Alex Kaplan

Alex Kaplan is a leading commercial trial and appellate lawyer and a member of Susman Godfrey’s Executive Committee. Kaplan represents clients in a wide range of antitrust, energy, financial, technology, and M&A related disputes. He also advises clients on internal and external investigation matters.

A gifted advocate, strategist, and analyst, Kaplan represents clients in their most complex and high-value disputes in courts across the US and domestic and international arbitrations. He has an impressive record of success, recovering more than $1.5 billion in settlements or judgments for plaintiff-side clients, and defeating exposures for multiples of that figure for defense-side clients. His wins have been reported in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The American Lawyer, Houston Chronicle, Texas Lawyer, and Law360.

Clients and peers describe Kaplan as a “forceful advocate” and “extremely smart.” Chambers USA recognized Kaplan for his skill in antitrust matters, complex arbitrations, and class actions, with a client reporting that Kaplan “is a very good trial lawyer,” who provides “top-notch legal advice and good trial strategy, and he is also incredibly responsive.”

Kaplan excels at presenting complex matters in clear terms that resonate with judges, juries, and arbitrators. His writing has been featured in leading books on effective advocacy. A brief he wrote with Steve Susman in the securities litigation arising from Bank of America’s acquisition of Merrill Lynch was featured in Point Made: How to Write Like the Nations’ Top Advocates (University of Chicago Press). And a Daubert motion he wrote for an actuarial malpractice case was described as “devastating,” an example of how to “frontload critical facts so that trial judges can assess the relevant issues quickly,” in The Art of Advocacy (Noah Messing, Yale Law School Writing Instructor).

Kaplan joined Susman Godfrey in 2005 and was elected to the partnership just four years later. Over his nearly 20 years at Susman Godfrey, Kaplan has served in several roles, including as the youngest partner on the Executive Committee, National Hiring Partner, and Chair of the Docket Committee, responsible for staffing client engagements across all offices.

Before joining Susman Godfrey, Kaplan was a law clerk for Judge Jerry Smith on the Fifth Circuit. He graduated with high honors from the University of Texas School of Law, where he was elected Editor in Chief of the Texas Law Review.

In addition to his law practice, Kaplan currently serves as a member of the University of Texas School of Law Alumni Executive Committee and a director of the Texas Law Review Association and the Texas Defender Service. Kaplan has also taught as an adjunct law professor (civil procedure) has served in numerous leadership and volunteer roles for the Houston Bar Association.

Updated Oct 2025

• Won summary judgment for Vitol, in federal court in San Juan, against claims by Puerto Rico’s electric power utility seeking to nullify six fuel-supply contracts and recover $3.89 billion in payments. The court also granted summary judgment for Vitol for the full amount of its counterclaim ($41.4 million).
  
  
• After a month-long trial, secured more than $300 million — one of the largest shareholder oppression recoveries in the U.S — for minority shareholders in Promega Corp., on claims related to control, governance, liquidity, and valuation. At the conclusion of the trial, the judge stated that she was “strongly leaning to find oppression here.”  Successfully resolved the case, while the court was preparing its final judgment, with Promega acquiring our clients’ shares for a very substantial premium over the pre-suit redemption price and the valuation Promega argued at trial.
  
  
• Represented Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. (ICE) in antitrust injunction proceeding brought by the FTC in federal court in San Francisco and in an FTC administrative hearing over ICE’s $11.7 billion proposed acquisition of Black Knight. We persuaded the FTC to dismiss its injunction before the parties reached a consent order providing for only relatively minor asset divestitures, which cleared the way for the merger to close. Kaplan was responsible for leading the team’s strategy on the key antitrust legal issues and cross-examining the FTC’s economist.
  
  
• Won complete dismissal for Vitol of $10 billion antitrust case filed in federal court in Miami by a litigation trust, represented by David Boies, asserting claims on behalf of the Venezuelan national oil company. Susman Godfrey was tapped to take the lead in briefing and arguing the motion to dismiss for the multi-party joint defense group, and Kaplan led the firm’s work on this matter. Dismissal affirmed by U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.
  
  
• Won $19.4 million final award (100% of damages sought, plus interest) for Eni Petroleum in International Centre for Dispute Resolution arbitration over cost allocation among working-interest partners for deepwater Gulf of Mexico oil exploration and production activities under joint operating agreement.

• J.D. - The University of Texas School of Law    
• B.A. - The University of Colorado at Boulder

• Member, University of Texas School of Law Alumni Executive Committee    
• Director, Texas Law Review Association    
• Adjunct Law Professor (civil procedure), University of Houston    
• American Bar Association    
• Federal Bar Association    
• Houston Bar Association    
• Arbitrator, Fee Disputes Committee (Houston Bar Association)    
• Co-Chair, Houston Bar Association Speakers Bureau (2018-2019)

• Texas