Steven L. Russell

Steven Russell is the founder and managing member of Russell & Wright, PLLC.  He started his legal career as a law clerk for a federal district court judge for one year after law school and then practiced with large law firms for over twenty years before founding the firm in 2008.

Before graduating law school, Mr. Russell was a licensed pharmacist.  During law school, he worked in a regional poison control center, answering questions from physicians, other healthcare professionals, and consumers about possible poisonings and toxic exposures.  After many years of legal practice, Mr. Russell’s interests in toxicology and environmental health eventually led him back to school and he earned a master of public health degree in 2010. That degree program included courses in epidemiology, biostatistics, and environmental science, enhancing Mr. Russell’s understanding of the scientific issues involved in environmental and toxic tort claims and his abilities to cross-examine adverse expert witnesses on those issues.

Mr. Russell is a Texas business disputes lawyer with a general litigation practice and focuses on commercial and business litigation, insurance coverage, toxic tort and environmental litigation, and products liability litigation.  His business litigation experience includes contract disputes, construction defect cases, trademark infringement cases, and other business disputes.  Mr. Russell also represents franchisors in disputes with franchisees and has experience in insurance coverage litigation.

Mr. Russell is regional counsel for a large industrial minerals producer and since 1991 has handled thousands of cases alleging injury from silica exposure.  As part of that representation, Mr. Russell currently serves on the Defense Steering Committee for the Texas state silica multidistrict litigation proceeding.  Mr. Russell’s tort and products liability litigation experience also includes cases involving chemical and environmental exposures, consumer products, electrical products, and industrial equipment.

The firm’s practice includes evaluation and handling of claims involving fraud or substandard underwriting practices in residential mortgage lending.  Mr. Russell leads this practice and has extensive experience evaluating claims made against private mortgage insurance policies, having evaluated, on behalf of the insurer, coverage issues for thousands of such claims.  He also evaluates and prosecutes repurchase claims on behalf of buyers of residential mortgages procured by fraud or underwriting practices that do not conform to industry standards.  The firm’s work in this practice area is complimented by Mr. Russell’s experience in litigation involving real estate disputes, representing businesses in prosecuting or defending claims arising out of real estate transactions.

Mr. Russell is a member of the Texas State Bar, the American Bar Association, and the Dallas Bar Association.  He is a life fellow of the Dallas Bar Foundation and a fellow of the Texas Bar Foundation and American Bar Foundation.  His service to the bar also includes currently serving on the Court Rules Committee of the Texas State Bar and serving on the executive board of the Dallas Bar Association’s Texas High School Mock Trial Competition since 2002.  Mr. Russell serves his community, including his current appointment on the City of Plano Senior Citizens Advisory Board.  He is a frequent speaker at continuing legal education seminars and has lectured on law and public health issues at the University of Texas School of Public Health.

Mr. Russell is AV® Preeminent™ rated by Martindale-Hubbell and was recognized as a Texas Super Lawyer in 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2011 by Super Lawyers, a Thomson Reuters service.  Mr. Russell is also a Fellow of the Litigation Counsel of America, a trial lawyer honorary society whose membership is limited to 3,500 Fellows, representing less than one-half of one percent of American lawyers.

Selected Presentations:

Confidentiality Issues in Occupational Medicine Practice, University of Texas School of Public Health, April 18, 2012, Dallas, TX.

Civil Procedure and Trial Practice, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center School of Health Professions, September 15, 2011, Dallas, TX.

The Rise and Fall of Entrepreneurial Silica Litigation, AIHA Yuma Pacific-Southwest Section 35th Annual Meeting, January 14, 2010, San Diego, CA.

Litigation as a Public Health Tool, University of Texas School of Public Health, September 30, 2008, Dallas, TX.

Effective Cross-Examination of Plaintiff’s Radiology Expert, Defense Research Institute Conference: Silica Medicine, June 16, 2006, Dallas, TX.

The Future of Silica Litigation, Texas Lawyer on-line interview, April 18, 2006.

Asbestos/Silica Litigation – The Next Wave (Panel Discussion), Mealey’s Conference: Toxic Tort Update: Texas. March 9, 2006, Dallas, TX.

Indirect Regulation of Environmental Health, University of Texas School of Public Health, April 5, 2006, Dallas, TX.

Co-chair, HarrisMartin Conference: Litigation, Legislation, and the Future of the Silica Case.  September 15-16, 2005. Las Vegas, NV.

Docket Control Orders in Mass Tort Cases, University of Houston Law Foundation Conference: Toxic Torts and Other Mass Tort Litigation.  June 17, 2005.  Dallas, TX.

Foundry Basics, HarrisMartin Conference: Silica 101. February 4, 2005.  Houston, TX.

Sandblasting and Foundry Exposures, HarrisMartin Conference: Current and Emerging Issues in Silica Litigation. October 4, 2004. Las Vegas, NV.

Mediation – When the Tort Case Raises Coverage Questions, State Bar of Texas Insurance Law Section Annual Meeting, June 10, 2004. Dallas, TX.

Industrial Hygiene: Establishing Employer Liability.  HarrisMartin Conference: Presenting a Winning Silica Case. March 26, 2004. New Orleans, LA.

 

Published cases:

Davis v. Merck & Co., Inc., 357 F.Supp.2d 974 (E.D.Tex. 2005).

In re Silica Products Liability Litigation, 166 S.W.3d 3 (Tex. M.D.L. Panel 2004).

Youngblood v. U.S. Silica Company, 130 S.W.3d 461 (Tex.App. – Texarkana 2004, pet. denied).

Roberts v. Dayton Hudson Corp., 914 F.Supp. 1421 (N.D. Tex. 1996).

Osteen v. Glynn Dodson, Inc., 875 S.W.2d 429 (Tex.App. – Waco 1994, writ denied).

Sowell v. Dresser Indus., Inc., 866 S.W.2d 803 (Tex.App. – Beaumont 1993, writ denied).

Creel Enterprises, Inc. v. Mr. Gatti’s, Inc., Bus. Franch. Guide (CCH) ¶ 9,825 (N.D. Ala. 1990), aff’d, 933 F.2d 1022 (11th Cir. 1991).