Mr. Veselka's Recent Cases

• Represented former head of exploration and production for a Fortune 500 energy corporation in a four-year criminal/civil/regulatory investigation and litigation arising from corporation's write-down of reserves. Criminal investigation resulted in no indictments; civil class action shareholder and derivative cases settled with no contribution by our client; SEC case settled with SEC agreement to allege claims against client only with regard to negligent conduct and to accept a relatively small fine.
  
  
• Obtained dismissal by state district court of all shareholder litigation, both class action claims and derivative claims, on behalf of Special Committee of the Board of EGL, Inc., a public company that was the subject of bidding process managed by the Special Committee that resulted in a $2 billion offer to take the company private paying the shareholders $47.50 per share when first bid was $36 per share.
  
  
• Obtained dismissals of both a multimillion dollar securities class action and a separate derivative action in two different federal district courts for the same publicly traded healthcare company; the opponent ultimately dismissed their appeal of the class action dismissal; the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit affirmed the dismissal of the derivative action.
  
  
• Represented former Enron officer in government investigation who was listed as witness by both government and the defense in the Skilling/Lay criminal trial. Successfully convinced both not to call the former officer at trial.
  
  
• Obtained successful resolution by deferred prosecution agreement in Department of Justice investigation of alleged Lanham Act violations in U.S. District Court in Portland, Oregon.
  
  
• Obtained successful summary judgment for NL Industries, dismissing case seeking tens of millions of dollars in remediation of lead paint in school district buildings. Summary judgment was affirmed by the Court of Appeals. The basis of summary judgment - lack of proof of causation - led to voluntary dismissals of four other cases around Texas in addition to two other cases in Harris County.
  
  
• Participated in winning a significant victory for the Port of Houston at the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, reversing a trial court judgment that would have cost the Port more than $100 million.
  
  
• Successfully defended now State Representative Hubert Vo in a contest brought before the Texas Legislature bylosingtwenty-two year incumbent; contest was conducted over athree month period, culminating in a two day hearing before a Special Master on behalf of the Texas Legislature.
  

• Handled an independent investigation leading to a response to derivative demands made on the board of one of the City's largest utilities that resolved the matter without litigation.
  
  
• Hired after an adverse verdict, in which the plaintiff sought a $180 million judgment against his client, convinced the trial court to disregard all unfavorable findings by the jury and won on appeal.
  
  
• Obtained a multimillion dollar jury verdict in an oil and gas case in Hardin County against a large operator for failing to reasonably develop a unit, which was then settled.
  
  
• Handled class actions against two of the world's largest rental car companies as part of cases that led to a change in Texas law, and more than $10 million dollars in refunds to Texas consumers.

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