James Lowery is a Partner in the Dallas office of GRSM and a member of the Environmental/Toxic Tort, Commercial Litigation, Trucking & Transportation, and Professional Liability Defense practice groups. He has achieved favorable verdicts in several high-risk cases on behalf of numerous clients in asbestos litigation. He has first chaired more than 40 major asbestos trials in multiple jurisdictions, including Texas, New York, Pennsylvania, Florida, Massachusetts, Delaware, Ohio, Maryland, Louisiana, Virginia, Illinois, and California. James obtained defense verdicts in asbestos trials in some of the most notorious pro-plaintiff jurisdictions, such as Madison County, Illinois, Beaumont and Orange, Texas, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Oakland, California.
James has represented a wide variety of asbestos clients, including insulation manufacturers, “low-dose” product manufacturers, distributors, contractors, employers, and premises owners. He also has extensive experience in preparing, defending, and cross-examining experts at trial in asbestos matters, including leading challenges to expert testimony under Daubert, Frye and Havner. He has taken a lead role in developing expert witnesses and defense strategies for several clients and has deposed hundreds of experts in the asbestos litigation. James also serves as National Coordinating Counsel for defendants in toxic tort matters.
In addition to his extensive experience in toxic tort litigation, he has also defended numerous clients in commercial cases. He has defended and tried multiple personal injury claims arising out of trucking accidents. James also has extensive experience in defending catastrophic injury claims from workplace injuries, including caustic burns and oil field accidents.
James has tried nearly 50 cases during his career and has defended variety of entities and individuals in the professional liability context. He has also consulted with and advised companies, medical and legal professionals and architects and engineers on litigation strategy and regulatory compliance issues. James has frequently represented one of the country’s largest architect and engineering firms in a myriad of professional liability and property damage matters.
He has also defended clients in numerous environmental claims, involving toxic spills, hazardous waste deposition and property damages issues. He has defended transportation companies charged with criminal, civil, and regulatory violations associated with hauling and disposing of hazardous materials. James has helped multiple clients develop comprehensive environmental handling, warning, labeling, and transportation programs to help minimize long term environmental risks.
James previously served more than four years as lead in-house counsel for a Fortune 500 corporation, supervising its national toxic tort litigation, which included an asbestos docket of more than 45,000 cases. He gained considerable experience defending PCB, beryllium, lead, silica, benzene and other toxic exposure claims. He took a lead role in developing the corporation’s defense strategies, developing experts, controlling defense, and indemnity costs and supervising outside counsel in more than 40 jurisdictions. James also co-partnered with several outside counsel in defending the corporation in numerous asbestos trials.
In addition to his trial experience, James is also a frequent speaker at national toxic tort and litigation conferences. He has written several articles pertaining to asbestos and other toxic tort litigation and is a frequent contributing author on the topic of challenging plaintiff’s experts in all jurisdictions.
Admissions
- Texas
- Florida
- New York
- Pennsylvania
- U.S. District Court, Eastern, Western, Northern, and Southern Districts of Texas
- U.S. District Court, Western, Northern, and Southern Districts of New York
- U.S. District Court, Western District of Pennsylvania
- U.S. District Court, Southern District of Florida
Memberships
- Texas Bar College
- Defense Research Institute
- The Florida Bar
- State Bar of Texas
Community Involvement
- Frisco, Texas, Youth Baseball Coach