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Michelle Benavides

Michelle Benavides’ litigation practice focuses on representation of clients in complex business and commercial litigation. She has worked in a wide range of litigation matters involving commercial and business disputes, collection matters, personal injury death cases and toxic tort cases.

Over her career, Ms. Benavides has used her experience not only to help clients attain favorable judgment but also to help clients collect the judgment owed through post-judgment collection techniques and extraordinary remedies such as garnishment, turnover orders and judgment liens.

In addition, Ms. Benavides’ native Spanish proficiency enables her to represent clients whose business reaches into the international arena. Her fluency allows her to personally conduct internal investigations and interviews with clients’ Spanish-speaking employees without the need for a translator, thereby solidifying the attorney-client and investigative privileges essential in litigation cases.

Ms. Benavides’ recent experience includes:

• created a presentation for a FORTUNE 500 company on principals of U.S. contract law to be used as a guide for the formation of new contracts and the evaluation of existing contracts;
• represented a contractor who had not been paid for services and materials provided in connection with installation of new industrial dust-collection system at a local industrial facility. As second chair, Ms. Benavides successfully obtained a bench verdict, under a theory of quantum meruit, that the contractor was entitled to be paid for goods and materials provided;
• assisted in determining the appropriate avenues of review and appeal to overturn an unfavorable classification or denial of export license under the Export Administration Act;
• conducted various internal investigations and interviews with Spanish-speaking employees of a major oil and gas company, in conjunction with representation of lawsuits involving personal injury/death cases;
• assisted in review and translation of Spanish language medical records for a class-action lawsuit stemming from an industrial incident at a major pharmaceutical company;
• helped negotiate an agreed permanent injunction against a rural landowner whose actions threatened to disrupt the business of a major telecommunications carrier and its subscribers;
• secured a turnover order directed at the Texas Department of Aging and Disability against a pre-bankruptcy nursing home facility in favor of a orthopedic services company for goods and services provided;
• conducted a survey of contract and tort laws governing in six U.S. states to allow a major oil and gas company to determine whether it’s “standard contract” conformed with state law;
• translated multiple purchase and sale contracts from English to Spanish for certification and filing of an action in the Dominion Republic to collect on a judgment obtained in the United States; and
• helped obtain a summary judgment verdict for a large drilling company in a wrongful death case.

Ms. Benavides has used her trial and pre-trial litigation experience as an Assistant Coach for the University of Houston’s Mock Trial Team since 2005. She has trained and traveled with students to various competitions including the American Bar Association’s Arbitration Competition and St. John’s Law School’s Civil Rights Competition.

Ms. Benavides volunteers with the Houston Bar Association’s Legal Lines Program. She also volunteers to help undocumented juveniles who have been abused, abandoned or neglected obtain Special Immigrant Status under U. S. Immigration laws.