Houston · Texas
Schaffer Kennedy Johnson tries and argues its own cases. We take a small number of matters — complex business disputes, appeals, and federal and state criminal defense — where the outcome turns on facts nobody has developed yet and questions nobody has answered yet.
The Firm
Defending a person’s liberty in federal court and trying a nine-figure business dispute are not the same work, but they are the same discipline: out-investigate the other side, find the issue everyone else missed, and be ready to try the case from the first pleading forward.
Our lawyers built their practices at that level and kept them small on purpose. When you hire us, the lawyer you met is the lawyer who stands up.
Civil & Commercial
High-stakes commercial cases where money moved and somebody has to prove where it went — and the appeals that follow.
Criminal Defense
Four decades of first-chair defense work in the cases the government most wants to win.
Representative Results
Bench-trial judgment enforcing a setback restriction against a developer
Overcame challenges to standing, restriction interpretation and applicability, and defenses of waiver and abandonment.
Havel Family Investments, L.L.C. v. Sims, No. 19-CV-1751, 56th District Court, Galveston County, Texas (Aug. 12, 2020).
Fee award and expedited dismissal of claims against an estate, defended in the Supreme Court of Texas
Claims by a decedent’s ex-wife alleging fraudulent concealment of assets during the couple’s divorce.
Collins v. Collins, No. 01-17-00817-CV, 2018 WL 1320841 (Tex. App.—Houston [1st Dist.] Mar. 15, 2018).
Federal counterfeit-goods indictment dismissed
Dismissal of an indictment charging conspiracy to traffic in counterfeit goods and trafficking in counterfeit goods, arising from alleged imports of counterfeit server and computer components.
Federal prosecution, 2022.
Charges dismissed on the day of trial in a child sexual-abuse prosecution
Multiple counts of sexual abuse of a child. The charges were dismissed on the day the case was called for trial.
2024.
Each matter depends on its own facts and law. Prior results do not guarantee or predict a similar outcome in any other matter.
The Lawyers
Criminal Defense & Investigations
Forty years of federal white-collar, government investigation, narcotics, and high-profile state defense work. Chambers-ranked; Best Lawyers since 2003; AV rated.
Criminal Defense
More than two decades of federal and state criminal trial practice, concentrated on complex investigations, fraud prosecutions, and trial defense.
Civil Trial & Appellate
Civil trial and appellate lawyer and licensed CPA. Clerked for the Supreme Court of Texas. J.D. summa cum laude, first in his class.
Careers
This is not a volume practice, and it is not a document-review job. You will argue your own motions, take your own depositions, and put your name on your own briefs — with the training and the review to make that a good idea.
Contact
Call (713) 228-8500 or send a short description of the matter. We respond to every inquiry, and we tell you straight away if we are not the right firm for it.
