Richard’s interest in the law began when he was in high school, when he learned the thrill of researching, writing, and presenting oral arguments. After graduating from the University of Texas with departmental honors in 1980 and University of Texas Law School in 1983, Richard began his legal career at a boutique business litigation law firm.
Richard worked closely with legendary trial lawyer Dick Miller often representing parties in high stakes litigation, including in cases against Lloyds of London for insurance coverage for the Exxon Valdez incident, and against Pennzoil over the sale of Getty Oil Company.
For the past two decades, Richard has won multimillion-dollar recoveries for individuals and small businesses who have been victims of fraud, medical negligence and other types of corporate misconduct.
Richard represented hundreds of people who were unnecessarily admitted and locked up in a chain of psychiatric hospitals to capture their insurance money. More recently, he represented over two thousand underprivileged children in New York, Colorado, South Carolina and Ohio, who underwent unnecessary dental procedures such as root canals and crowns on baby teeth.
Richard was also part of the team representing more than 300 California patients who received unnecessary heart surgeries at Redding Medical Center. The case was featured on 60 Minutes.
In addition to representing victims of healthcare fraud, Richard has successfully represented clients who lost large sums of money due to the unlawful business practices of insurance companies, hotel chains, financial institutions, and media companies. Of more than a dozen appeals in the Fifth Circuit, the Texas Court of Appeals and the Texas Supreme Court, Richard has won all but one of them.
After practicing for almost 40 years, Richard is proud to be part of a system that can help clients not only by providing long-term security in their personal lives, but also by fighting evil and injustice on a larger, industrial scale.
Richard is an avid sports fan going back to his days as a ball boy for the Houston Astros. He met his wife Elaine, a psychotherapist, on a tennis court in the Bahamas thirty years ago. Together they have one son, Ryan, who is a trial lawyer as well.
