Joseph Russo is a business litigator who protects the interests of his individual and corporate clients in complex class and private lawsuits involving a wide variety of commercial disputes and wrongdoing.
Joseph’s diverse litigation practice includes, among other types of cases, handling business disputes and matters related to: insurance claims (life, health and property); consumer fraud; deceptive trade practices; breach of contract; trade secret and business misappropriation; business fiduciary and D&O misconduct; real estate transactions, construction projects; securities and investor fraud; employment law; and computer and software contracts and liability, as well as claims by and against homeowner and condominium associations. In addition, he handles contractor and construction contract disputes representing governmental entities and companies involving the application of sovereign and governmental immunity laws. In one particularly complex case, Joseph obtained a $13 million trial verdict on behalf of a national contractor against a municipal entity, in a litigation that involved comprehensive briefing and oral argued numerous issues of state law and its application to insurance policies impacting thousands of policyholders across the country.
Joseph prosecutes and defends litigation on behalf of both plaintiffs and defendants. After joining the firm over two decades ago, he recognized early on in his career that he could best defend a case by knowing how to prosecute one. Joseph has dedicated a significant portion of his professional career to representing plaintiffs with claims against corporate defendants and uses that experience to effectively defend his business clients in legal actions.
His clients rely on his deep experience with complex litigation, often involving numerous interwoven parties and claims. Cases requiring efficient management of huge quantities of documents and terabytes of data, dealing with tens of thousands of potential class action members, or novel questions of law, are nothing new to him. Joseph possesses a unique combination of experience, skill, diligence and intellect that allows him to pursue, defend and manage complex litigation. Joseph assisted in the creation of a management process to fulfill a client’s need to file tens of thousands of piracy lawsuits across the country. He has successfully represented plaintiff classes, as well as defended class actions to dismissal or amicable resolution.
As a Galveston native, Joseph has seen and dealt with the impacts of hurricane disasters first-hand. That experience has aided in his prosecution of numerous hurricane-related property claims, including the multi-million-dollar Port of Galveston claim against its insurance companies. Joseph also has considerable experience in representing local homeowner’s associations and has represented homeowners in construction defect claims.
Education
- South Texas College of Law – J.D., 1997
- College Board of Advocates
- Dean’s List
- University of Texas at Austin – B.A., 1994
Admissions
- State of Texas
- United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas
- United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas
- United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas
- United States District Court for the Western District of Texas
- United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
- Supreme Court of the United States
Professional Activities and Memberships
- Member, Texas Bar Foundation
- Member, State Bar of Texas
- Member, American Bar Association
- Member, Galveston County Bar Association
- Nominating committee member, Texas Bar Foundation (2012-2013)
- President, Galveston County Young Lawyers Association, (2002-2003)
Civic Involvement
Joseph is actively involved in his community through a variety of roles:
- Friendswood Little League, Past President and Past Secretary
- Friendswood Youth Football Association, Past Board Member
- Served as Liaison between the Friendswood Parks & Recreation Board and youth sports organizations
- Past Director for Prevent Blindness Texas, Galveston (2002 and 2003)
Representative Cases (examples)
- Represented a national company involved in disaster relief against a governmental entity resulting in a multi-million-dollar jury verdict.
- Representing Galveston County in various personal injury claims and supporting the Galveston County District Attorney’s Office in claims on prosecutorial practices.
- Represented individuals seeking class treatment against a power company and vegetation management company for negligently caused real property losses.
- Pursuing accounting and damages claims against a client’s business partners for breach of fiduciary duties, wrongful exclusion, and tortious interference.
- Pursuing claims against major corporate healthcare entity for breach of lease of multi-million-dollar nursing home facilities.
- Representing a large insurer in trade secret protection and corporate misappropriation claims.
- Pursuing several investor and pension fund fiduciary and fraud claims against corporations and individuals involved in securities fraud and non-disclosure schemes.
- Defending a publicly traded company against individual and class wage and hour statutory employment claims.
- Prosecuting employment contract claims against a ship repair company.
- Representing DIRECTV in thousands of technologically sophisticated satellite piracy claims across the United States.
