Steven L. Russell

Noteworthy Accomplishments

• Served as co-liaison counsel for motor carrier defendants in the Texas state MDL proceeding arising out of the February 11, 2021 incident on IH-35W in Fort Worth, Texas.
• Served as national counsel for occupational lung disease claims against a Fortune 500 aggregates company.
• Represented a regional frac sand company in various matters, including negotiation and drafting of sand supply agreements and various contract disputes.
• Successfully represented a Fortune 500 company in arbitration claims against the sellers of a regional logistics company. The case involved fraud, breach of contract, and other claims arising out of the sale.
• Successfully represented a short-line railroad in a dispute with a Class 1 railroad over whether a “paper barrier” agreement was terminable at will by the short-line. The case was tried to a jury in federal court and later appealed to the US Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, which rendered judgment for the short-line. BNSF Railway Co. v. Panhandle Northern Railroad LLC, 946 F.3d 705 (5th Cir. 2020).
• Formed and led a large team of attorneys and underwriters in evaluating thousands of claims against a private mortgage insurance company following borrower defaults in the wake of the 2008 real estate market collapse.
• Represented a large industrial minerals company in thousands of lawsuits alleging lung disease and other injuries from silica exposure. Some of those suits were removed to federal court and consolidated in an MDL proceeding. The federal judge presiding over that MDL later found the cases in the MDL were baseless.