There are easier ways to practice law than the path Andy Rubenstein has chosen.  Lawyers who represent insurance companies can typically go home at 5:00.  Lawyers who work for businesses can spend their off-work hours thinking about golf foursomes and meetings of the Rotary Club.  This is a way to practice that reduces a lawyer's emotional overhead, allowing for restful sleep and certainty that no one's life or future rests in his hands.  

Andy Rubenstein had a brush with that life, early in his practice.  His days included activities like writing 90-day reports to insurance claims adjusters about cases, and trying to muster enthusiasm for helping insurance companies evade payment for the negligence of doctors, lawyers and businesses they insured.  For this work, Andy took a regular and very comfortable salary that ultimately derived from the premiums paid by insurance company clients.

But this life wore on Andy's soul.  He knew he was devoting his best effort to protecting institutions that scarcely needed protection.  So Andy left insurance defense work:  in so doing, Andy walked away from the perks that accompany that kind of work.  He walked away from regular work hours.  He walked away from regular income.  He walked away from scads of spare time that he could spend reading, playing guitar, playing golf or doing nothing. 

Andy gave that up for a career that has now been his life for 11 years.  He chose a career with high emotional overhead.  He chose a career where the hours are long and the pay is uncertain.  If juries poisoned by tort reform propaganda send Andy's client to a life of poverty, Andy does not get paid either.  He sacrifices time with his daughters, a good night's sleep and peace of mind.

Why would anyone, Andy included, make this kind of choice?  Not everyone would; and not everyone should.  A man who is anything short of fully committed to fighting injustice has no business doing Andy's work.  A man who is half-hearted about getting to know clients should return to insurance work.  A man who has no feeling of outrage when he looks at the disparity between the powerful and the powerless should stay far away from the courtroom.  Those men should avoid the work that Andy has embraced - - with his mind, his body, his health, his wallet, his time, his energy and his soul.

 If you need the kind of lawyer who goes to Rotary Club, plays golf every weekend and has a nice, normal life, then don't call Andy Rubenstein.  You don't need him:  you just need someone to fill out your foursome.  But if you feel as if the barrier between the life you had and the life you now live is too high, then you don't want a nice, normal lawyer.  You want a lawyer who is committed; who will sacrifice; who will listen; who will understand.  Andy Rubenstein is that kind of lawyer.

Member: Texas Trial Lawyers Association, Board of Directors (2004-07); District 4F Grievance Committee (2004-2009), Committee Chairman (2004-2005; 2007-2008).

In 2005, Andy attended Gerry Spence's Trial Lawyers College, a 31-day intensive trial school near Dubois, Wyoming. He was invited to join the faculty of Trial Lawyers College in 2011.

PRACTICE AREAS: Products Liability, Medical Malpractice, Professional Negligence, Mass Tort Litigation, and Business Litigation.