“I focus my practice on helping clients solve complex business and commercial litigation challenges, particularly in oil and gas, construction, and environmental matters. As a former environmental consultant, I understand the technical aspects of environmental, energy, and construction cases while applying years of litigation experience to provide a practical, client-centric legal approach.”
Josh Thomas concentrates his practice on oil and gas, energy, construction, commercial, and environmental litigation matters. With previous experience as a project scientist for an environmental engineering and consulting firm, he also has a broad scope of technical knowledge across the environmental, health and safety, and construction fields. Prior to attending law school, Josh worked extensively with clients in the power generation, transmission, pipeline, and refining industries. His strong technical foundation, paired with his experience representing clients in all aspects of the energy sector, provides him with a distinctive insight into the complex challenges his clients face.
Josh served as a Law Clerk to the Honorable Laura C. Higley of the First Court of Appeals of Texas and the Honorable Leslie B. Yates of the Fourteenth Court of Appeals of Texas.
Oil, Gas, and Energy
- Key member of trial team that won a $62 million jury verdict in Harris County, Texas, on behalf of an independent oil and gas client. After a month-long trial, the jury found the operator’s willful misconduct in the construction of a gas processing facility, and in the drilling of a gas well, resulted in millions of dollars in costs overruns and tens of millions of dollars in damage to a major gas reservoir.
- Second chair in trial team that won a multi-million-dollar jury verdict in Brazos County, Texas, in a negligence and trespass case involving downhole damage to wells caused by frac of adjacent wells.
- Representation of an oil and gas producer in a Louisiana bench trial involving a dispute over ownership of mineral assets in the Haynesville and Bossier Shale plays.
- Defense of retail electricity and natural gas clients in numerous consumer class action litigation cases in multiple states, including consumer fraud and TCPA cases, resulting in favorable settlements prior to class certification.
- Representation of an oil and gas operator in a dispute over a title to minerals in Louisiana. Won summary judgment in favor of the client on all the plaintiff’s claims.
- Defense of an oil and gas company in a dispute involving an exploration agreement, joint operating agreement, and area of mutual interest agreement. Obtained a favorable outcome for the client through a series of successful motions that challenged the plaintiff’s standing to bring claims for assignment of valuable producing properties.
- Representation of a seismic exploration company in a lawsuit involving overriding royalties owed under a seismic data licensing agreement, resulting in a creative and favorable settlement.
- Representation of a retail energy supplier in a claim for early termination fees under a commercial natural gas supply agreement in federal court in Massachusetts.
Construction
- Lead lawyer representing an oilfield construction and fabrication company in a more than $30 million dispute involving dozens of lawsuits in multiple venues, with dozens of parties and numerous claims.
- Won an arbitration award of actual damages and attorney’s fees, and a take-nothing judgment on the defendant’s $5 million counterclaim, in a commercial arbitration case involving a dispute over the installation of a turbine control system.
- Representation of a manufacturer of industrial turbomachinery parts, in a case involving catastrophic failure of a gas turbine at an electric power generation facility.
- Representation of client subcontracted to construct a baggage conveyor system in one of America’s largest airports.
Business Disputes
- Representation of a business owner in a Harris County, Texas, jury trial in a dispute involving the development of intellectual property. Obtained a jury verdict for monetary damages and a permanent injunction against the defendant.
- Defense of a client in a federal court lawsuit involving the client’s licensing and development of an industrial wastewater treatment technology in partnership with a public university in Texas. Obtained a favorable settlement amounting to less than a tenth of the damages sought by the plaintiff.
- Representation of client in the Southern District of Texas in case involving alleged breach of an exclusive energy brokerage agreement.
- Participated in the representation of Securities Investor Protection Act Trustee for the global liquidation of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, one of the largest financial frauds in U.S. history.
Environmental
- Representation of client in disputes involving three separate wildfires that burned nearly 90,000 acres of historic Texas ranch property.
- Key member of team that successfully defended a client in a multi-billion-dollar environmental civil penalty action relating to an active Superfund site.
- Representation of a property owner in an environmental suit involving allegations of migration of a groundwater contamination plume underneath adjacent property.
- Representation of an owner of a major oil refinery in connection with a high-profile matter involving numerous environmental compliance issues, including investigations by the U.S. EPA, OSHA, and DOJ.
- University of Houston Law Center, J.D., summa cum laude, 2008
- Managing Editor, Houston Law Review
- Member, Order of the Coif
- Member, Order of the Barons
- Auburn University, B.S., Environmental Sciences, 1998
- Texas
- U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas
- U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas
- U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas
- Member, Houston Bar Association
- Member, State Bar of Texas
- Member, American Bar Association
- Volunteer, Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo
- “Rising Star,” Texas Super Lawyers, 2012-2018