Nine from Houston’s AZA Law Firm Earn 2016 Texas Rising Stars Honors

HOUSTON – AZA, or Ahmad, Zavitsanos & Mensing, is proud to announce that nine attorneys from the Houston-based trial law firm have been named to the 2016 Texas Rising Stars list, which recognizes the state’s leading young lawyers.

AZA partner Elizabeth Pannill Fletcher and associates Jamie Alan Aycock, Sammy Ford IV, Benjamin Foster, Tiffany Joudi, Adam Milasincic and Monica Uddin were selected to the 2016 listing in recognition of their business litigation expertise. Firm associates Alisa Lipski and Michael McBride were recognized for their work in intellectual property litigation.

Texas Rising Stars, a list published by Thomson Reuters’ legal division, is an exclusive list of the state’s top attorneys who are age 40 or younger and those who have been in practice no more than 10 years.

“We are honored to have nine of our colleagues named to this prestigious list,” says John Zavitsanos, an AZA founding partner. “These outstanding attorneys excel at representing both plaintiffs and defendants in a wide range of cases.”

This is the fifth Texas Rising Stars selection for Ms. Fletcher, whose practice centers on complex civil litigation, including antitrust, securities, employment, trademark, trade secret, commercial contract and tort disputes. She is a graduate of William & Mary Law School.

Mr. Aycock focuses on complex commercial and appellate litigation, including contract disputes, fraud and business torts. A Harvard Law graduate, this is his third time to be named to the list.

Mr. Ford, who joined AZA in March 2016, is Board Certified in Personal Injury Trial Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. His practice ranges from catastrophic personal injury cases to class actions to business torts. He is a graduate of the University of Texas School of Law School and has been named to the Texas Rising Stars list four times.

This is the second appearance on the Texas Rising Stars list for Mr. Foster, who represents clients in commercial litigation and intellectual property litigation. The University of Chicago Law School graduate has handled a number of software licensing, patent, trade secret and complex commercial matters.

Ms. Joudi is a commercial litigator who defends cases for large companies, including insurance, oil and gas, and software businesses. She earned her law degree from the South Texas College of Law. This is her third Texas Rising Stars selection.

Ms. Lipski focuses on patent infringement litigation and appeals, including successfully litigating patent issues covering software, satellite, oilfield and medical technology. A graduate of the University of Houston Law Center, she is making her fourth appearance on the Texas Rising Stars list.

This is the first time Mr. McBride has been named to the list of the state’s top young attorneys. A graduate of the University of Texas School of Law, he is an intellectual property lawyer who focuses primarily on patent litigation and patent prosecution matters.

Mr. Milasincic’s practice centers on complex commercial litigation involving multimillion-dollar contract disputes, partnership break-ups, business torts and more. He is a graduate of the University of Virginia School of Law, and this is his second time to make the list.

Ms. Uddin is a trial lawyer who represents both plaintiffs and defendants in complex commercial litigation. She graduated from the University of Chicago Law School, where she was a Levitan Scholar. This is her fourth selection to the Texas Rising Stars list.

The complete Texas Rising Stars list can be found in the April 2016 issues of Texas Monthly and Super Lawyers Magazine’s Texas Rising Stars edition, and online at http://www.superlawyers.com/.

AZA, or Ahmad, Zavitsanos & Mensing, is a Houston-based law firm that is home to true courtroom lawyers with a formidable track record in complex commercial litigation, including energy, intellectual property and business dispute cases. AZA is recognized in Chambers USA 2016 among the best in Texas commercial law; U.S. News & World Report and The Best Lawyers in America as one of the country’s best commercial litigation firms; Texas Lawyer as the 2015 Litigation Department of the Year and Law360 as a Texas Powerhouse law firm. National corporate counsel named AZA both one of the country’s best in client service and one of the most feared. Read more at https://azalaw.com/.