The attorneys engaged in litigation are conversant in a variety of litigation disciplines, including the defense of personal injury and property damage claims, commercial litigation (breach of contract, dissolution of partnerships and other entities, commercial disputes and collection of debts), fiduciary litigation (trust, guardianships, and will contests), oil and gas litigation, eminent domain litigation, which includes representation of utilities, both electric and oil and gas pipelines, cities and individuals, and appeals to both state and federal appellate courts.

Attorneys in our litigation practice also represent clients in admiralty matters including ship collisions, personal injuries, cargo losses and damage, oil spills, arbitrations, and regulatory matters before the United States Coast Guard, Customs Service, Immigration and Naturalization Service, U.S. Dept. of Agriculture and the Texas General Land Office.

The real estate and energy section includes traditional real estate transactions, financing and banking, oil and gas sales and leasing transactions and opinions concerning ownership and rights of parties in interest. It also includes representation of electric transmission and distribution utilities, and electric cooperatives, including representation before regulatory authorities, and electric consumers.

The attorneys in the estate planning and probate practice advise clients on planning for the preservation of wealth, trusts, estate taxes and prepare wills, trusts, family partnerships and other documents to enable clients to pass their estates to their chosen beneficiaries. They also probate the estates of clients in appropriate courts, and represent clients in guardianship and related proceedings.

Closely related to the estate planning and probate is the representation of clients in fiduciary litigation, such as dissolution or preservation of trusts, breach of fiduciary duty claims, and similar claims by and against fiduciaries.

Our attorneys also represent non-profit entities such as charitable foundations and other eleemosynary institutions. This multi-disciplinary practice may include litigation, real estate, commercial transactions and a variety of legal challenges that are presented to non-profit.

The attorneys engaged in the transactions and business entity practice aid clients in determining the best type of business entity in which to conduct business suited to the client’s particular circumstances, form business entities, and record them with appropriate governmental agencies, engage in the negotiation of contracts and financing arrangements and the preparation of the documents to memorialize the client’s business transactions.

Our attorneys also represent governmental entities. This may include the commercial and real estate transactions of the governmental entity, taxation, advice on relations with other governmental entities, and responding to the citizens served by the governmental unit.

The Administrative and Governmental Law Section is active in a broad variety of governmental activity representing both governmental entities and political subdivisions. The Section also represents individual and corporate clients with regulatory and administrative matters involving governmental agencies.

This Section of the firm practices on the state level before various agencies such as the Public Utility Commission, Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and Texas Water Development Board. On the local level, the firm represents counties, appraisal districts, municipalities and a variety of special purpose districts, including representation of many of those clients as general counsel.

The Section’s expertise includes open meetings, open records, franchises, planning and zoning, ad valorem taxation, tariffs and other regulated rates, elections, intergovernmental relations, employment, contracts, leases and tort and contract liability.

Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) is the process of resolving legal conflicts without going through a jury trial and possible appeal of the case. Our firm provides a full range of dispute resolution processes, including mini-trials, moderated settlement conferences, summary jury trials, mediation and arbitration. We have extensive experience in determining what form of ADR is in the best interest of our clients. Our attorneys are trained in both mediation and arbitration. Our attorneys are experienced as mediators and arbitrators, as well as representing clients in those processes.

The Firm’s banking and finance section provides representation in all phases of legal needs of federal and state chartered financial institutions. The firm’s attorneys have served on the TABC Board of Directors and as its president.

The firm provides loan documentation for all types of lending transactions, including commercial, real estate, oil and gas, industrial development, bond financing, maritime loans, leasing and letters of credit. The firm advises financial institutions in regulatory matters and dealing with regulatory difficulties, both federal and state.

The Firm has experience in bank mergers and acquisitions, charter conversions and subchapter S conversions. The firm has a great deal of expertise in litigation matters involving banks, credit unions and other financial institutions. The firm’s attorneys are also skilled in corporate governance, personnel and bank employment issues.

