or arbitration. The firm also made some history along the way with precedent-setting cases. AZA did this with a deep bench. Most of its lawyers have been to trial multiple times.
AZA’s 2018 accomplishments include: settling a confidential case for nearly $80 million against a Fortune 500 company; saving a client from a $30 million verdict and obtaining millions of dollars in legal fees; winning several multimillion-dollar arbitrations; winning a Texas Supreme Court case that will likely set precedent around the country for patent agents; and setting a precedent in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in an infringement case against Google.
Ahmad, Zavitsanos, Anaipakos, Alavi & Mensing P.C., or AZA, is a Houston-based law firm that is home to true courtroom lawyers with a formidable track record in complex commercial litigation, including energy, intellectual property, and business dispute cases. AZA is recognized by Chambers USA 2019 among the best in Texas commercial law; by U.S. News – Best Lawyers’ Best Law Firms as one of the country’s best commercial litigation firms for seven years running including 2019; and previously by Law360 as a Texas Powerhouse law firm. National corporate counsel named AZA one of the country’s best in client service among law firms serving the Fortune 1000.