Bio

James Lowery is a Partner in the Dallas office of Gordon & Rees and a member of the Environmental/Toxic Tort, Commercial Litigation, Trucking & Transportation and Professional Liability Defense practice groups. Mr. Lowery has achieved favorable verdicts in several high-risk cases on behalf of numerous clients in asbestos litigation. He has first chaired more than 40 major asbestos trials in multiple jurisdictions, including Texas, New York, Pennsylvania, Florida, Massachusetts, Delaware, Ohio, Maryland, Louisiana, Virginia, Illinois and California. Mr. Lowery obtained defense verdicts in asbestos trials in some of the most notorious pro-plaintiff jurisdictions, such as Madison County, Illinois, Beaumont and Orange, Texas, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Oakland, California. Mr. Lowery has represented a wide variety of asbestos clients, including insulation manufacturers, “low-dose” product manufacturers, distributors, contractors, employers and premises owners. He also has extensive experience in preparing, defending and cross-examining experts at trial in asbestos matters, including leading challenges to expert testimony under Daubert, Frye and Havner. Mr. Lowery has taken a lead role in developing expert witnesses and defense strategies for several clients and has deposed hundreds of experts in the asbestos litigation. Mr. Lowery also serves as National Coordinating Counsel for defendants in toxic tort matters. In addition to his extensive experience in toxic tort litigation, Mr. Lowery also defended numerous clients in commercial cases. He has defended and tried multiple personal injury claims arising out of trucking accidents. Mr. Lowery also has extensive experience in defending catastrophic injury claims from workplace injuries, including caustic burns and oil field accidents. Mr. Lowery has tried nearly 50 cases during his career and has defended variety of entities and individuals in the professional liability context. He has also consulted with and advised companies, medical and legal professionals and architects and engineers on litigation strategy and regulatory compliance issues. Mr. Lowery has frequently represented one of the country’s largest architect and engineering firms in a myriad of professional liability and property damage matters. Mr. Lowery has also defended clients in numerous environmental claims, involving toxic spills, hazardous waste deposition and property damages issues. He has also defended transportation companies charged with criminal, civil and regulatory violations associated with hauling and disposing of hazardous materials. Mr. Lowery has helped multiple clients develop comprehensive environmental handling, warning, labeling and transportation programs to help minimize long term environmental risks. Mr. Lowery previously served more than four years as lead in-house counsel for a Fortune 500 corporation, supervising its national toxic tort litigation, which included an asbestos docket of more than 45,000 cases. He also had considerable experience defending PCB, beryllium, lead, silica, benzene and other toxic exposure claims. He took a lead role in developing the corporation’s defense strategies, developing experts, controlling defense and indemnity costs and supervising outside counsel in more than 40 jurisdictions. Mr. Lowery also co-partnered with several outside counsel in defending the corporation in numerous asbestos trials. In addition to his trial experience, Mr. Lowery is also a frequent speaker at national toxic tort and litigation conferences. He has also written several articles pertaining to asbestos and other toxic tort litigation, and is a frequent contributing author on the topic of challenging plaintiff’s experts in all jurisdictions.