Chip Brooker always knew he wanted to start his own law firm.
After working with some of the greatest trial lawyers in Texas for 14 years – Frank Branson, Pete Marketos, David McAtee and Andy Payne – Brooker has finally taken the plunge to follow the suit of his mentors.
In the D Magazine building of downtown Dallas, Brooker has opened up his own shop, Brooker Law PLLC, where he will continue his plaintiffs’ litigation practice representing individuals and families nationwide in cases involving wrongful death and personal injury.
Most recently, Brooker practiced at Frank Branson’s law firm, where he spent more than five years.
“He did a great job with us and he’ll do well on his own,” Branson told The Texas Lawbook. “We enjoyed working with Chip and we wish him the best.”
Brooker said he had a conversation with Branson about eventually starting his own firm when he interviewed for the position at Branson’s firm back in 2013.
“This has been something I’ve planned for a long time,” Brooker said. “I promised I’d start a law firm before I was 40. It’s been a long time coming and I’ve sort of always known at some point I wanted to stand on my own two feet, but at the same time over the past six years I had the good fortune of being able to work with some great lawyers on some great cases.”
In August, Brooker played an integral role on the trial team led by Branson that won a $242 million jury verdict against Toyota for a Dallas couple whose two small children suffered permanent brain damage from a 2016 rear-end crash in the family’s Lexus.
Other big wins in his career include an $11 million wrongful death award to the families of two victims who died in a fatal crash in a 2013 chartered bus crash while on their way to the Choctaw Casino in Durant, Oklahoma, as well as a $13 million civil racketeering judgment that Brooker scored with Marketos and McAtee when the trio was still practicing together at Haynes and Boone.
“He was always extremely talented and good in front of a jury,” Marketos recalled of Brooker. “He was also humble enough to adopt what he viewed as the talents of other trial lawyers but also be himself, which is a unique trait in a trial lawyer.”
But most importantly, says Marketos: “He is relentless when it comes to getting justice for his clients, and you cannot replace that. He’s demonstrated not just being relentless in terms of questioning, but is relentless in terms of preparation.”
The jury in the Toyota trial certainly noticed that about him, too.
“I wasn’t sure if I’d rather have a root canal or get cross-examined by Mr. Brooker,” one juror said minutes after rendering the $242 million verdict. “He was very prepared.”
Brooker said he has no immediate hiring plans other than bringing on a paralegal, but he said he is excited to build his firm “from a blank slate.”
“I have some cases to work on already and am looking forward to hopefully getting referrals and start building the firm from the ground up, lean and mean,” he said.
A few matters he is currently handling include a truck wreck case that will likely go to trial in Texarkana later this year; some consumer products liability, wrongful death and catastrophic injury cases; as well as post-judgment matters in the Toyota trial that he is continuing to work on with Frank and Debbie Branson and Eric Stahl.