Don Griffin

Practice Areas

For more than 25 years, trial lawyer Don Griffin has represented his clients in multimillion-dollar lawsuits in Texas state and federal courts. He is a trial lawyer with extensive courtroom experience and numerous jury trial verdicts. His practice focuses primarily on assisting property owners and developers subject to condemnation by government authorities.

Don has appeared before the Texas Supreme Court multiple times on behalf of his clients, most recently in February 2018 (W.A. “Andy” Meyers v. JDC/Firethorne, 548 S.W.3d 477 (Tex.2018)). Among his most high-profile verdicts was a February 2018 judgment against the State of Texas that resulted in an amount 1,837% above the State’s $1,300,000 compensation number after a three-week jury trial in Harris County — the largest reported jury verdict ever on behalf of a property owner in a Texas condemnation case. On May 28, 2020, the Houston First Court of Appeals issued a unanimous opinion affirming in all aspects the $28.8 million jury verdict obtained for his client CC Telge Road, L.P. See State v. CC Telge Road, L.P., No. 01-18-00416-CV, 2020 WL 2782370 (Tex. App.—Houston [1st Dist.] May 28, 2020, n.p.h.).

Smaller verdicts, however, can be just as meaningful. In June 2018, Don led a group of V&E lawyers who won $913,563 (net recovery to client) for a family-owned collision repair facility in Little Elm, Texas when the Texas Supreme Court confirmed the jury verdict and trial court judgment obtained in a May 2015 Denton County jury trial. Prior to trial, the State had offered $49,104 in compensation. The victory was the result of a six-year-long legal battle with the State of Texas and the Texas Supreme Court opinion (Morale v. State of Texas, 557 S.W.3d 569 (Tex.2018)) is now cited at eminent domain conferences as one of the most important decisions affecting Texas condemnation cases.

Personal

Baylor Law School, J.D., 1990 (Baylor Law Review; Order of Barristers; various law school organizations)

University of Texas, B.B.A., Finance, 1986