Mikal C. Watts, Founding Partner
Watts Guerra LLP
CONTACT INFORMATION
Watts Guerra LLP – Dominion/Corporate Office
4 Dominion Drive, Building 3, Suite 100
San Antonio, Texas 78257
Office:
Email:
Web:
210-447-0500 mcwatts@wattsguerra.com
www.wattsguerra.com
EMPLOYMENT HISTORY
Watts Guerra LLP (and its predecessor firms)
San Antonio, Texas
Position Details:
Dates of Employment:
Capital Partner, Owner
1997 – present
David L. Perry & Associates/Perry & Haas, LLP
Corpus Christi, Texas
Position Details:
Dates of Employment:
Associate Attorney, Partner
1990-1997
Supreme Court of Texas
The Honorable Thomas R. Phillips, Chief Justice
Austin, Texas
Position Details:
Dates of Employment:
Briefing Attorney
1989-1990
EDUCATION
Graduate
University of Texas School of Law, Austin, Texas
Dates: 1987-1989
Degree: Juris Doctorate with Honors; graduated law school in two years, at age 21

Undergraduate
The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas
Dates:
Degree:
1985-1987
Bachelor of Arts with High Honors; graduated college in two years, Phi Beta Kappa
PROFESSIONAL LICENSES
Admitted to practice law – Texas, 1989
Supreme Court of Texas – Admitted, 1989
United States Supreme Court – Admitted, 1989
United States District Court, Southern District of Texas – Admitted, 1990
United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit – Admitted, 1990
United States District Court, Eastern District of Texas – Admitted, 1997
United States District Court, Northern District of Texas – Admitted, 1999
United States District Court, Western District of Texas – Admitted, 1999
Board Certified, Personal Injury Trial Law, Texas Board of Legal Specialization –
Certified, 2000
Admitted Pro Hac Vice in Alabama, California, Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana,
Minnesota, Mississippi, Oklahoma, New Mexico, New York, Tennessee, and
Washington
SELECTED PROFESSIONAL HONORS AND PRESS
HONORS
Martindale-Hubbel AV Rated Lawyer
Texas Super Lawyers, 2003-2012 (every year of the award’s existence)
Top 10 Super Lawyers in Texas, 2009
Top 100 Super Lawyers in Texas, 2003
“Impact Player of the Year,” Texas Lawyer
Top 15 Go To Law Firms in the U.S. three our of four years
One of ten firms on The National Law Journal ’s 2013 Litigation Boutique Hot List
One of the 10 “most successful young litigators in America” – National Law
Journal , 2002
“Top 40 Under 40” – Recognized as one of the best lawyers of any age for
Plaintiffs, National Law Journal , 2002

PRESS
“Mikal Watts is a courtroom pit bull, a superstar personal-injury attorney…..
Personal-injury law is a game for alpha dogs and Watts is the biggest canine on the block. His chief weapons: a sharply analytical mind that even his adversaries admire, and a competitive streak that doesn’t just rest.” – San Antonio Express-
News , March 1, 2013
“A rising star of the Plaintiff ’s bar.” Wall Street Journal , May 3, 2004
“Watts is so smart he could debate three sides and win four of them. Confident to the point of swagger, he could, when it suited him careen from abject charm to analytical tools, vials of wrath and tearful indignation all in the same breath.” –
Tragic Indifference, One Man’s Battle with the Auto Industry over the Dangers of SUVs ,
Adam L. Penenberg (2003)
Watts is “making a mark in establishing benchmark rates for settlement in major tort litigation,” and is seen as having “almost mystic powers in a courtroom.”
Texas Lawyer , May 3, 2003
Watts “has soared to the top of the highly competitive personal injury law business.” USA Today , March 12, 2003
PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS
American Association for Justice
• Leaders Forum
Texas Trial Lawyers Association
• Foundation Member
• Statewide Fundraising Committee
• Board of Directors
American Bar Association
• Former Tort and Insurance Practice Committee
• Former Vice-Chair of Commercial Transportation Litigation
Committee
• Former Chairman of Legislative Committee
Trial Lawyers for Public Justice
• Former Member, Board of Directors
College of the State Bar of Texas
State Bar of Texas

