Justin Patrick focuses his practice on complex commercial litigation. Justin has presented and cross-examined lynchpin witnesses and argued dispositive motions in matters with hundreds of millions of dollars at stake. That experience spans state and federal court and domestic and international arbitration. Justin has successfully litigated cases across the spectrum of commercial law, including contract, business tort, fiduciary duty, antitrust, copyright, trademark, and trade secret matters. While Justin has represented companies in a diverse array of industries, he has particular experience with disputes in the upstream and midstream oil and gas, commodities and derivatives trading, automotive, and tech sectors.
Following law school, Justin was a law clerk to Judge Jerry Smith, United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, 2015-2016; and Judge Lee Rosenthal, Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas, 2016-2017.
Confidential International Oil & Gas Arbitration
Represented the Claimant in a confidential international arbitration concerning a long-term, high-volume natural gas supply contract. At the week-long final hearing, Justin cross-examined the Respondent’s liability and damages expert. That cross-examination was specifically cited and relied on in the Final Award, in which the panel found that our client was entitled to an eight-figure damages award for the Respondent’s breach of contract. The panel further found that our client was entitled to favorable declaratory relief regarding the future administration of the contract.
Confidential Oil & Gas Arbitration
Represented a major oil and gas company and its subsidiary as Respondents in a successful take-nothing arbitration defense. Claimant alleged that our client had breached an acreage dedication agreement and sought more than $1 billion in damages. Justin successfully briefed and argued multiple motions in the course of pre-hearing litigation and took key fact and expert depositions. At the ten-day final hearing, Justin cross-examined Claimant’s damages expert and presented Respondents’ damages expert. The arbitration panel issued a unanimous take-nothing judgment in favor of our client.
Winter Storm Uri Litigation
As Permian production began to freeze in over the weekend of February 13, 2021, Justin played a central role in advising a Fortune 500 exploration-and-production company’s executives and in crafting the company’s litigation strategy. In the months following the storm, Justin played a key role in resolving—on extremely favorable terms—the vast majority of that company’s disputes with gas buyers without the need for litigation.
In addition to that successful prelitigation work, Justin has represented multiple major natural gas production and marketing firms, including Occidental Petroleum and Pioneer Natural Resources, in federal, state, and arbitral forums in disputes stemming from the February 2021 winter storm. The federal and state matters were resolved in their early stages, on very favorable terms.
Justin continues to represent other clients in confidential arbitrations arising out of the winter storm, with more than three-quarters of a billion dollars in dispute across those matters.
In re Dealer Management Systems Antitrust Litigation (Northern District of Illinois)
Represented The Reynolds and Reynolds Company in defense of antitrust claims consolidated in the Northern District of Illinois and in Reynolds’s prosecution of counterclaims under the Copyright Act, Digital Millennium Copyright Act, Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, and state law against the lead plaintiff. Justin took key fact and expert witness depositions; was the lead writer on multiple dispositive motions; and argued several summary judgment and Daubert motions in the MDL court.
Anadarko Holding Company and Big Island Trona Company v. NRP Trona, LLC and NRP (Operating), LLC (157th Judicial District, Harris County, Texas)
Represented two subsidiaries of Natural Resource Partners, LP, as defendants in successful take-nothing trial defense of a breach of contract suit in which two plaintiff Anadarko affiliates sought in excess of $75 million. Justin took and defended key fact and expert depositions and was the lead writer on NRP’s summary judgment briefing and motions to exclude expert testimony. During trial, Justin cross-examined Anadarko’s damages expert, argued a successful motion to exclude a key portion of Anadarko’s liability expert’s proposed testimony, and presented the outside transactional lawyer who negotiated the disputed contract for NRP. Justin was the lead writer on NRP’s post-trial brief and proposed findings and conclusions. The Court issued a final take-nothing judgment in favor of NRP, holding both that NRP had not breached the contract and, in the alternative, that NRP had established multiple complete affirmative defenses.
i3 Brands, Inc. and PartProtection, LLC v. CDK Global, LLC and The Reynolds and Reynolds Company (Northern District of Illinois); The Reynolds and Reynolds Company v. i3 Brands and Michael Lucas (Southern District of Texas); Automotive Capital Ventures, Inc. v. The Reynolds and Reynolds Company and Richard Rauch (55th Judicial District, Harris County, Texas)
Represented The Reynolds and Reynolds Company in a complex multi-forum litigation against a group of automotive software companies and their principal. After defaulting on a loan from Reynolds, i3 Brands and its affiliates brought claims against Reynolds in three different state and federal courts, variously alleging antitrust, intellectual property, contract, and tort theories. Justin was the lead writer on Reynolds’s dispositive motions and presented oral argument on those motions in the Southern District of Texas and Harris County suits. The i3 Brands parties’ federal claims were dismissed in favor of arbitration, and the claims in the Harris County action were dismissed on the merits under the Texas Citizens Participation Act (Texas’s anti-SLAPP statute). After those dismissal orders, the matters settled on confidential terms.
Harvard Law School, J.D., magna cum laude, 2015
Harvard Law Review, Forum and Online Content Editor
Amherst College, B.A., summa cum laude, 2012
Amherst Debate Society, President
Densmore Berry Collins Prize, 2012 (Best Thesis – Political Science)
Listed in The Best Lawyers in America: Ones to Watch, 2023-2024
Commercial Litigation
Litigation – Antitrust
Named a “Texas Rising Star” by Thomson Reuters’ Texas Super Lawyers, 2023-2024
State Bar of Texas
Houston Bar Association, Member
Houston Young Lawyers Association, Member
Houston Committee on Foreign Relations, Member