Houston Appellate Court Won’t DQ AZA as Transocean Defense Counsel

The Houston trial boutique Ahmad Zavitsanos & Mensing will get to proceed with its defense of Transocean and others in multidistrict litigation stemming from offshore workers’ injuries, after a Houston appellate court Thursday denied a petition seeking the firm’s disqualification.

The five-sentence per curiam opinion leaves in place a December ruling from County District Judge Rabeea Collier. Plaintiff firm Arnold & Itkin, which is representing the 23 workers who allege they were injured during Hurricane Zeta in October 2020 while aboard the Deepwater Asgard drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico, had argued AZA must be disqualified from defending Transocean because the firm employs as an associate attorney Karina Sanchez-Peralta, who formerly was an A&I law clerk. A&I argued that knowledge she gained as an A&I clerk about its client — a doctor who provided treatment to some of the plaintiffs in this litigation and will serve as an expert witness at trial — mandated the firm’s disqualification.