Brad has been the lead trial lawyer in some of the most important cases in recent history. Brad has recovered more than $3 billion for his clients, including a $465 million verdict in the first ever trial against the opioid industry and a $160 million verdict in one of the largest oil and gas class actions ever tried to verdict. Brad and his team were named the National Trial Team of the Year in 2020. In addition to his trial work, Brad also is well known as a crisis management specialist who has helped numerous high-profile clients navigate unprecedented challenges. Brad also has handled matters for various sports figures, such as Heisman Trophy winners Johnny Manziel, Kyler Murray and former University of Michigan analyst Connor Stalions. Brad currently serves as Managing Partner.
Brad’s cases have been featured in some of the leading newspapers in the world, including the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and the New York Times. His work on behalf of investors was featured in the 2008 Pulitzer Prize winning series for Investigative Journalism. Brad’s also been a guest on major television news stations and podcasts. His work has been featured in “Sign Stealer,” the number one ranked documentary on Netflix in 2024 and in the Youtube series “Killing Pain,” which won a Heartland Emmy award in 2020.
Personal Background
Brad grew up in Conroe, Texas, which was a small rural town at the time. He worked his way through high school and college at Texas A&M, holding a variety of jobs like working on a commercial roofing crew, running a landscaping crew for a developer, and drying cars at a commercial car wash. Brad joined the firm in 1998 after clerking for The Honorable Richard Schell, Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. Like many of our lawyers, Brad began his career in the Firm’s original office in Daingerfield, Texas, with a hunger for trying cases to a jury for those who needed help. Brad took the lessons he learned working side by side with working class people into his early career at the Firm and volunteered to take just about any case he could to get in front of a jury. As a result, his early court room work included everything from trying pro bono cases for battered women and prisoners’ rights cases to complex personal injury trials. After that, Brad became a highly sought trial lawyer for bet the company litigation across the nation.
Representative Verdicts and Settlements of over $100,000,000.00
$149,500,000 settlement for the State of Washington against Johnson & Johnson. This significant resolution marks the culmination of over four years of relentless legal pursuit on behalf of the people of Washington state.
$160,000,000 verdict for a class of royalty owners against Sunoco Logistics LP and Energy Transfer Partners. This verdict represents the largest oil and gas class action verdict in federal court in Oklahoma history.
$465,000,000 verdict for the State of Oklahoma versus Johnson & Johnson. This verdict came in the first ever trial to go to verdict against an opioid manufacturer for causing the nations’ opioid crisis and led to a $5 billion global settlement for other states with J&J.
$270,000,000 settlement for the State of Oklahoma versus Purdue Pharma and the Sackler Family. This was the first settlement in history against Purdue Pharma and included a $75 million contribution by the Sackler family as well as an injunction that ended all marketing efforts by Purdue in Oklahoma. The settlement funds were used to fund the groundbreaking National Center for Wellness and Recovery at Oklahoma State University, which has become the global leader in the area of addiction treatment and prevention research.
$393,000,000 settlements for the State of Oklahoma versus Teva Pharmaceuticals and opioid distributors McKesson, Amerisource Bergen and Cardinal.
$186,000,000 settlement for the Chickasaw and Choctaw Nations against the United States Dept. of Interior. The United States mismanaged over 1.3 million acres of timber lands belonging to the Nations. Before Nix Patterson was hired, the case lingered for almost a decade without getting past a motion to dismiss. Eight months before trial was set, Brad was asked to join the team and prepare the case for trial. Ultimately, the case settled a week before trial for $186 million, the fifth largest settlement out of the 86 tribal trust actions filed to date. The settlement also included significant non-monetary concessions that will go on for years to benefit both Nation, and included a personal trip to Indian Country by Secretary of Interior Sally Jewel, who formally apologized to both Nations on behalf of the United States.
$155,000,000 settlement for a class of royalty owners QEP, an energy company with oil and gas operations in Oklahoma. We proved that QEP secretly and systematically made unlawful deductions from a class of royalty owners’ monthly royalty payments. In addition to the cash component of the settlement, we negotiated institutional changes that resulted in future benefits that likely provide more than $200 million in additional royalty payments to the class members.
$270,000,000 settlement against the Bank of New York Mellon on behalf of participants in BNY Mellon’s securities lending program, alleging that BNY Mellon breached its fiduciary duties (under both common law and ERISA), breached its securities lending agreements, and was negligent in connection with its investment of its clients’ funds in medium-term notes of Sigma Finance, Inc.
$150,000,000 settlement against the JP Morgan Chase on behalf of ERISA beneficiaries who lost money when JP Morgan breached its securities lending agreements, and was negligent in connection with its investment of its clients’ funds in medium-term notes of Sigma Finance, Inc.
$322,000,000 settlement for institutional investors against former General Motors subsidiary, Delphi, Securities Act of 1933 and Securities Exchange Act of 1934 arising out of Delphi’s massive restatement dating back to its spin-off from General Motors. The settlement is believed to be one of the largest securities fraud settlements funded by a bankruptcy debtor outside of insurance. It also ranked as the 22nd largest securities fraud settlement in history at that time—a remarkable result given that the primary defendant was in bankruptcy.
$160,000,000 settlement for institutional investors against Brocade, for violating the Securities Act of 1933 and Securities Exchange Act of 1934.This was the first major case regarding “stock options backdating.” The settlement marks one, if not the, largest settlements ever in terms of the percentage of the class’ damages recovered. Indeed, depending on which damage model was accepted by the court and/or jury, the settlement marks close to a 100% recovery for the class. Further, at the time of settlement, it was the second-largest backdating settlement in history in terms of the total dollar amount of the settlement.
DJ Verdict worth over $1 billion.
In 2016, Brad and the NP trial team tried to judgment what may be the most important royalty owner case ever tried in the State of Oklahoma. Brad and the Nix Patterson team tired a declaratory judgment case for two royalty owners. We won a judgment in the royalty owner’s favor on all four key issues of Oklahoma royalty law. This judgment clarifies the duties oil and gas companies owe to all royalty owners in Oklahoma, which in turn has an economic impact in the billions and led to hundreds of millions in settlements.
Priceless
