Menu

About the DBA

Membership Info

Calendar / CLE

Members Only

Attorney Resources

Public Resources

Judiciary Info

Fee Dispute Rules

Grievance Procedures

Sections

Presidents' Pages

2010
Ike Vanden Eykel

2009
Christina Melton Crain

2008
Frank E. Stevenson II

2007
Beverly B. Godbey

2006
Mark K. Sales

2005
Timothy W. Mountz

2004
Rhonda Hunter

Dallas Bar Association
2101 Ross Avenue
Dallas, Texas 75201

View Map

214-220-7400
214-220-7465 (fax)

Browse the DBA News Archive...

Frank Branson Named Trial Lawyer of the Year
Recognized at Bench Bar

Rob Crain June 29, 2010

It is a special honor to report that my friend, mentor and former employer, Frank Branson, is this year’s recipient of the Outstanding Trial Lawyer of the Year Award. The Dallas Bar Association will present the award at the Bench Bar Conference at the Horseshoe Bay Marriott on October 14.

A fixture in Dallas legal circles since he earned his Law Degree from Southern Methodist University in 1969, Frank grew up on the west side of Fort Worth where he learned the value of hard work in the close-knit community of White Settlement. Most of the men in the neighborhood worked at the General Dynamics defense plant building B-58 bombers and fighter aircraft. “There wasn’t much given to you,” says his boyhood friend George Clark. “It’s not like today where kids all have cars and computers and iPods. We just had the sandlot, or we’d sneak onto the golf course.” Frank attended Brewer High School, where his father was the football coach and later the school principal. The elder Frank Branson was “a nice guy, but a strict disciplinarian,” remembered Clark.

As you might have guessed, academics and athletics were a big part of the Branson house. Frank excelled in football as a running back, and ran the 880 in track. He was also a diver, winning the city diving championship, and a boxer, competing in the Golden Gloves his junior and senior years of high school.

There was little question as to what career path he would choose. Frank’s mother was a teacher and a tennis coach. Her guidance, as well as Frank’s aptitude for history and government, led him to the law. He didn’t waste any time learning the art of public speaking either. “I took all the speech classes that were available in high school and college,” Frank recalled.

He went to SMU Law School on a “3 and 3” program after his junior year at TCU. Although he knew he wanted to be a lawyer, Frank initially thought he wanted to be a real estate lawyer. Tortfeasors and insurance companies can thank Steak & Ale for one of the nation’s premiere Plaintiffs’ lawyers. While in law school, Frank worked as a waiter at Steak & Ale, a job he enjoyed. An unpleasant encounter with a new manager sent Frank to the job postings on the Career Services bulletin board where he found a new job as an insurance adjuster. Yes, the man who has made life miserable for insurance adjusters for over 40 years found his inspiration as an insurance adjuster.

The new job was eye-opening. “I saw that people who were hit in car crashes were injured twice,” Frank said. “They were injured once by the tortfeasor that hit them and then again by the insurance company, which would starve them out and pay them as little as they could.”

Frank saw how people were treated differently based on the quality of lawyer the person hired. “Insurance companies would pay one amount in cases with a lawyer known to settle, and then a higher amount to those lawyers who had a history of trying cases and winning,” he said. “Back then, few lawyers specialized in personal injury; lawyers like Russell Baker, John Wilson, Joe Hill Jones and the lawyers in their firms were paid top value because they would not only get the case ready, but they would try the case if top value was not on the table.”

Frank took these lessons to heart when he graduated. After a year with a general practice firm where he tried a murder case and won the largest civil verdicts in successive weeks in Fort Worth and Dallas, he joined Burt Bader and John Wilson in a firm that would later be named Bader, Wilson, Menaker, Cox & Branson. With a heavy emphasis on personal injury and workers compensation cases, Frank tried case after case. Mr. Bader was the first President of the Dallas Trial Lawyers Association, a post Frank later held.

In 1978, Frank formed the Law Offices of Frank L. Branson, P.C., where he established a reputation as an innovative, thorough and fearless lawyer. “What distinguishes Frank is that he was one of the earliest in the profession who approached lawsuits from an entirely scientific point of view,” says Ronnie Krist, partner at the Krist Law Firm in Houston. “His use of very sophisticated human anatomical models, displays of physical evidence and 3-D demonstrations of defective products and their effects on human beings go far beyond what mere words can describe.” Frank is generous with his expertise. He donates a great deal of time to CLE programs, teaching lawyers his secrets to trying cases.

Adversaries know when they draw Frank on the other side that they are in for a fight, but a fair one. He plays hardball, but also “by the rules,” said Jeff Ray, a partner at Ray, Valdez, McChristain & Jeans in El Paso, who has frequently defended lawsuits brought by Branson. “At times,” Ray recalled, “I’ve found he knows things about my client that surprised me. Frank will look under every rock and he’s sure to find every violation [of the law] that your client ever had.”

Despite a career full of multimillion dollar verdicts and professional awards (Forbes once named him among the “50 most successful trial lawyers in the U.S.), there is no letting up. He is currently working on the high-profile case involving the collapse of the Dallas Cowboys practice facility, where one individual was paralyzed and another suffered a broken neck.

“Frank is simply one of the very best there has been in the business,” said Ike Vanden Eykel, President of the Dallas Bar Association. “I am very proud to have him in my profession.”

Frank has been listed in Best Lawyers of America since 1987 and in Super Lawyers (the Top 100) since its inception in 2003. For the past three years, he has been listed in the Top 10 Lawyers in Texas by Super Lawyers. He is past-president of the Dallas Chapter of the American Board of Trial Advocates, the Southern Trial Lawyers Association and the Executive Committee of Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law, where he also received an LL.M. in 1974. In 2001, he received the Southern Trial Lawyers Association’s Warhorse Award for his extraordinary contribution to the trial bar of the nation. He was also the 2010 recipient of the SMU Distinguished Alumni Award for Private Practice.

“Against odds that sometimes seem insurmountable,” said Frank, “I try to right wrongs, level the playing field and convince jurors to make my clients whole again.”

Congratulations, Mr. B!

Rob Crain is a personal injury lawyer with Crain Lewis, L.L.P. and a Director of the Dallas Bar Association. He worked as a lawyer for Frank Branson for six years. He can be reached at rcrain@crainlewis.com.

Interns Navigate the Legal Profession

June 29, 2010

Twenty-nine firms and 31 students from the Dallas Independent School District are participating in the DBA’s 2010 Summer Law Intern Program. Since 1994, the DBA has interviewed thousands of high school students and placed nearly 500 exceptional teenagers in law firms, non-profits and corporate legal departments for eight weeks during the summer. The students are paid a reasonable wage, while receiving a glimpse into the legal profession.

The program is funded by the Dallas Bar Foundation and would not be possible without the generosity of the firms and legal departments who open their doors each year to new interns.

Thanks to the Thompson & Knight Foundation, an intern was placed this summer at the Dallas Volunteer Attorney Program.

And, thanks to the sister bar associations—Dallas Asian American Bar Association, Dallas Hispanic Bar Association and Dallas Association of Young Lawyers—and a generous donation from Munsch Hardt Kopf & Harr, P.C., two interns were placed this summer with Catholic Charities Foundation and Central Dallas Ministries.

Co-chairs of the 2010 Summer Law Intern Program are Ryan McFarlin and Erin Woodward Peirce. To get involved in next year’s Summer Law Intern Program, contact Amy Smith at asmith@dallasbar.org.

Frank Branson Named Trial Lawyer of the Year Recognized at Bench Bar

Interns Navigate the Legal Profession

Frank Branson Named Trial Lawyer of the Year
Recognized at Bench Bar