Attorney Profiles

Russ Briggs is a native of Beaumont, Texas, the son of two teachers. Focusing on athletics in his youth, he was able to parlay his basketball abilities into a scholarship at Southwestern University, in Georgetown Texas. Russ graduated from Southwestern with a B.A. in Political Science in 1982, and attended law school at South Texas College of Law in Houston. A lawyer at age 24, he began working with the trial firm of Leebron & Robinson, where he concentrated on representing the rights of the injured worker. Russ became Board Certified in Personal Injury Trial Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization in 1990.

Russ founded The Briggs Law Firm in 1996 and tried many cases with an emphasis on automobile injury litigation. In 2000, he joined Fibich, Hampton, & Leebron as a trial attorney and continued to represent citizens in all areas of personal injury litigation, including pharmaceutical litigation, product liability, admiralty and maritime cases, commercial litigation, automobile litigation, and premises liability cases. Russ is a Houston Bar Foundation Fellow as recognized by the Houston Bar Association.

From 2004 to the present, the firm’s nationwide specialty in pharmaceutical litigation continues to flourish. Russ has been very active in Ephedra Diet Supplement litigation, including memberships on the In Re Nutraquest Plaintiff’s Steering Committee; the Twin Lab Plaintiff Liaison Committee; the Metabolife Plaintiff Liaison Committee; the NVE Liaison Committee; and the In Re Ephedra Litigation PCC fee and expense committee. Russ has spoken at seminars concerning his experience in the Ephedra litigation, and has been recognized as a leader in the eventual settlement of the litigation.

The firm is currently a leader in the Gadolinium based contrast agent products liability litigation. This litigation concerns kidney impaired individuals across the country who received MRI's or MRA's and now suffer from a debilitating disease known as Nephrogenic Systemic Fibrosis ("NSF"). Russ has been appointed by Judge Dan Polster, U.S. District Judge, Northern District of Ohio, to the Plaintiff’s Steering Committee in the nationwide Multi District Litigation which coordinates all Gadolinium litigation across the country.

In addition to being lead trial counsel on his cases, Russ also represents his clients post successfully verdict, and has a number of published opinions sustaining jury verdicts, including: Otis Elevator v. Shows, 822 S.W.2d 59 (Tex. App. – Houston [1st. Dist] 1991, writ denied); Jamar v. Patterson, 910 S.W.2d 118 (Houston [14th Dist.] 1995, writ denied); Harris County v. Smoker, 934 S.W.2d 714 (Houston [1st Dist.] 1996, writ denied); Byrd v. Estate of Nelms, 154 S.W.3d 149 (Tex. App. - Waco 2004, review denied).

Russ is a member of the Texas Trial Lawyers Association, and the American Association for Justice. As a result of extensive trial work, he was invited in 2007 to become a member of the American Board of Trial Advocates ("ABOTA"), recognized as one of the nation’s premier trial lawyer organizations with the goal of preserving the American jury trial system.