Thomas W. Taylor
Partner
Co-chair of the Firm’s Litigation Section (with John Shely), Tom's civil litigation practice emphasizes defense of mass multi-party litigation. He has extensive civil jury trial experience in state and federal court, with in excess of thirty jury verdicts, and a much greater number of cases that settled during trial. His specific experience includes defending mass tort cases, commercial litigation, commercial arbitrations and personal injury cases. Tom has significant experience in multi-district litigation on both the state and Federal level. He represents defendants in Federal MDLs 875, 2179 and 2185. He also represents defendants in the Texas Asbestos MDL and the Texas Silica MDL.
Tom also has a substantial civil appellate litigation practice. He has presented oral arguments before the Texas Supreme Court, the Courts of Appeals for the First, Fifth, Sixth, Ninth, Thirteenth and Fourteenth Districts of Texas, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
Representative Experience
- Regional counsel for major oil company in toxic tort, chemical exposure, and personal injury litigation.
- Local Texas counsel for defendant in personal injury, property damage and economic loss cases arising out of deepwater drilling rig failure, subsequent fire and explosion, and resulting oil spill.
- Local counsel for defendant in Federal MDL created to handle securities class actions, shareholder derivative suits, and ERISA cases allegedly arising out of deepwater drilling rig failure, fire, explosion and oil spill.
- Trial counsel for major civilian and military aircraft manufacturer in Texas Open Records Act case.
- Trial counsel for major oil company in employee wrongful death action alleging toxic exposure.
- National counsel for HVAC manufacturer in alleged toxic tort cases.
- National counsel for small publicly-traded integrated oil company in alleged toxic tort cases.
- Local counsel for multi-level marketing company in its disputes with its distributors.
- Co-trial counsel for subsidiary of major manufacturer of commercial aircraft in arbitration brought by former joint venture affiliate.
Publications
- "Texas Torts and Remedies" General Principles of Product Liability, Matthew Bender, updated by MB each year (1987)
- "Texas Torts and Remedies" Defenses in Product Liability Actions, Matthew Bender, updated by MB each year (1987)
- "Preservation of Indemnity Rights Among Strictly Liable Tortfeasors" 48 Texas Bar Journal 286 (1985)
- "Comparative Causation, Contribution and Indemnity in Texas" 4 Review of Litigation 1 (1984)
Events
- "Looking at Old Things in a New Way: The Affirmative Use of Industrial Hygiene Standards, Dust Studies, TLVs and Historical Regulations in Defending Asbestos Cases," Defense Research Institute Asbestos Litigation Seminar, San Diego, California (November 1997)
- "TLVs from A to Z: The Use of Threshold Limit Values in Defense of Toxic Tort Cases," Chemical Manufacturers’ Association Fall Meeting, Chicago, Illinois (September 1997)
