Lawyer Limelight: Larry Wilson

Larry Wilson is a compassionate and rigorous personal injury attorney who has tried dozens of cases to verdict. He regularly secures life-changing recoveries for clients, and shores up protections for consumers against manufacturing defects and unsafe practices in the workplace and on the road.

Wilson’s practice includes product liability, general negligence, worksite injuries, chemical plant explosions and FELA claims, as well as automotive and 18-wheeler truck wrecks.

Born and raised in Texas, Wilson earned his law degree from The University of Texas School of Law and attends the Champions Church of Christ in Houston where he teaches a Bible study class. He is a Lawdragon 500 Leading Plaintiff Consumer Lawyer based in the Houston office of the Lanier Law Firm.

Lawdragon: Out of all the work you’ve done in your career, what would you say is the most interesting matter you’ve handled?

Larry Wilson: An incident where a three-year old was left in a school bus and died. They discovered the bus had a child reminder alarm to prevent issues like this but it could be deactivated, arguably more easily from the outside than the inside. If you deactivated it from the outside, you could turn it off from the back instead of walking through the inside of the bus. The bus driver opted to turn the alarm off from outside the bus. There were other child alarms systems on the market that could not be deactivated from the outside.

We ended up suing the alarm manufacturer, and the bus manufacturer for incorporating the alarm into their design. We sued the dealership because they sent out someone to train on the system and the person who trained on the system never informed the facility it could be deactivated improperly from the outside. You would have thought the obvious guilty party was the bus driver and teacher employed by the day care and you would think they are the only culpable parties. But there are other things that come into play. To my knowledge that brand of child alarm is no longer on the market.

LD: Are there any trends you are seeing in your practice in terms of the types of matters keeping you busy these days?

LW: There are more chemical plant explosions than there were earlier in my career. I think it’s the aging of the plants that’s becoming a problem.

LD: Was there an early experience or mentor who really helped shape the course of your professional life?

LW: My national moot court coach at The University of Texas. He was very encouraging and he also called Fulbright & Jaworski and gave a recommendation before I was hired there.

LD: Can you share a lawyer you have come up against in a negotiation or case that you admire, and why?

LW: Scott Tucker out of Boston. He was everything you good you want in a lawyer; ethical, smart, did a great job defending his client. He recognized that being an attorney fundamentally involved being a good person.

LD: There are many high-quality firms out there. What do you try to “sell” about your firm to potential recruits – how is it unique?

LW: It starts with Mark Lanier. Our firm values treating others with dignity, respect and kindness. That has inured to our benefit. Also, we have many attorneys who are at the peak of their careers. And, we have the greatest trial lawyer in the entire nation in Mark Lanier. We also have an appellate group of attorneys who are unparalleled.

LD: What do you do for fun when you’re outside the office?

LW: Age of Empires 4. It is a great computer game. You conquer other people.

LD: Do you have a favorite book or movie about the justice system?

LW: “To Kill a Mockingbird.”

LD: If you weren’t a lawyer, what would you be doing now?

LW: I’d be an astronaut. I always wanted to be one growing up but at the time you needed perfect vision and I didn’t have perfect vision.