Daniel Charest gets results for his clients in high-stakes litigation. His career reflects a history of big wins in court and high-profile settlements. He achieves those results through a combination of smarts and daily hard work.
Daniel co-founded Burns Charest to create a dynamic and dedicated team of attorneys and paralegals who are motivated to get real results for clients. He understands that a client’s trust flows from the lawyer’s accountability to that client. And the Burns Charest team reflects Daniel’s vision.
From international arbitrations in London to courthouses, large and small, across the country, Daniel knows each victory—whatever the size—matters to his client. And those wins have yielded industry-wide recognition: Daniel was selected as “2020 Lawyer of the Year” by the Texas Lawyer and named a 2020 “Winning Litigator” by the National Law Journal.
Daniel led a trial team to achieve a $41 million jury verdict win for an oil-and-gas client against Black Hills Resources and its affiliates on claims of interference and breach of contract with an oil-and-gas concession. The jury found for Daniel’s client on every count and rejected each offered defense.
Just a month later, Daniel directed a different trial team in a multi-week trial to establish just compensation for a group of homeowner clients. The takings case related to flooding and property damage caused by the Army Corps of Engineers’ management of Houston-area reservoirs during Hurricane Harvey. The compensation trial followed a prior, multi-week trial which resulted in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims holding that the United States was liable for a taking. With over 10,000 properties impacted, the Harvey upstream case has been called the largest takings case in U.S. history.
Daniel served as trial counsel during a successful international arbitration regarding drilling rights to deep-water offshore drilling blocks off the coast of Africa. The overall campaign also involved a series of injunctive actions in Texas state court, followed by arbitration orders enjoining his adversaries. Ultimately, the London arbitration resulted in a complete win for Daniel’s client.
Daniel drove the negotiations for a $52 million class action settlement with Facebook on behalf of a class of content moderators who were forced to watch and address disturbing content as part of their work. Besides monetary relief, the settlement provides for workplace safeguards and changes in policy to improve the safety of content moderators.
Beyond those examples, Daniel has chaired many successful teams in trials and arbitrations on behalf of commercial clients—both to adjudicated results and favorable settlements.
Daniel earned his law degree from Tulane University, where he graduated summa cum laude and served on the Tulane Law Review. He is admitted to practice in Texas, Virginia (inactive), the District of Columbia, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and federal and circuit courts across the country.
Updated Sep 2022
