AZA Promotes Prominent Litigator Elizabeth Pannill Fletcher to Partner

HOUSTON – Successful litigator Elizabeth “Lizzie” Pannill Fletcher has been promoted to partner at AZA, or Ahmad, Zavitsanos & Mensing.

A fourth-generation Texas trial lawyer and native Houstonian, Ms. Fletcher has a lengthy track record of courtroom wins, including the July 2014 dismissal of a multimillion-dollar breach of contract and fraud lawsuit against a Houston investment banker.

She also earned a take-nothing verdict in 2014 for a Houston businesswoman who was sued over proceeds from allegedly fraudulent commercial property sales. Ms. Fletcher’s opening statement in that case was so masterful that the presiding judge, Harris County Civil District Judge Randy Wilson, offered his praise in a column he wrote for the Litigation Section of the State Bar of Texas.

“The jury was enraptured by the story,” Judge Wilson wrote in the “From My Side of the Bench” column. “At one point, my court reporter remarked that she was about to cry during the opening. Think about it – in a case involving an alleged constructive trust, the court reporter is on the verge of tears.”

The judge said that by humanizing otherwise dry legal theories, Ms. Fletcher made her case in opening. “There’s a lesson here for all trial lawyers,” Judge Wilson wrote. He said that there was no chance the jury was going to find a constructive trust attached to the money paid to Ms. Fletcher’s client.

“Lizzie has been a stellar record of success and has proven herself to be an extraordinary lawyer time and time again. We are thrilled to have her join our partnership,” said AZA founding partner John Zavitsanos.

Ms. Fletcher, who represents plaintiffs and defendants in many types of business litigation, has been included on the 2012, 2013 and 2014 Texas Rising Stars lists, which recognize the best and brightest Texas lawyers under age 40 and those in practice no more than 10 years. Before joining AZA in 2009, she was an associate at Houston’s Vinson & Elkins LLP.

“I’m truly honored to have been elected partner,” Ms. Fletcher says. “I have thoroughly enjoyed my years at AZA, working with and learning from some of the finest trial lawyers I’ve ever known. I’m looking forward to spending many years doing more of the same.”

Ms. Fletcher has represented companies and individuals in internal investigations, shareholder derivative cases, and class actions; in the negotiation and litigation of severance, non-competition, non-disclosure, non-recruitment and related employment agreements; in investigations by the Securities and Exchange Commission; before the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission; before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Trademark Trial and Appeal Board; before commercial and employment arbitration panels; and before state and federal courts of appeal.

She received her bachelor’s degree in 1997, magna cum laude, from Kenyon College, where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. In 2006, Ms. Fletcher earned her law degree from the Marshall-Wythe School of Law at The College of William & Mary, where she was Editor-in-Chief of the William and Mary Law Review.

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 2014 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 in 2014; and Law360 as one of only 13 Texas Powerhouse law firms. National corporate counsel named AZA one of the country’s best in client service among law firms serving the Fortune 1000. Read more at https://azalaw.com.