It has been said that helping others is its own reward, and Stewart Hoffer would definitely agree. Over the years, Stewart has found that one of the most rewarding aspects of being an attorney is seeing the positive impact his work has had on the people and companies he represents. Stewart knows that the outcome of a case affects real people. Sure, winning a case feels good, but for Stewart, the greatest satisfaction comes from knowing that his assistance can help his clients to focus on what is most important to them – growing their business or their career.
Stewart’s dedication to helping others is not limited to clients; it has literally saved his neighbors’ lives in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey. Just after the hurricane passed through Bellaire (a Houston suburb), Stewart saw the floodwaters pouring into the homes of his neighbors. An avid kayak fisherman, Stewart, and a neighbor jumped into their kayaks and took to the water to provide aid, saving 12 people and several pets. Stewart’s experience was recently chronicled in Vogue Magazine.
Mr. Hoffer has appeared as lead counsel for numerous publicly traded and privately held companies in courts all over the country including:
- Texas
- Florida
- New Mexico
- Nevada
- Maine
- Michigan
- Nebraska
- New York
- California
- Maryland
- Georgia
Before joining Hicks Thomas LLP, Stewart served a two-year federal judicial clerkship for Hon. Hayden W. Head, Jr., the former Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas. Stewart is also Board Certified in Civil Trial Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization, AV-rated by Martindale-Hubbell peer rating organization, an Associate Member of the American Board of Trial Advocates, and a Texas Super Lawyer, having been included on the peer-reviewed list of top lawyers in a state in every year since the list has been published-- a total of seventeen consecutive years.
Stewart’s clients report that he is a formidable, tenacious opponent, either in the courtroom or the negotiating table. It is just one of the many reasons Stewart has been, for many of his clients, their "go-to" resource for more than a decade. They know Stewart will give them timely and wise counsel, in a cost-effective and trustworthy manner, so that they can make important decisions about their business or career. And if the dispute cannot be resolved before trial, and a trial is the only way to resolve a dispute, clients know that Stewart will work tirelessly to protect their best interests.
- Commercial Arbitration
- Intellectual Property Litigation (trade secrets, trademarks, copyright)
- Business Litigation
- Securities Litigation
- Partnership and Shareholder Disputes
- Labor and Employment Litigation
- Representation of Executives in Employment Matters
- Non-competition/Non-solicitation contracts/ Business Competition Law
- General Civil Litigation
- University of Texas at Austin (B.B.A., 1991)
- University of Texas School of Law (J.D., with honors, 1994)
- State Bar of Texas
- United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth and Ninth Circuits
- United States District Court for the Southern, Northern, Eastern and Western Districts of Texas and Eastern District of Michigan
- Board Certified in Civil Trial Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization
- AV Rated by Martindale-Hubbell
- American Board of Trial Advocates - Associate Member (2021-present)
- Recognized in Lawdragon’s 500 Leading Litigators in America (2023-2025)
- Listed in Best Lawyers in America (2022-2025)
- Lawdragon 500 Leading Corporate Employment Lawyers (2024)
- Benchmark Litigation Future Star (2024-2025)
- Texas Super Lawyers, Thomson Reuters (2003-2024)
- Top Lawyer in Houston, Houston Texas Magazine, 2003, 2004, 2009
- Top Lawyer for the People, Houston Texas Magazine, 2004
- In August 2024, Stewart and associate Mariana Jantz secured a complete defense victory for a publicly-traded LNG industry client following the trial court’s order granting summary judgment in an employment discrimination case. The plaintiff, a licensed Texas lawyer, alleged that the employer committed religious and disability discrimination and retaliation under the ADA, Title VII, and the Texas Labor Code following the termination of his employment, but the trial court found no evidence to support any of the claims.
- In January 2024, Stewart (along with partners Stephen Loftin, Eric Grant and John Deis and associates Sofia Burnett and Miranda Granchi) secured a unanimous jury verdict for our client who sued a publicly traded company and other defendants alleging misappropriation of trade secrets under the Defend Trade Secrets Act of 2016. The jury awarded $50,000,000 in reasonable royalty damages and $21,206,132 in unjust enrichment damages against the publicly traded defendant, and approximately $5,400,000 in unjust enrichment damages against three of the five other defendants. The trial court upheld the jury’s verdict as to liability and entered a permanent injunction, but modified the jury’s damages award. The case is currently the subject of an appeal to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
- In February 2021, after a five-day arbitration against a Fortune 500 company, Stewart obtained a $1.8 million-dollar recovery in a breach of contract case (100% of what his client sought) and simultaneously convinced the arbitrator to reject counterclaims seeking $2.7 million dollars from his client (100% of what the opponent sought).
