Dallas plaintiff law firm Hamilton Wingo has hired trial lawyer Mike Kaeske as the firm’s newest partner.
In the last several years, Kaeske has worked as an attorney for hire and said joining the firm feels like “getting the band back together.”
Together, the firm’s founder, Chris Hamilton, and Kaeske have helped clients secure more than $10 billion in verdicts and settlements as lead counsel in cases involving serious personal injuries, wrongful deaths and business disputes. Kaeske will handle those types of cases, in addition to product liability lawsuits and construction defect claims.
Kaeske, 56, said he looks at the next decade of his career with urgency.
“I figure that the next 10 years of my life are my last chance to be the best in my life at something, and I’m not going to be the best in my life at riding a bike anymore or snowboarding anymore or any of the things that I love to do. But I think I can still be the best lawyer that I’ve ever been,” Kaeske said.
Kaeske led the historic North Carolina litigation over environmental exposures tied to industrial sites, resulting in a verdict of more than $437.5 million before the parties reached a settlement. His efforts in that case were the focus of a 2022 book, Wastelands: The True Story of Farm Country on Trial by Corban Addison. The book describes Kaeske as having “trial skills second to none” and includes a foreword by bestselling author John Grisham.
Hamilton said Kaeske puts all his focus on his cases, and that emulates the firm’s business model.
“I’ve wanted to work with Mike again for years,” he said. “I just don’t know anybody else that can do what he can do.”
One of the things Kaeske will get to be involved with is training young lawyers at the firm and getting them involved with every single case.
“Nobody puts this kind of effort. … Usually it’s just like, ‘Go, come along with me and learn by osmosis,’” Kaeske said of the intentional focus the firm puts on developing young associates.
Hamilton said adding Kaeske is part of the overall growth plan for the firm.
“We’re definitely going to continue to grow. We have to, because we, in order to do what we need to do for the clients that we have now, we’ve got to continue to add firepower,” Hamilton said.
Kaeske is already involved with several cases and is taking depositions this week.
He earned his undergraduate degree from Syracuse University and his law degree and master’s in business administration from The University of Texas in 1995. Kaeske joined Baron & Budd out of law school and left in 1999 to start his own firm.