Moses, Palmer & Howell, L.L.P.

Focus and practice areas

The firm describes itself as a boutique law firm in downtown Fort Worth, Texas, and its work splits between the courtroom and the deal table. It handles commercial litigation and general civil litigation, and it also takes on employment law and personal injury litigation. On the transactional side, the firm covers business transactions, entity formations, and real estate.

Several of the named practice areas line up with Fort Worth's own economy. Oil and gas, banking, and construction law each appear on the firm's pages, and those fields match the energy and financial business that runs through North Texas. The firm also lists mediation and fiduciary litigation, which widens the range past a straight commercial docket.

In my opinion the mix is worth noting for one reason: the same firm handles trial work, appeals, and transactions. A client with a contract dispute and a client closing an acquisition can both find a home here. That breadth is common in boutique firms that keep a small roster and ask each attorney to carry more than one field.

A closer look at the litigation work

Employment law and personal injury litigation add to the firm's courtroom work. Employment matters can cover claims over pay, contracts, or the end of a job, and they often start with an internal complaint or an agency filing before any suit. Personal injury litigation turns on proof of fault and the extent of harm, and much of that work happens in medical records, expert reports, and negotiation before a case reaches a jury.

Mediation and fiduciary litigation also appear on the firm's list. Mediation points to work that aims at settlement as well as trial, and in a session a neutral third party helps two sides reach terms without a verdict. Fiduciary litigation covers disputes over how a trustee, executor, or other fiduciary has handled money or property held for someone else, and cases of that kind often run through a Texas probate court and turn on accounting records and the terms of a trust or will.

Where the work reaches

The firm represents clients across Texas, with a base in Tarrant County. Its pages name nearby counties too: Collin, Dallas, Denton, Parker, and Johnson. That footprint covers much of the Dallas-Fort Worth region and the counties that ring it.

The reach extends past the state line. The firm handles commercial litigation and oil and gas matters in Oklahoma, and at least one of its attorneys holds a license there. For energy clients whose leases and operations cross between the two states, a firm admitted in both can keep the same team on a matter.

How the team is built

Five attorneys practice at the firm: Shayne D. Moses, David A. Palmer, Timothy D. Howell, Clay Humphries, and Matthew Sikes. The firm name carries three of those partners, which is common for a firm that has kept the same core for a stretch.

Shayne D. Moses is a founding partner and is board certified in Civil Trial Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. Board certification in Texas asks a lawyer to show trial experience, pass a written exam, and gather peer references, so the credential marks someone who has spent real time in front of juries. He is licensed in both Texas and Oklahoma.

His own work runs across oil and gas, banking, insurance products, construction, contract, and appellate matters. He has negotiated oil and gas leases and helped companies through acquisitions, mergers, and sales. He has also tried cases spanning oil and gas, banking, divorce, and trusts. He earned his J.D. from St. Mary's School of Law in 1986 and a B.A. in psychology from the University of Texas in 1983.

Who the firm represents

Financial institutions and energy companies sit among the firm's clients, and so do publicly traded companies. The list runs on to closely held businesses, small to mid-sized companies, governmental entities, and individuals.

That range tells you something about how the firm staffs a matter. A bank on one file and an individual on another call for different footing, and a firm that keeps both is used to shifting register. As a reviewer, I read the client mix as a sign the firm takes work by subject as much as by the size of the client.

What a boutique structure means for a client

A boutique firm keeps its headcount small on purpose. The trade is fewer hands for closer partner contact, and clients often deal with the same lawyer through the life of a matter. Here five attorneys cover a wide field list, so a single matter may draw on more than one of them.

The firm's spread across litigation, appeals, and transactions also shapes how a case can move. A commercial dispute might start with a demand and pleadings, move through discovery, and reach trial or settlement, and an appeal can follow if a party challenges the result. Because the firm handles the appellate stage too, the same team can carry a case that goes up on appeal. On the deal side, an entity formation or a real estate closing runs through drafting, due diligence, and signing, and the firm can take on a later dispute if one arises.

Board certification, a two-state license, and a field list built around North Texas industry give the firm a clear shape on paper. The pages set out what the firm does and who it does it for, and they name the people who do the work.

David Palmer and Timothy Howell

David Palmer is a founding partner and has practiced law since 1995. His work centers on commercial and business litigation, and he represents institutional and individual clients in oil and gas, banking, insurance products, construction, contract, and appellate matters. Before this firm he was an associate and then a partner at Cantey & Hanger, L.L.P. in Fort Worth. He holds a Bachelor of Business Administration in accounting from Texas A&M University and a Doctor of Jurisprudence from the University of Texas School of Law. An accounting background can carry weight in commercial cases that turn on the numbers.

Timothy Howell is another founding partner. His practice covers commercial and general litigation across oil and gas, premises liability, products liability, contract, construction, and insurance matters. He also handles energy work that never reaches a courtroom, advising on oil and gas leases, pipeline easements, and surface use agreements, and he counsels individuals and companies on their transactions. Like Palmer, he came up through Cantey & Hanger, where he worked as an associate and later a partner in the litigation section. He earned a B.A. in history from Texas Christian University in 1993 and finished law school at St. Mary's University School of Law in San Antonio in 1997.

The shared road through Cantey & Hanger is worth marking. Two of the three name partners built their early careers at the same Fort Worth firm before they opened this one, so the partnership grew out of lawyers who already knew each other's work. Howell's transactional energy work also fills a gap that a litigation label alone would hide, since the pipeline easements and surface use agreements he handles are the paper that sets terms before any dispute begins.

The office and Matthew Sikes

The firm keeps its office in downtown Fort Worth at 306 W. 7th Street, Suite 504. A downtown address places the practice in the part of the city where much of Tarrant County's legal and financial business sits, near the clients and matters that a Fort Worth firm tends to draw.

Matthew Sikes rounds out the group of five. He practices litigation with the firm in Fort Worth and earned his Juris Doctor from Baylor University School of Law in 2009. The record here says less about him than about the founding partners, and it places him as a litigation lawyer within a roster where the senior members carry the longer field lists.