Stewart Hoffer
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Overview
Stewart is a commercial litigator and employment attorney. He has appeared as counsel for numerous publicly traded and privately held companies in courts all over the country including Texas, Florida, New Mexico, Nevada, Maine, Michigan, Nebraska and New York. Some of Stewart’s recent accomplishments include:
- Obtaining a unanimous jury verdict for more than $5 million (including $3.2 million in punitive damages) against DHL Express (USA), Inc. in a business fraud dispute tried over 10 days in June 2010 in state district court in Houston, Texas.
- Second-chairing a nine day jury trial in Harris County in which the client, a subsidiary of a publicly traded exploration and production company, obtained a jury verdict of $1.4 million as a victim of fraud in a drilling rig purchase.
- Securing a preliminary injunction against a client's former employee who had posted the client's trade secrets on various Internet blog sites and convincing the Internet sites to voluntarily remove the offensive postings and then obtaining a $6.5 million judgment in January 2009 against the former employee.
- Obtaining complete summary judgment in favor of a prominent attorney in Harris County in a case in which a former paralegal in the attorney’s firm accused the attorney of various employment torts. For additional case information, see the April 6, 2009 Texas Lawyer article.
- Securing a directed verdict in our clients’ favor following a two day evidentiary hearing in December 2008 in which the plaintiff had alleged a corporate raiding of employees and theft of trade secrets and sought a temporary injunction to severely curtail or eliminate the clients’ rights to perform services for their existing and potential clients.
- Convincing a Harris County District Court Judge in August 2008 to deny a temporary injunction in a trade secrets case that, if entered, would have effectively shut down the client's nationwide construction operation pending trial, causing the client to lose millions of dollars in revenue.
- Serving as lead trial counsel in New Mexico and securing a complete defense verdict for a successful mass tort lawyer accused of legal malpractice.
Prior to joining Munsch Hardt, Stewart worked at a law firm that he founded, at a national labor and employment firm and at a business litigation boutique. Stewart was also a law clerk for the Honorable Hayden W. Head, Jr., who is currently a Senior District Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas and its former Chief Judge.
Memberships & Affiliations
- Houston Bar Association, Litigation Section
- State Bar of Texas, Labor and Employment Law and Litigation Sections
Awards & Honors
- AV® Peer Rating, Martindale-Hubbell
- Business Litigation Super Lawyers — Corporate Counsel Edition, Thomson Reuters, 2009-2010
- Lawyers for the People, H Texas, 2009
- Super Lawyers, Thomson Reuters, 2003-2007, 2009
- Top Lawyers, H Texas, 2003-2004, 2009
Admissions
- Texas
- United States Courts of Appeals for the Fifth and Ninth Circuits
- United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan
- United States District Courts for the Eastern, Northern, Southern and Western Districts of Texas