- Stewart successfully challenged the City of Houston’s failure to comply with an Emmy-award-winning journalist’s efforts to expose potential irregularities in the City’s award of a lucrative recycling contract using the Texas Public Information Act. Read more here and here. City of Houston v Dolcefino Communications, et al., 01-17-00979-CV (Tex. App. – Houston [1st Dist.], October 30, 2018). The case has since been resolved, with the City of Houston paying $50,000 of the journalist’s attorney’s fees.
- Partners Stewart Hoffer and Stephen Loftin obtained a take-nothing judgment after a four-day jury trial in which an employee of a client claimed that the client’s negligence caused the employee to amputate part of his left hand in a conveyor belt drive chain. Hoffer and Loftin proved that the sole proximate cause of the employee’s injury was the employee’s carelessness, and a jury agreed, resulting in a complete defense victory for the client.
- In August 2014, Stewart was part of the trial and appellate team that won a case at the Texas Supreme Court for a client that changed Texas procedural and substantive law regarding whether a court could, consistent with Texas and U.S. Constitution, require the removal of, and enjoin the republication of, speech adjudicated as defamatory. Kinney v. Barnes, 443 S.W.3d 87 (Tex. 2014).
- In June 2014, Stewart successfully overturned a trial court's final judgment order erroneously granting summary judgment against claims brought by Stewart's client against a former employee and her new employer for breach of a non-competition covenant and breach of fiduciary duty. See Republic Services, Inc. v. Martha Rodriguez and Custom Copying Solutions, L.P., No. 14-12-01054-CV (Tex. App. – Houston [14th Dist.] 2014, mem. opin'n).
- In May 2014, Stewart obtained a judgment for 2.3 million dollars (which included 1.6 million dollars in punitive damages) against a former sub-agent of a publicly traded company that engaged in a commercial bribery and theft scheme while overseeing an aspect of the client's operations. The judgment was in addition to hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash the client received in settlement from co-defendants, as well as an additional 1.4 million dollars in invoices that co-defendant vendors released to resolve the claims against them.
- In March 2013, Stewart obtained an order conditionally granting a writ of mandamus which overturned a trial court's order that required the client to turn over to opposing counsel computer hard drives for intrusive forensic analysis. See In re Pinnacle Engineering, Inc., 405 S.W.3d 835 (Tex. App. – Houston [1st Dist.] 2013, orig. proceeding).
- Stewart served as trial and appellate counsel for the plaintiff, a building supply company, in a lawsuit claiming breach of contract and suit on sworn account against a builder who failed to pay for goods and services received. See Wasserberg v. Flooring Services of Texas, LLC, 376 S.W.3d 202 (Tex. App. – Houston [14th Dist.] 2012, no pet.).
- In 2011, one of Stewart’s clients in the legal recruiting industry came to Stewart with a problem. Another legal recruiter had threatened to sue Stewart’s client for a share of a large placement fee that the client earned by placing a partner group with another firm. Stewart convinced the client to go on the offense and sue first to establish that the putative plaintiff had no right to the fee. The strategy worked, and in October 2012, Stewart convinced a Travis County trial judge to dismiss the case in the middle of trial, and award the client nearly $200,000 in legal fees the client had incurred to prove the facts that led to the win. The losing recruiter appealed, and in August 2015, the Austin Court of Appeals affirmed the judgment in all respects, with the Texas Supreme Court denying a petition for discretionary review in January 2017. See Handwerker Hren Legal Search, Inc. v. Recruiting Partners GP, Inc., No. 03-13-00239-CV, Austin Court of Appeals (August 19, 2015, pet. denied).
- In August 2010, Stewart first-chaired a four-day jury trial in state district court in Aransas County, Texas, and obtained a complete defense verdict for Stewart's client, a motor vehicle manufacturer, in a breach of contract and UCC sale of goods case. The victory was notable because the plaintiff was a prominent public figure in the geographic area where the case was tried. See In re Motor Trike, Inc., 347 S.W.3d 806 (Tex. App. – Corpus Christi 2011, orig. proceeding).
