Two peppy chihuahua mixes trail Charla Aldous through her Dallas office. Lucy and Loretta Mae are adopted rescue dogs who are considered as much law firm staff as any of the human employees.
Aldous’ rescuer spirit has translated to her decadeslong career as a trial lawyer pursuing social justice. In one of her earliest cases, recognizing her guardian-like persona, clients gifted her a gold-plated angel lapel pin, which she wears in trials to this day.
Last year, Aldous represented a UT Southwestern doctor whose transgender youth clinic was closed, Aldous said, due to political pressure. Aldous also obtained a nearly $72 million jury verdict against a Texas construction services company and its sister company for the family of an electrician killed after an accident at a Frito-Lay Inc. facility. And Aldous was prepared to go to trial in the fall against an oil company whose employee struck her client, leaving the woman with a permanent back injury, when the parties reached a $30 million settlement as jury selection was underway.
“I’ve been doing this for 37 years, and strangely enough, I still love it,” Aldous said in a November interview with The Texas Lawbook.
The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.
What’s keeping you busy right now?
Fighting for justice. Fighting for clients. I’ve been doing this for 37 years, and strangely enough, I still love it. We don’t have any trial settings for the rest of [2024], so that’s a little bit disappointing because that’s what I love. But I always remind myself: verdicts feed egos, settlements feed families. So, we’re settling cases, and that’s a good thing.
What would you point to as some of the biggest trials that you’ve handled?
Well, I’ll tell you that the first plaintiff’s case I ever tried was an MTBE (Methyl Tertiary Butyl Ether) case out in Wilmington, North Carolina, where Conoco had polluted my clients’ well water. I represented 128 trailer park residents, and that was a really meaningful trial because Conoco had treated those people differently than they had the people who owned nice homes, and they were really discriminated against. This was probably 20-plus years ago, and we won the case. And while the jury was determining punitive damages, the case settled. The clients had, on the second day of trial, taken up an offering from each other and bought me a gold-plated guardian angel lapel pin, and I wear it to every trial. It was my first plaintiff’s case, and it’s kind of what made me decide this is what I want to do, so that one will always be meaningful.
The second one that comes to mind is a case that I tried with Steve Malouf many years ago. Rachael Martin was a teenager with special needs who had gone in for a procedure at Medical City. And after the surgery, she was given propofol, which is what killed Michael Jackson, and they gave her four times the required doses. Her urine, over the course of four days, turned from tea color to coffee color to black. And what was happening is she was developing a condition called rhabdomyolysis, which is where the cellular content of your muscle is disintegrating and trying to flush it through the kidneys. And so she had kidney failure and died. In that case, the doctor settled, but the hospital was extraordinarily arrogant, wouldn’t offer anything to settle, and we ended up getting a $366.04 million verdict because Rachel had died at 6:04 in the morning. They tied it directly to the time that she died. But the reason that case was so important is as a result of the settlement reached after verdict, we required that the CEO of the hospital come to the parents’ home to personally apologize, and they had to do a curriculum for the next five years where they were teaching nurses what adverse reactions to drugs can cause. That was really neat for Wayne and Brenda (Rachael’s parents) to see that Rachael’s life made a difference. And AstraZeneca was the manufacturer of the propofol; as a result of our settlement with them, they put rhabdomyolysis as an adverse reaction to the drug.
And then, the last case you tried is the most important. We just tried a wrongful death case against Walker Engineering and got a $72 million verdict.
Are there one or two high-profile public matters that you’re currently involved in that we can highlight?
I was representing Dr. Ximena Lopez within the last year. Dr. Lopez was the UT Southwestern professor who opened the GENECIS clinic for transgender youth care. The clinic was quickly closed, we believe, because of political pressure. Dr. Lopez had patients that were not getting treatment that really needed it, young people. I represented her and got an injunction so she could continue to give that care. I believe we saved some lives. Because of that, those children continued to get care and were able to transfer their care to other places where they could continue it after the law passed. We resolved it probably about six months ago.
What news developments or trends in law are you particularly keeping an eye on at the moment?
Always, always keeping an eye on tort reform. You never know what the legislature is going to do in any given year. In 2003, my practice was exclusively medical negligence, and when they passed chapter 74 in the legislature, it pretty much wiped out a good part of my practice. I had to reinvent myself. With the conservative politics we have in the state, I am always anxious when the legislative session starts in Texas for lawsuit reform. And I’m always worried about what laws are going to pass to try to prohibit us from really getting justice and holding people accountable.
What is a trial that you weren’t involved in that you wished you had been and why?
The E. Jean Carroll case. I would have loved to have been involved in that case because it was such a case of social justice and a case for women. I have a rape case now — it’s against Lyft. And I have a great expert in the case, Dr Leslie Lebowitz, who I just love. She’s spent days with my client, evaluating her mental health and everything. Come to find out, she was the expert for E. Jean Carroll against Trump in that case. I didn’t know that when I hired her. So, I’ve gotten some of the backstory of the case, and I loved it, because that woman stood up against the powerful, and that’s a hard thing to do. I would have loved to have been a part of that team.
Do you have any pre-trial rituals?
Get lots of sleep and lots of exercise. That is the honest truth. If I don’t keep up my exercise routine, when I am in trial, I’m just not at my best. I used to stay up all night the night before. I just don’t do that anymore. Probably, it’s a factor of age. I just can’t do it. But when we start getting ready for a trial, the first thing I do is read all the depositions and make sure I know you know what all the witnesses are going to say. And then we’ll start with the documents and document review and everything.
What is your exercise of choice?
I do Pilates, yoga, and I work out with weights.
What is your favorite task to handle at trial, and why?
Oh, cross examination of experts or corporate reps. I am not very good at direct examination. I don’t like it. I like to do the unexpected and go after the people that I think have done wrong, and I love it. I usually call the corporate rep as our first witness in trial and tell the story through them. But most definitely, cross examination is my favorite.
And is direct your least favorite? Or what is your least favorite?
Direct examination. And I don’t really enjoy doing opening statements. I love closing arguments and rebuttal. I mean, I love everything about trial. And voir dire, in my opinion, is the hardest part of a trial. Your case is only as good as the jury you put in a box and I do love voir dire, so I would say cross examination and voir dire are at the top of the list. Because voir dire is getting to know the people. And I love to talk to people.
How do you celebrate after a trial win?
Usually, our whole trial team goes out for dinner. Recently, we all went over to Al Biernat’s, which is across the street, and we took out that back room, and we just all went around the table saying what we’re grateful for, what we learned from the trial. I really think it’s important to celebrate and enjoy that before you move on to the next case. And sleep.
If you were not a lawyer, what career do you think you would have chosen?
A journalist. No doubt. In fact, I didn’t know which one I wanted to do. I see journalists as truth seekers and journalism is to really find out what’s really going on in our world, and show the wrongdoings, and celebrate the things that are right. So, no question I would have wanted to be a journalist if I were not a lawyer.
What was your undergraduate degree in?
Political science and history.
What am I not asking you that you’d like to share with readers?
Being a lawyer is so much more than just interpreting and arguing the law. In the type of law that I practice, I can really, really help people. I often tell people, it’s not just a profession, it’s a calling. I’ve got mementos all over my office. I tell clients, no matter what happens in your case, I want something to remember you by. I have these mementos all over my office. When I get discouraged or tired, I can look at it and think, ‘OK, I’m doing this because I am helping people in need.’ And in the type of law that I practice, you see so much tragedy, and all you can do is help the family heal and bring accountability and hopefully relieve their financial burdens. But that’s what I always try to remind myself: it’s not about me, it’s about my clients.