In his more than four decades of practice, Susman Godfrey partner Mark Wawro has accumulated an impressive string of trial victories. His damage awards for plaintiffs total more than $1 billion, with millions more collected for clients in settlements. He has also produced impressive results for defendants, regularly protecting them against exposures in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
Wawro served as lead counsel representing TMST, Inc., formerly Thornburg Mortgage, in its adversary proceeding against five of its repo lenders, JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Royal Bank of Scotland, and UBS. After years of litigation, Wawro and his team struck deals that value a total of $61,500,000 for TMST as well as an agreement by the repo lenders to withdraw all of their proofs of claim, which totaled over $2.5 billion.
Wawro also obtained an $11 million judgment after trial in an appraisal action in Delaware Chancery Court brought on behalf of IQ Holdings, a minority shareholder of American Commercial Lines Inc. (ACLI). ACLI later appealed the decision to the Delaware Supreme Court, where the judgment was affirmed after argument before an en banc Supreme Court.
In a major oil and gas case, Wawro scored a win for Tennessee Gas Pipeline Company in a fraud and breach of contract case against KCS Resources, Inc. Following a five-day trial, the jury ultimately found KCS Resources committed fraud and awarded Wawro’s client $28.5 million in actual damages, $114.1 million in punitive damages and $473,000 in attorneys’ fees
These wins are nothing new for Wawro. In fact, his trial achievements have been widely recognized in the legal community. The American Lawyer previously called two of his victories “impressive” and “well-litigated.” Texas Lawyer called his $536.2 million jury verdict for TransAmerican Natural Gas Corp. against El Paso Natural Gas Co. in a contract dispute related to gas production “groundbreaking.”
Wawro’s cases have been profiled in the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, the Houston Chronicle, National Law Journal, and USA Today.
Wawro was inducted into the Litigation Counsel of America (LCA) at its 2013 Spring Conference & Induction of Fellows. LCA is a trial lawyer honorary society composed of less than one-half of one percent of American lawyers. Fellowship in the LCA is highly selective and by invitation only. LCA fellows are selected based upon excellence and accomplishment in litigation, both at the trial and appellate levels, and superior ethical reputation.
Updated Oct 2024