- In July 2010, Stewart first-chaired an employment discrimination case in federal court in Houston, Texas for a NYSE-traded client. Based on the claims pled by the former employee, the client faced exposure to punitive damages not capped by traditional damage caps in employment cases. After four days of trial, and just before closing arguments, the former employee settled his claims for a mere 17% of his pretrial settlement demand.
- In November 2009, Stewart second-chaired a nine-day jury trial in Harris County in which the client, a subsidiary of a publicly-traded exploration and production company, obtained a considerable jury verdict and final judgment as a victim of fraud in a drilling rig purchase.
- In January 2009, Stewart secured a preliminary injunction against a client's former employee who had posted the client's trade secrets on various Internet blog sites and forced the Internet sites to voluntarily remove the offensive postings. A few months later, Stewart obtained a substantial judgment against the former employee as a result of his misconduct and has successfully directed the U.S. Marshal's seizure and sale of the former employee's assets, including website domains.
- In April 2009, Stewart obtained summary judgment for a prominent Houston law firm sued by a former paralegal for sexual harassment and other various employment torts.
- Following a two-day evidentiary hearing in December 2008 in a trade secret/employee raiding case, Stewart defeated a competitor's request to curtail or eliminate the operations of a leading national provider of technical services to the electric utility, power generation, industrial, renewable, and energy industries.
- In August 2008, Stewart convinced a Harris County District Court Judge to deny a request for a temporary injunction in a trade secrets case that, if entered, would have effectively shut down the client's nationwide crane and construction rental company pending trial, causing the client to lose tens of millions of dollars in revenue.
- In 2006, Stewart served as lead trial counsel defending a successful mass tort lawyer accused of legal malpractice and secured a complete defense verdict for the client.
Published Cases/Publications
- Texas Lawyer – “Remote Work & Progressive Disciplinary Policies: How Employers Can Stay Ahead of the Game” – January 2021
- Texas Lawbook – "Businesses Facing Emergency Downsizing Have No Room for Error" – April 2020
- Wasserberg v. Flooring Services of Texas, LLC, 376 S.W.3d 202 (Tex. App. – Houston [14th Dist.] 2012, no pet.).
- In re Motor Trike, Inc., 347 S.W.3d 806 (Tex. App. – Corpus Christi 2011, orig. proceeding).
- Koval v. Henry Kirkland Contractors, Inc., 2008 WL 458295 (Tex. App. – Houston [1st Dist.] 2008, no pet.).
- In re American Lift & Equipment, Inc., 2007 WL 2743483 (Tex. App. – Houston [1st Dist.] 2007, orig. proceeding).
- Pita Santos v. Evergreen Alliance Golf, Ltd., 650 F. Supp. 2d 604 (S.D. Tex. 2009).
- Dynamic Sports Nutrition, Inc. v. Roberts, 2009 WL 136023 (S.D. Tex. 2009).
- Murphy v. Butler, 512 F. Supp. 2d 975 (S.D. Tex. 2007).
- Fleming & Assoc. v. Miller & Assoc., 2005 WL 1155118 (S.D. Tex. 2005).
- Washington v. Occidental Chemical Corp., 24 F.Supp.2d 713 (S.D. Tex. 1998).
- Harvey v. Chevron U.S.A., Inc., 961 F. Supp. 1017 (S.D. Tex. 1997)
- Texas Lawyer - "How to Avoid Top 5 Mistakes Employers Make" - July 29, 2019
Speeches & Presentations
- "The New Defend Trade Secrets Act" - Stoneturn Group's Luncheon Roundtable (Houston, Texas) - June 2016
- "Trade Secrets - What Happens When Yours Walk out the Door? What Happens When You Hire Your Competitor's Key Employee?" Texas Law and Insurance Symposium (Austin, Texas) - March 2016
- "Technology Assisted Review and Predictive Coding" - Innovation in E-Discovery Conference - Sandpiper Partners, LLC (Houston, Texas) - June 2015
- "Effective Jury Focus Groups" - State Bar of Texas CLE Webcast (Austin, Texas) – November 2014
- "Basic Employment Issues for the Small Employer" - State Bar of Texas CLE, (Dallas, Texas) - April 2009 (Selected by the Texas State Bar CLE as one of the top CLE presentations of the year)
- "Trade Secret Litigation/Temporary Restraining Orders" - Harris County District Judges Continuing Judicial Education Conference (Austin, Texas) - August 2009
