AZA Wins Trifecta of Major Litigation Awards

Firm Earns Texas Powerhouse, Most Feared and Litigation Department of the Year Distinctions

HOUSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Texas law firm of AZA (Ahmad, Zavitsanos & Mensing) in September, has earned honors as a Texas Powerhouse by Law360, a Most Feared Law Firm by BTI Consulting and the Texas Litigation Department of the Year in General Litigation by Texas Lawyer.

“These honors give us a terrific September trifecta,” said John Zavitsanos, co-founder and managing partner of the firm. “AZA has received all these accolades in various years before, but it’s especially powerful coming together like this within a couple of weeks.”

On Sept. 20, the national legal publication Law360 named AZA one of only five Texas Powerhouse law firms that it says drive legal trends in Texas. It was the firm’s second Texas Powerhouse award. The firm is profiled by Law360 here: Texas Powerhouse: Ahmad Zavitsanos & Mensing (subscription required).

“We have tried everything from toxic tort to catastrophic personal injury to breach of contract, … trade secret, patent infringement, copyright, banking cases. We have tried qui tam cases. I mean, literally anything and everything,” Mr. Zavitsanos told Law360. “No two days are ever going to be the same, and it forces you to stay on your toes and learn new things.”

On Sept. 23, AZA was named among law firms that general counsel and top-level legal counsel consumers fear the most in BTI Consulting’s “Clients Single Out the Most Feared Law Firms in Litigation” list.

As BTI put it, a fearsome reputation “starts working before the lawyers do. ... This is fear as a litigation asset.” As always, most of the firms on the list are Big Law, and many are international.

AZA has repeatedly made BTI’s Most Feared list since 2015, including each of the past four years. Only 92 firms nationwide made the 2027 list, which included AZA in The BTI Awesome Opponents 2027 section. AZA is one of only six Texas-based firms on the full list.

On Sept. 30, the Texas Lawyer online magazine named AZA as its 2026 Texas Litigation Department of the Year for General Litigation. This is the fourth time AZA has received this honor, always against tough competition.

The other finalists this year were mostly global firms. AZA accomplishments noted were:

• Winning the first two trials in the Texas Business Courts. There have been more wins for AZA there in recent months.
• Trying 16 cases last year. AZA has tried 13 this year and has previously tried up to 27 in a single year.
• Jury victories including a $289 million breach of contract trial for KBR, a $123 million Winter Storm Uri trial for Marathon and beating Samsung in a $78.5 million patent infringement trial.

Houston and Dallas trial boutique Ahmad, Zavitsanos & Mensing, or AZA, has earned repeated recognition from Chambers USA among the best in Texas for its commercial law, intellectual property and appellate practices. The firm has been listed by Best Lawyers’ Best Law Firms as one of the country’s best commercial litigation firms for 13 years; has been named Litigation Department of the Year by Texas Lawyer four times; has five times been named a Most Feared Law Firm in a national survey; and was twice dubbed a Texas Powerhouse law firm by Law360.