Judge Jefferson is Of Counsel with Grealish McZeal P.C. and a retired State District Judge (215th District Court of Harris County, Texas). He has over 30 years of litigation experience, beginning as an in-house counsel for Liberty Mutual Insurance Company. He has been a certified mediator since 1997, and an American Arbitration Association approved arbitrator since 2006. The Judge currently holds an AV Peer Review rating from Martindale-Hubbell. The Judge was appointed to the bench by Governor George W. Bush in 1995, and subsequently elected to a full term the following year 1996; where he served until retiring and returning to private practice in 1999.

Practice Areas
Mediation
Arbitration
Litigation

Mediation
• The Judge has mediated hundreds of cases including cases involving personal injuries, construction disputes, commercial litigation, and class actions.
Arbitration
• The Judge is an American Arbitration Association Panelist on the Construction, Commercial, Employment, Class Action, and Mass Tort/Complex Litigation panels. He has served as Arbitrator on numerous cases from all these Panels over the past 20 years.
Litigation
• The Judge has represented clients in the litigation of personal injury, commercial, trademark infringement, class action, environmental, employment, federal securities, and federal white-collar criminal cases. He has also served as an expert witness in state and federal courts on judicial issues, reasonableness of verdicts, and attorney fees in personal injury, commercial, construction, insurance and mass tort cases.

The Judge has served as Ad Litem and Special Master, in Harris County State Courts.

Public Service
• Member of the Texas Federal Judicial Advisory Committee, as an appointee of U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison.
• Member of Mayor Annise Parker’s transition team on the Committee that recommended appointment of the Presiding Judge of the City of Houston Municipal Courts.
• Member of the Board of Directors, Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County (METRO)

Education
University of Texas School of Law (J.D., 1983)
University of Texas (B.A., Government, 1978)
A.A. White Dispute Resolution Center, University of Houston Law Center (Certified International Arbitrator 2006)

Admitted
State Bar of Texas, 1984
U.S. Supreme Court
U.S. Court of Federal Claims
U.S. District Court of Texas, Southern, Eastern, Northern, and Western Districts
U.S. Court of Appeals, Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Circuits
U.S. District Court of Illinois, Northern District
U.S. District Court of Alabama, Southern District
U.S. District Court of Kentucky, Western District

Affiliations
State Bar of Texas
Houston Bar Association
American Arbitration Association
American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA)

Representative Decisions
• While the Presiding Judge of the 215th Civil Judicial District of Harris County, Texas, presided over the $1.3 billion jury verdict in a commercial fraud lawsuit by a Russian immigrant inventor against investors in the marine company he founded, and against his law firm.
• Presided over the first lawsuit to enforce the Texas Solid Waste Disposal Act involving tetrachloroethylene (perc). This case, and Judge Jefferson’s rulings, were matters of first impression by a Texas court. The issue was finally resolved by the Texas Supreme Court.

Representative Cases
• NCAA Concussion Class Action Litigation ( Member Plaintiffs Steering Committee)
• Served as co-counsel representing approximately 4,000 Plaintiffs in an environmental contamination case against the City of Jacksonville, Florida, and its insurers, which settled for $25 Million.
• Served as co-counsel on litigation of radiation contamination case against a major oil company in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, involving approximately 2,000 clients which settled for $10.5 Million.
• Represented the manager of the recording artist Destiny’s Child in 2002 defending him and his companies in multi-million-dollar litigation brought by 2 former group members and the estate of the deceased co-manager of the group.

Representative Expert Witness Experience
• Served as an expert witness in multi-million-dollar litigation involving a major private trust where he provided expert testimony regarding matters related to injunctive relief available to the Plaintiffs.
• Served as an expert witness in an insurance coverage case arising from the settlement of a case involving the wrongful death of a nursing home resident, and provided testimony regarding the reasonableness of the settlement as it related to the apportionment of the settlement amount between actual damages and punitive damages.

Representative Ad Litem Experience
• Served as ad litem in the first fen-phen pharmaceutical case to go to trial in Harris County.
• Served as ad litem in cases involving child sexual assaults.

Representative Special Master Experience
• Served as a special master in a shareholder’s class action case against a Canadian corporation; and in a case involving an attorney’s fees dispute arising from a multi-million dollar verdict in a fraud and breach-of-contract case brought by a Mexican company against Wal-Mart.

Personal Background
• Graduate Fox Tech High School, San Antonio, Texas
• Co-Captain University of Texas Longhorn Football Team 1978
• Member, Texas Cowboys, University of Texas Service Organization 1977-79
• Free Agent Contract Player Oakland Raiders Professional Football Team 1079