Smyser Kaplan & Veselka, LLP (“SKV”) is a diverse and growing litigation boutique based in Houston, Texas with nationally-recognized civil litigation and white-collar criminal defense practices.
With its Houston roots, SKV has tried and won numerous energy cases over the years. But our practice is broader than that. We handle civil matters of all sorts, including intellectual property, healthcare, securities, and general commercial cases. We also have a flourishing white-collar practice, with a third of our attorneys specializing in the area. Our work spans all stages of a case and types of forums. We negotiate favorable resolutions to disputes before they go to court. We go to trial. We arbitrate. We mediate. We handle appeals. And we do so in jurisdictions across the country.
While building our firm, we’ve stayed true to a single principle: People drive success. That’s why we’ve put together a first-class team. The vast majority of our lawyers began their careers as law clerks, and since then, they’ve seen just about everything. So it’s a rare day when we confront a legal issue for the first time.
Experience, though, is just one piston in the engine that powers our firm. Another is our junior attorneys’ vigor. We hire promising young lawyers out of clerkships or early in their careers, and we treat them as future partners. That means they take depositions, draft dispositive motions and appellate merits briefs, and present oral arguments. The results speak for themselves: our associates provide terrific outcomes for our clients.
As SKV has grown, we’ve developed into one of the nation’s premiere litigation boutiques, and our commitment to excellence has not gone unnoticed. In recent years, SKV has:
- repeatedly been named best litigation firm in the state by Texas Lawyer.
- repeatedly been named one of 10 best litigation boutiques in nation by Benchmark Litigation.
- repeatedly been named a “Top 150 Under 150” firm by Vault.
- been ranked by Chambers and Partners in both the White-Collar and General Commercial Litigation categories.
- been ranked by Best Lawyers as Metropolitan Tier 1 for Houston in the areas of Commercial Litigation, Criminal Defense: General Practice, and Criminal Defense: White-Collar, among others.
- had Lawdragon name 11 SKV partners to its most recent list of 500 Leading Litigators in America and Lawdragon 500X – The Next Generation.
Racking up awards has never been our goal, but we appreciate the high praise. What matters most is delivering exceptional results for our clients while maintaining the family-like culture that brought us together in the first place. And as these decorations suggest, over the past 25 years and counting, we’ve done just that.
Updated Sep 2023
