Practice Areas

A complex web of disciplinary rules, court rules, ethics opinions, statutes, and case law from both state and federal courts governs the professional responsibilities of Texas lawyers and judges. Herring & Panzer has tried, and resolved without the necessity of trial, a broad range of cases and matters that have involved those areas of law, including:

Legal Malpractice Cases
Lawyer Discipline Proceedings
Legal Ethics Consultation and Advice
State Bar Admissions and Licensing
Commercial and General Litigation.

We know what it’s like to practice law in today’s changing, competitive, and media-saturated environment. Our litigation experience gives us real-world perspective for handling legal malpractice, legal ethics, and lawyer discipline issues. We have represented both plaintiffs and defendants in legal malpractice and other professional-liability cases. Our goal is always to seek the best possible resolution for our clients, whether through negotiation, settlement, or trial.

Additionally, Herring & Panzer lawyers continue to handle a docket of commercial and general civil litigation matters. They have successfully tried and resolved cases involving breach of contract, fraud, DTPA, personal injury claims, employment claims, partnership disputes, whistleblower claims, constitutional claims, civil rights, trade secrets, administrative law, the Texas Citizens Participation Act, and the Texas Public Information Act.

Legal ethics issues

Herring & Panzer counsels lawyers, and law firms–from solo practitioners to international law firms with thousands of lawyers–regarding the many intricacies of legal ethics. Our experience includes handling legal ethics issues for both lawyers and nonlawyer clients. Our nonlawyer clients have ranged from individuals and families to multinational corporations.

Lawyer discipline proceedings

State Bar discipline can result in a wide range of sanctions, from private and public reprimands, suspension, disbarment, restitution, and attorney’s fees. Those sanctions, in turn, can have collateral consequences for a lawyer’s practice or status, including affecting legal malpractice insurance rates, certification as a specialist, or admission to practice law in federal court. Both persons who file disciplinary complaints (complainants) and lawyers who are the target of disciplinary complaints (respondents) often can benefit from experienced, dispassionate outside counsel.

Conflicts And Disqualification

Both Federal and state courts have the power to disqualify a lawyer or law firm from continuing to represent a client. Lawyers and law firms must be diligent in protecting against circumstances that may require their disqualification as counsel. Herring & Panzer represents lawyers, law firms, and litigants in determining whether to file or oppose a motion to disqualify counsel, and in litigating those motions in state and federal courts throughout Texas.

Legal malpractice claims

Texas has over 90,000 licensed attorneys. Most are competent, honest, and ethical. Unfortunately, some are not. And lawyers are human, which means that they can make mistakes. Sometimes those mistakes injure clients or other persons. When a lawyer violates a duty owed to a client or another person and thereby injures that person, the attorney should be held responsible, just like any other professional. At Herring & Panzer, we have handled the full array of lawyer lawsuits on both sides of the docket.

State bar admission and licensing

Herring & Panzer has advised many law students, recent graduates, and lawyers from other states who wish to become licensed to practice law in Texas, but who encounter problems in the admissions process.

Commercial and general litigation

The combination of practical civil litigation experience and experience handling legal ethics and malpractice issues gives Herring & Panzer a useful and unusual perspective when it comes to handling business-to-business disputes. Commercial litigation often turns on the classic “morality tale”–that is, who the judge or jury believes “did wrong.” Herring & Panzer has handled a wide variety of disputes, including:

Barratry

Texas has criminalized barratry since 1876. Citing legal dictionary definitions, courts in Texas have stated generally that barratry is the “vexatious incitement to litigation, especially by soliciting potential legal clients,” or “the offense of . . . exciting and stirring up quarrels and suits, either at law or otherwise.” Those vague descriptions say little and could apply to most forms of permissible lawyer advertising, solicitation, and marketing.

Law Firm Risk Management

Herring & Panzer LLP represents lawyers and law firms in assessing and avoiding problems that can arise in law firms of all sizes. Drawing upon the firm’s extensive expertise in matters impacting the legal profession, such as conflicts of interest, fee disputes, and migrating lawyers and staff, our attorneys are well-equipped to advise their lawyer and law firm clients on preemptive measures to prevent issues from arising and on effective strategies for resolving them promptly should they occur.