The members of the Business and Finance Section advise clients in connection with a wide variety of business matters. They include:

• Debtor and creditor problems, buying and selling businesses in various industries, such as General Motors dealerships, Caterpillar dealerships, John Deere dealerships, bank holding companies, printing companies, restaurants, hospitals, funeral homes, drilling companies and television stations
  
  
• Corporate reorganizations and entity conversions
  
  
• Choice of business entities; formation and general representation of corporations, joint ventures, limited liability companies, professional limited liability companies, limited partnerships, family limited partnerships, registered limited liability partnerships, professional associations and professional corporations
  
  
• Strategic alliance agreements between unaffiliated companies; asset protection strategies
  
  
• Employment contracts, buy-sell agreements, voting trusts and other ownership control agreements
  
  
• Duties of directors to shareholders
  
  
• Duties of partners to each other
  
  
• Shareholder and partner deadlock
  
  
• Protection of minority interest owners and dissolution and liquidation of business entities.

Attorneys in the Energy Section are involved in practically every phase of the law related to natural resources and energy. The practice involves advising clients, negotiating and documenting transactions, examining land and mineral titles and representing clients before regulatory agencies, not only in connection with traditional oil and gas matters but also with respect to electric production, transportation and consumer issues in the newly deregulated electric market in Texas. The Section represents a wide variety of clients in the energy business, including major oil companies, natural gas pipelines, electric transmission and distribution utilities, independent power producers, independent oil and gas operators, individual landowners and industrial and commercial consumers of oil, gas and electricity.

Attorneys in the Section are involved in title examinations; the negotiation and preparation of agreements dealing with exploration and development of oil, gas, uranium and other natural resources; the negotiation and preparation of natural gas purchase, transportation and exchange agreements; and financing transactions secured by oil and gas interests. Attorneys represent the interests of landowners in negotiating leases and other agreements with oil and gas operators and enforcing such leases and agreements if necessary. Much of the significant litigation handled by the firm is energy and land title related. In those types of cases, members of this group usually take an active role in assisting the members of the Litigation Section.

Attorneys are also involved in representing electric utilities in administrative matters before State and local agencies, advising and negotiating electric power purchase contracts on behalf of industrial and commercial electric energy consumers, and assisting energy and electric transmission companies in negotiating contracts. Our attorneys also assist clients in land acquisitions and easements by negotiation or condemnation for the construction of electric energy (electric and petroleum products) transmission, distribution and generation facilities, and advising and negotiating electric power purchase contracts on behalf of industrial and commercial electric energy consumers.

The Environmental and Toxic Tort section handles matters arising out of personal and property exposure to toxic materials. They are prepared to assist the firm’s clients with matters before the Environmental Protection Agency, the United States Coast Guard, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.

The Environmental and Toxic Tort section has experience in handling environmental clean-up cost recoveries, obtaining awards for damages to businesses and its property damage arising from environmental contamination, insurance coverage for remediation and defense and bodily injuries arising from exposure and third-party claims.

In addition to representing clients in administrative and judicial proceedings, the Environmental and Toxic Tort section provides counsel on environmental regulatory issues, including conducting and evaluating environmental audits, valuing potential environmental liabilities associated with corporate mergers, acquisitions and asset purchase and effective interaction with all of the appropriate regulatory agencies.

The lawyers in the Estate Planning and Probate Section of the Firm offer strategic, comprehensive and insightful counsel for legal matters involving trusts, estates, wills, estate tax, gift tax, asset protection planning and matters related to charitable organizations and charitable giving.

Our estate planning work involves planning for transfers of personal wealth during life and at death. In addition to the preparation of wills and trusts, our team provides legal advice about income, estate, gift, inheritance and generation-skipping taxes. We also provide legal advice regarding estate planning through intervivos gifts, insurance planning, various “estate freezing” techniques and charitable gift planning.

We also initiate estate planning techniques to transfer the wealth of an older generation to a younger generation through the use of business planning. These techniques involve creation of corporations and partnerships with special features and complex income, estate and gift tax considerations. This work includes organizing and aiding in the administration of closely-held business organizations, including family limited partnerships, limited liability companies and corporations.

Our attorneys assist in estate administration by representing executors in probating decedents’ wills, preparing estate tax returns and representing estates before the Internal Revenue Service in contested matters raised in audited estate tax returns. Estate administration may also involve representation in disputes arising among beneficiaries during the administration of the estate, including will contests and fiduciary litigation.

The section assists in trust administration by advising trustees on proper courses of action, and interpreting provisions in trust agreements as questions arise during trust administration. We also provide income tax planning for trusts and their beneficiaries. Our attorneys counsel corporate fiduciaries concerning fiduciary responsibility, including representation in complex trust modifications, reformations and related litigation.

