R. James Amaro, J.D.
R. James Amaro founded the Amaro Law Firm after leaving his position as an attorney at a defense law firm. Not long after founding the firm, Mr. Amaro was hired to represent many individuals and families who had their lives destroyed by the BP refinery explosion in Texas City, Texas. Since then, Mr. Amaro has successfully represented thousands of people and businesses in various legal matters, including personal injury claims, business disputes, insurance claims, hurricane claims, and commercial litigation. Every year since being founded, the Amaro Law Firm has recovered several millions of dollars for its clients who have been personally injured or suffered damages in business and insurance disputes. Mr. Amaro has instilled his firm and staff with his relentless drive and determination to effectively represent the firm’s clients with the utmost duty of candor and loyalty.
Prior to founding the firm, Mr. Amaro gained a wide breadth and invaluable work experience working at some of the largest national and state based law firms in Wisconsin and Texas. In his career, Mr. Amaro has written federal opinions for a federal judge and worked for many large defense law firms. His experiences have given him the perspective to manage his firm’s cases efficiently and effectively. In the beginning of his legal career, Mr. Amaro was an aggressive defense attorney with a Houston insurance defense firm where he learned how the “insurance racket” works. As a defense attorney, Mr. Amaro practiced in the areas of insurance coverage and defended clients in the areas of construction law, real estate law, toxic torts, products liability, commercial litigation and arbitration, personal injury and wrongful death.
Prior to his legal career, Mr. Amaro worked and studied in real estate, engineering, and internet technology as a student and as an entrepreneur during and after his college studies. To finance his education, he had obtained multiple academic scholarships to several top-tier universities across the United States. Despite the offers, Mr. Amaro decided to stay in Texas and attend the University of Texas at Austin to study chemical engineering in its reputable program. In his chemical engineering studies, Mr. Amaro excelled and obtained an internship with a large engineering company in Houston called Bechtel Corporation at which he reviewed process flow diagrams and wrote a visual basic program for engineers to use to perform calculus and differential equations. He was in the advanced sequence of his studies in the middle of his junior year before he decided to change his major to economics and pursue a career in law. Before finishing his studies in economics at the University of Texas, Mr. Amaro co-founded a popular internet based business in Austin which provided marketing and social services to students and to companies marketing to students. The company exploded in popularity and was advertised on the radio within 3 months of launching and became one of the most visited websites in Austin by university students. Also while in Austin and only at the age of 20, Mr. Amaro obtained his real estate license and began selling and leasing apartments and condos all over the Austin area. Today, Mr. Amaro still owns interests and invests in real estate and internet technology companies.
Through this experience, Mr. Amaro has learned how the judicial system perceives insurance and personal injury claims and the common strategies of insurance defense law firms and the insurance companies that pay them. Through his business and entrepreneur experiences, he understands what makes businesses successful and how to protect valuable business interests.
Admissions:
State Bar of Texas
State Bar of Wisconsin
Western District of Wisconsin
Southern District of Texas
Member:
Texas Trial Lawyers Association, National Trial Lawyers Association, Association of Plaintiff Interstate Trucking Lawyers, American Association of Justice, Houston Bar Association
Education:
University of Texas at Austin, B.A. in Economics, Minor in History
University of Wisconsin, J.D.
Articles:
European Union Regulations of Electronic Communication Networks: Stifling Global Integration of Securities Markets, 20 Wis. Int’l. LJ 397
Co-author of article for The Harmonie Group: Texas Law: UM/UIM Coverage
Scott Braden, J.D.
A sixth generation Texan and native Houstonian, Scott Braden is an associate attorney for the Amaro Law Firm and specializes in personal injury lawsuits and insurance litigation. Prior to coming to the Amaro Law Firm, Mr. Braden worked as insurance defense attorney and learned firsthand how insurance companies will do everything in their nature to ensure that injured parties are not fairly and promptly compensated for their injuries and damages.
Mr. Braden has extensive experience with both first-party and third-party insurance claims, including claims for bad faith, deceptive insurance practices, late payment of claims, violations of the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act, and claims for mental anguish and emotional distress. Mr. Braden also has experience analyzing and litigating mass tort lawsuits against major pharmaceutical companies and whistleblower lawsuits against large companies that have defrauded the government of out millions of dollars in violation of the False Claims Act the IRS whistleblower statute. Mr. Braden is licensed to practice law in Texas.
Education:
- J.D., cum laude, South Texas College of Law (Class Rank: 7th of 103)
- B.A., History, University of Texas at Austin
Credentials:
- Member of the Law Review
- Moot Court Advocate
- Dean’s List honoree for each semester at South Texas College of Law
- Academic Merit Scholarship recipient during each semester at South Texas College of Law
- Order of the Lytae
Zachary D. Norris, J.D. – Of Counsel
Mr. Norris specializes in trials, focusing on personal injury, maritime, business claims, insurance claims, and consumer protection. Through his extensive litigation experience, Mr. Norris has worked in high pressure litigation with millions of dollars at stake. Mr. Norris also worked for a large maritime insurance defense firm for several years, defending major offshore oil companies in Jones Act and Longshore claims. From his experiences, he understands the complexities and strategies that insurers and companies use against individuals. This deep knowledge has become a major advantage for his clients who hire Mr. Norris to serve their legal needs.
Raised in rough and tumble Odessa, Texas, Mr. Norris champions his clients’ cases with the bravado of a West Texas gunslinger and the guts of a high stakes poker player. However, litigation often requires finesse and stage presence. As a former performing classical pianist and Americana singer and song writer in his youth, Mr. Norris feels at home on the stage of the courtroom and can command the attention and respect of the jury and the judge.
A lawsuit is very much like a game of chess, but with four players which include the two opposing legal teams and the two opposing parties. In today’s fast paced world of instant communication and computerized access to information, it is the lawyer able to quickly assimilate and incorporate that information and nimbly adjust his strategies who will win “the game.” Mr. Norris prides himself on his ability to take a detailed and complicated fact scenario and boil it down to its core essence in order to communicate his client’s story to the jury. It is this special combination of skills and sense of relentlessness which Mr. Norris brings to the bar for each and every one of his clients.
Mr. Norris believes passionately in his clients’ causes and knows that the decks are often stacked against the individual and the party wronged. Mr. Norris is not afraid to take on large opponents with million dollar budgets and has out litigated lawyers with decades more experience to make sure that his clients get everything to which they are entitled. Mr. Norris truly believes that plaintiff litigation is one of the truest expressions of self-governance in our democratic system. Through litigating for his clients, Mr. Norris believes that we can change corporate policies that injure people and damage consumers, that we can change insurance practices that negatively affect both the injured person and the insured, and that overall we can make our nation a safer place with standards that are equal and fair for everyone.
Education:
Texas Tech University, Honors College, Magna Cum Laude
University of Texas School of Law, J.D.