Nowak & Stauch, PLLC

Focus and practice areas

This Dallas firm works mainly for businesses. It represents clients across the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex and throughout North Texas, and its contact page frames the work around that regional service area. Much of the caseload involves commercial disputes, and the firm names several forms these take.

On the commercial side, the firm handles breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty, fraud, defamation and commercial debt collection. It also handles construction claims, real estate litigation, employment matters and insurance defense. Legal malpractice, nonsubscriber liability, oil and gas disputes, and trucking and auto liability appear on the about page as well. The firm rounds this out with corporate services and offers mediation and arbitration.

The home page says the firm concentrates much of its attention on construction, real estate and nonsubscriber liability claims. In my opinion, that stated emphasis tells you more than the full menu does, because it points to where the day-to-day work sits rather than to everything the firm will take.

The disputes the firm takes on

Business litigation here runs across a wide set of subject areas, and the firm groups the work by the situation the client is in. Construction claims include commercial and residential matters, mechanic's liens and construction defects. These are cases where the paperwork often decides the outcome: contracts, change orders and lien filings carry the facts, and the dates on them tend to matter as much as the dollar figures.

Real estate litigation and commercial debt collection fall close to this work, since both often involve the same business clients and the same kinds of written agreements. Defamation sits on the commercial list too. For a business, that claim usually turns on statements that damage its standing with customers, lenders or partners, and it calls for careful handling of what was said and who heard it.

Breach of fiduciary duty and fraud round out the commercial group. Both involve parties who once had a working relationship, whether as partners, officers or counterparties, and both ask a court to look at conduct as well as contract terms. The firm's insurance defense work sits on the other side of the table, representing insurers and their insureds once a claim leads to suit.

Wider litigation areas

The firm's list reaches past commercial and construction matters. Employment work covers disputes between companies and their workers, and the firm handles these alongside its nonsubscriber cases, which also arise from workplace injuries. Oil and gas disputes reflect an industry that runs through much of Texas, and they often turn on lease terms, royalty questions and operating agreements. Trucking and auto liability covers claims that follow collisions, where coverage and fault are usually the central questions.

Legal malpractice appears on both named lawyers' profiles and on the firm's list. These claims ask whether a lawyer's handling of a matter fell below the accepted standard of care and whether that caused a loss. They often require testimony from an outside lawyer about what a reasonable attorney would have done, which makes them document-heavy and slow to resolve.

Nonsubscriber liability

Nonsubscriber liability is a Texas-specific area, and its place on the firm's short list of concentrations is worth explaining. Texas lets employers opt out of the state workers' compensation system. When an employer does, an injured worker can sue the company directly, and the case follows ordinary negligence rules rather than the compensation framework. Firms that name this work tend to see it often, and Nowak & Stauch lists it among the areas it focuses on.

How the team is built

The about page names six attorneys: Matthew A. Nowak, Thomas R. Stauch, Lance A. Hevizy, Ryan C. Gentry, Harper Pitts and Ryan Morrison. Matthew A. Nowak carries the partner title, and Thomas R. Stauch is identified in his own profile as a principal. Ryan C. Gentry is listed as of counsel, a role usually held by a lawyer who keeps a continuing relationship with a firm.

The site publishes full profiles for two of the six and lighter listings for the rest. As a reviewer, I read that as a firm that has put its senior lawyers' records forward and kept the other profiles brief, which is common on smaller firm sites. Both detailed profiles trace back to Southern Methodist University, and both lawyers were admitted to practice in the mid-1990s, so the firm's public face rests on two experienced litigators.

What the record shows for the named partners

Matthew A. Nowak earned his Juris Doctorate from Southern Methodist University in 1995 and was admitted in Texas the same year. Before his civil practice, he spent more than three and a half years as an assistant district attorney in Dallas County. His profile states that he has litigated more than 100 jury trials, which is a high figure for any single lawyer.

His listed litigation covers legal malpractice, commercial, construction, class action, employment, tort, nonsubscriber, insurance defense and criminal matters. That range lines up closely with the firm's own practice list, so the partner's experience and the firm's advertised work point in the same direction. The trial count and the prosecutor years together describe a lawyer whose background is courtroom-first.

Thomas R. Stauch earned a B.B.A. in Marketing and Management from Texas A&M University in 1992 and a J.D. from Southern Methodist University School of Law in 1995. He is a principal at the firm, and his practice covers construction, real estate, legal malpractice and commercial disputes. His profile says his clients have included national homebuilders and real estate developers, which fits the firm's stated attention to construction and real estate.

How these matters tend to move

For a reader weighing a construction or real estate claim, some general context helps set expectations. Construction defect cases in Texas often begin with a written notice to the builder and an inspection period before a lawsuit can proceed. Mechanic's lien claims run on strict deadlines tied to when the work was performed and when payment fell due, so acting early usually protects the client's position. A firm that handles liens and defects together can carry a single matter through the filing stage and any later trial.

Commercial disputes follow a different arc. Many resolve after discovery, once each side has traded documents and taken depositions and the likely outcome comes into focus. The firm's stated mediation and arbitration work fits here, since business cases frequently reach a mediator before they reach a jury. In my opinion, having both litigation and alternative resolution on one roster is a practical point for a business client, because the same firm can press a case or settle it as the facts allow.

The site does not list a founding year. What the pages do show is a Dallas firm organized around business and construction litigation, staffed by six named attorneys and led by two lawyers admitted in 1995. One of them, the partner, brings a record of more than 100 jury trials and several years as a Dallas County prosecutor.