Our team counsels many individuals and families on the proper use of asset protection planning tools, which range from the making of outright gifts to reduce one’s assets subject to exposure, to creating family limited partnerships, to the use of domestic and offshore trusts.

The Estate Planning group also provides counsel in various related areas, including marital property agreements, powers of attorney, designations of guardians and techniques for providing healthcare and property management for incapacitated or elderly clients.

The clients represented by our Business and Estate Planning attorneys include many of the leading citizens of South Texas. In addition, we represent the trust departments of major banks and are counsel to a number of tax-exempt and charitable organizations.

Our largest section – the practice of Litigation – involves the court-resolution of private disputes. These may include antitrust, contracts, securities, class actions, trade secrets, insurance defense, personal injury, probate disputes, oil and gas, real estate, foreign transactions, condemnations and ad valorem taxation, for clients ranging from Fortune 500 Corporations to small businesses and individuals. As trial lawyers, we are prepared for lengthy and complex court procedures and trials, using the latest in courtroom technology. In many instances, we save expenses for the client through mediation of claims without trial. In today’s world, our experience in mediation is a prerequisite to the successful disposition of commercial claims.

Our lawyers also have extensive experience in Construction Law through the representation of owners, architects and contractors in court litigation, mediation or arbitration.

Tort litigation is an important component of our civil litigation section, much of it through insurance defense or self-insured adjustment of personal injury, products and maritime claims. Our practice of Insurance Law includes coverage disputes, and the careful evaluation and reporting of claims for their efficient disposition to the carriers’ benefit.

The practice of Civil Appeals is necessary to complete the range of litigation services offered our clients. We not only provide appellate advice, briefs and services to outside lawyers and clients, but particularly to clients where we have tried the case and the resulting judgment is appealed.

Welder Leshin, LLP represents shipowners, fishing vessel owners, agents, charterers, maritime employers and contractors in all areas of maritime torts, seamen's injuries, contracts, stowaways, charter disputes, cargo claims, investigations, property damage, oil and chemical releases and other regulatory violations, as well as other matters involving domestic and international maritime commerce, including offshore drilling contractors, Protection and Indemnity Clubs, oil and gas exploration and transmission companies.

The Maritime Section's day-to-day caseload involves personal injury defense brought by Jones Act seamen, longshoremen and offshore drilling and production workers. It also handles collision and damage claims to vessels, piers and production platforms, cargo claims and environmental compliance and liability. The Section is comprised of attorneys experienced in energy matters, including work with onshore and offshore drilling, well-control and related property damage issues.

The Section's attorneys represent clients before federal and state courts and administrative agencies, including the United States Coast Guard, OSHA, United States Department of Immigration and Naturalization, the National Transportation Safety Board and the Texas General Land Office.

Other areas of the Section's expertise include financial representation for the purchase and sale of vessels and enforcement of liens, interpretation of marine insurance policies and coverages, and the practice of regulatory and administrative law.

The Section's staff of legal and paralegal professionals has experience in mass plaintiff toxic tort and multi-party document and data management; database entry and utilization; trial preparation support; historical, media and medical journal research; review of medical records; interpretation of medical diagnostic codes; direct contact with pro se claimants, including review, evaluation and documentation of pro se claims and negotiation of claims through settlement; marine investigations and catastrophic response.

Attorneys in the Real Estate section represent banks, construction lenders, permanent lenders, municipalities, navigation districts and other special district governmental entities, developers, contractors, real estate brokers, buyers, sellers, syndicators, landlords and tenants. The practice of the section includes:

• General real estate practice including sales and purchases of improved and unimproved property, land planning and development (apartments, condominiums, shopping centers and office buildings), and real and personal property financing.
  
  
• General banking and business practice, including sales and acquisitions, contracts, financing and foreclosures, particularly involving real estate.
  
  
• Real estate syndications and related investment aspects, sale of businesses involving sale of assets where substantial real estate is involved.
  
  
• Title examination and title insurance-related questions; industrial installations such as petrochemical plants, and oil and gas exploration and development facilities.
  
  
• Commercial, residential and recreational land development practice, including acquisition, subdivision, zoning, restriction, financing, federal regulations of interstate land sales, and federal and state environmental liabilities.
  
  
• Farm and ranch sales and acquisitions and related matters.