SELECT SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS
Watts has authored and presented over 100 Continuing Legal Education articles around the world.
2013 “Litigating Oil and Gas Cases”
University of Texas School of Law’s Texas Journal of Oil, Gas and
Energy Law CLE
“Pradaxa Litigation Update”
American Association for Justice, Pradaxa Litigation Group
Meeting/AAJ Winter Convention
“Picking Your Jury by Building the Bridge from the Living Room to the Courtroom”
Choosing and Courting a Jury Course: Legends in the Courtroom,
State Bar of Texas CLE
2012 “BP Oil Spill MDL 2179 From Mass Disaster to Mass Payment”
TEX-ABOTA (Texas Chapter of the American Board of Trial
Advocates) CLE
“Pradaxa MDL Litigation Update”
Mass Torts Made Perfect
“Presenting a Plaintif’s Case to a Jury: Voir Dire to Closing”
State Bar of Texas, Soaking up Some CLE Litigation Course
2011 “New Approaches to Damages for Juries”
Texas Bar CLE Advanced Personal Injury Law Course
“Voir Dire to Close: Talking to a Jury”
State Bar of Texas, Soaking up Some CLE Litigation Course
“Tort Reform”
San Antonio Trial Lawyers Association Luncheon
REPRESENTATIVE MATTERS

2012
2010
2008
2002
2001
2001
In Re: Pradaxa (Dabigatran Etexilate) Products Liability Litigations ,
MDL No. 2385
Role: Co-Lead Counsel, Plaintiffs’ Executive Committee,
Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee
MDL 2179, Oil Spill by the Oil Rig "Deepwater Horizon" (New
Orleans, Louisiana)
Role: Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee trial team, Settlement
Coordinator
In Re: Levaquin Product Liability Litigation MDL 1943 ; John Schedin v.
Ortho-McNeil-Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
, Civil No. 08-5743 (JRT),
In the United States District Court, District of Minnesota
Role: Hired by the Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee to try the first Levaquin bellwether case in the country and obtain the first and only Plaintiff’s verdict
Mario A. Galvan Castro v. Ford Motor Company, et al , Cause No.
2002-04-001555-C, In the 197th Judicial District Court, Cameron
County, Texas
Summary: The first verdict in the country involving defects in the roof of Ford’s 2000-vintage F-series pick-up truck.
Bailey v. Ford Motor Company and Bridgestone/Firestone
Summary: Settlement on the eve of what was the first national post-recall trial in the tread separation/vehicle stability cases.
Role: The coordination of hundreds of cases against
Firestone and Ford for injuries caused by Firestone
Wilderness AT tire failures, which led Ford Explorers to rollover, including a record settlement amount and public apologies from both Ford and Firestone in
Donna Bailey v. Ford & Firestone
Helen Rupp and Bernard Rupp v. Sulzer Orthopedics, Inc.
, Cause No.
01-60581-00-0-4, In the County Court at Law Number 4, Nueces
County, Texas
Summary: The first plaintiffs’ verdict in the country involving faulty hip implants manufactured by Sulzer
Orthopedics.

2001
Role: Led trial team, achieved first plaintiff’s verdict in the country.
Sanchez, Margarita "Margie," Sanchez, et al v. Parke-Davis, et al , Case
No. 00-06523-00-0-F, In the 214th District Court, Nueces County,
Texas
Summary: The first plaintiff’s verdict in the country involving the drug Rezulin.
PERSONAL INFORMATION & INTERESTS
Born: Corpus Christi, Texas, 1967
Family:
Interests:
Tammy Watts, wife of over 20 years
Taylor Watts, daughter
Hailey Watts, daughter
Brandon Watts, son
Spending time with my wife and our three children
Texas Longhorn football games
San Antonio Spurs basketball games