Taylor M. Hicks

Practice Emphasis

• Commercial litigation with extensive experience as lead counsel in approximately 100 jury trials.

Education

• University of Houston
  • BBA, 1966
• University of Houston Law Center
  • J.D., with highest honors, 1969
  • Houston Law Review
• Judicial Clerkship, Honorable Ben C. Connally, Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas.

Court Admissions

• State Bar of Texas
• State Bar of New York
• Houston Bar Association
• United States Supreme Court
• United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit
• United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas
• United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York
• United States District Court for the Southern District of New York

Honors & Distinctions

• Selected for inclusion in Texas Super Lawyers for Business Litigation, Thomson Reuters Legal and Texas Monthly magazine (2003-2014)
• Rated AV Preeminent by Martindale-Hubbell, 2020

Professional Memberships

• State Bar of Texas
• State Bar of New York
• Houston Bar Association
• United States Supreme Court
• United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit
• United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas
• United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York
• United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Representative Cases

• Gas Pipeline Take or Pay Litigation – Lead counsel in numerous cases involving pipelines obligations to pay for gas not taken. Tried two cases to jury with take-nothing judgments in favor of pipeline clients, obtained favorable settlements in several other cases.
• In re Oil Antitrust Litigation – Defended Burlington Resources in industry-wide cases involving payment of royalties based on posted prices. Conducted extensive pretrial discovery and negotiated a favorable settlement.
• Kaiser Aluminum Chemical Company – Served as lead trial counsel in all South Texas asbestos cases. Of the three cases taken to trial, received finding of no liability in every case.
• Chevron Inc. v. Southern Pacific Railroad, Inc. – Trial counsel for railroad regarding the transportation obligations in a contract for carriage of polypropylene. Obtained a court ruling in favor of Southern Pacific, greatly reducing the transportation obligations.
• Ilija Vasilj v. Marion B. Duzich, Diane Duzich, G. Charles Hatch, and Waterman International, Inc. – Securities fraud derivative action in United States District Court in Illinois.
• Robert Santarsiero v. Hess Corporation, et al. – Multi-defendant toxic tort personal injury case.
• Newby v. Enron Corp, et al. – Represented client in federal securities litigation arising from the collapse of Enron.
• Union Pacific Traffic Interruption Cases – Represented Union Pacific in numerous business interruption cases arising out of rail traffic gridlock following merger of Union Pacific and Southern Pacific Railroads and the efforts to merge the operations of the two companies.