Mr W Mark Lanier > The Lanier Law Firm > Houston, United States > Lawyer Profile

Mr W Mark Lanier

713-659-5200

Work Department

Mass tort plaintiff, personal injury, commercial litigation.

Position

W Mark Lanier founded The Lanier Law Firm in 1990. Since then, Mr. Lanier has earned widespread recognition from the legal profession and the media as one of the nation’s top trial lawyers. Mr. Lanier frequently instructs other attorneys on trial techniques and has served as a featured lecturer at many of the nation’s top law schools including Harvard, Stanford, Pepperdine and the University of Chicago. Mr. Lanier’s courtroom work has resulted in feature articles in ‘The Wall Street Journal’, ‘The New York Times’, ‘The American Lawyer’, ‘The National Law Journal’, ‘Los Angeles Times’, ‘The Boston Globe’, ‘Bloomberg News’, ‘New York Lawyer’, ‘Texas Lawyer’, and ‘The Houston Chronicle’, among others. He also is a frequent guest and contributor on network news broadcasts including CNBC, Fox News and Fox Business News. ‘U.S. News and World Report’ has named Mark Lanier in its Best Lawyers in America list for nine consecutive years and most recently as the 2013 Top Class Action Attorney in America. ‘The National Law Journal’ has twice named him one of the nation’s Top 10 Trial Attorneys, and in 2010 named Mr Lanier as one of the most Influential Attorneys of the Decade. In 2017, Mark was inducted into the Trial Lawyer Hall of Fame, by National Trial Lawyers, which recognizes outstanding attorneys who leave an indelible mark on the American legal tradition through a lifetime of service to the public, the Constitution, and the trial bar. Although attorneys previously had to be 60 or older, that requirement was waived for the 56-year-old Mr. Lanier. In addition to national recognition, in 2010 ‘Texas Lawyer’ newspaper named him as one of the Top 25 Attorneys of the Past Quarter Century, and the publication named him as one of the Top 5 ‘Go To’ Personal Injury Plaintiff Attorneys in Texas in 2002, 2007 and 2012. He also has been recognized multiple times on the ‘Texas Super Lawyers’ list as one of the state’s Top 10 Attorneys.

Career

Mark Lanier has significant courtroom experience and has negotiated numerous significant settlements for his clients across the United States, including: successfully representing numerous individuals in cases involving the prescription pain-relief medication VIOXX, including the first case tried to verdict, resulting in a $253M judgment; a settlement for Retractable Technologies in an antitrust case against the world’s largest manufacturer of medical syringes and needles; a $188.3M verdict on behalf of 21 asbestos victims, considered one of the largest asbestos verdicts in US history; and a settlement with a US distributor of dangerous products imported from China. He also serves as lead counsel and on executive committees/plaintiffs steering committees for numerous multidistrict litigation matters.In addition, he has obtained favorable verdicts in cases involving train collisions, physician malpractice, defective products, commercial disputes, toxic products and water contamination.

Education

Texas Tech University School of Law (1984, JD); named distinguished alumnus for 2005.

Leisure

Mark Lanier is involved in numerous community activities outside the practice of law. He founded the Christian Trial Lawyers Association, a non-profit network of principled attorneys who minister to others through civic-minded endeavors. He teaches a weekly Sunday school class and is the founder of the Lanier Theological Library, one of the nation’s largest private theological collections.