Bruce is a shareholder in the Litigation Section. He is Board Certified in Civil Trial Law and Personal Injury Trial Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. Bruce is Chairman of the Administration of Rules of Evidence Committee for the State Bar of Texas and a Texas Association of Defense Counsel director at large. In 23 years with the firm, Bruce has taken a large number of cases to trial with extraordinary success.

He is admitted to practice before the following:

• All Texas State Courts,
• All Mississippi State Courts
• U. S. Supreme Court
• U. S. Courts of Appeal - Fifth Circuit
• U. S. District Court - Northern and Western Districts of Texas
• U. S. District Court - Northern and Southern Districts of Mississippi

AREAS OF CONCENTRATION

Product Liability, Personal Injury and Toxic Tort Litigation

Bruce represents manufacturers and retailers of products in litigation throughout the State of Texas, including toxic tort claims. He successfully defended a national restaurant chain in a large number of claims of food poisoning and was recently successful in defending strict liability and negligence claims against one of the nations top snack food producers.

In the area of personal injury, Bruce has defended oil field accident suits, successfully handling wellhead fires, tank battery explosions, oilrig accidents and heavy equipment operation injuries, as well as carrier transport, railroad and auto accidents.

Employment Litigation

Bruce has practiced employment law in both state and federal courts. He has tried and resolved discrimination cases in the areas of age, sex, race, and disability. Bruce prides himself on using the law to obtain summary judgment on many of the issues presented in employment law cases. Recently, he was successful in getting a plaintiff to specifically define her complaints of discrimination based on age and disability during her deposition. He then used recent case law set out by the federal courts to obtain a complete summary judgment and dismissal of the lawsuit.

Medical Malpractice

Bruce has been successful in defending doctors, hospitals, and their personnel in medical malpractice suits. He has been particularly effective in handling lab, nursing, and emergency room personnel as targets of litigation. He has also handled employment and premises liability cases involving health care providers.

Contract, Insurance and Bad Faith Litigation

Bruce has handled a wide variety of contract disputes between people and companies. His success in defending insurance companies in bad faith cases has resulted in several insurance companies retaining him to handle their insurance coverage and bad faith litigation. Recently, he successfully defended a major insurance company in a small West Texas town where a quadriplegic was making bad faith/Stowers allegations. The underlying judgment that the plaintiff sought to enforce against the insurance company was approximately $9 million. In voir dire, Bruce creatively set forth the "parable of two brothers," which set the theme of the trial and led to a successful result.

General Civil Litigation

While the above areas are those in which Bruce has handled a volume of cases, his practice has broadly encompassed almost every area of civil litigation.

EDUCATION

• B.A., Brigham Young University, 1979
• J.D., Texas Tech University, 1982

Bruce served as a missionary in Argentina for two years before attending college. He is fluent in Spanish and taught Spanish for a year and a half. During his third year of law school, he simultaneously served on the Board of Barristers, as a note editor of the Law Review, and as a founder of the Legal Research Board. He was named as the outstanding graduate of 1982 by the law schools Chapter of Phi Delta Phi legal fraternity.