David C. Kent

Thought Leadership

An active and recognized leader of the bar at the local, state and national level, David also is a regular fixture at continuing legal education seminars, having made more than 135 speeches and presentations. He has published more than 120 professional papers, law review articles and books, and served for nine years as the contributing editor on Evidence Law for the State Bar of Texas’ General Practice Digest.

Representative Experience

Design Professionals and Other Professional Liability

• Defended a national engineering firm in mass tort and class action claims arising from alleged lead contamination of municipal drinking water supply, including a six-month-long bellwether jury trial.
• Defended a national engineering firm serving as general engineering consultant to a regional transportation authority in a $110 million claim for defectively designed roadway retaining walls.
• Defended a national engineering firm serving as program manager to a Louisiana municipality in a $1+ billion suit arising from a federal consent decree program to rehabilitate 1,000+ miles of sewer system pipelines.
• Advised excess insurance carriers for a national engineering firm regarding a $100+ million design, delay and quantity estimates claim brought by a joint venture contractor in a $1 billion public-private partnership (PPP or P3) bridge construction project in the Northeast U.S.
• Advised excess insurance carriers for a national engineering firm regarding a $65+ million design claim brought by a joint venture contractor in a $450 million design-build-maintain highway construction project in West Texas.
• Defended a national engineering firm in a $60 million design-build suit arising from expansion of a commuter light rail transit system in a PPP project.
• Defended a national engineering firm providing construction engineering and inspection (CEI) services in a multiparty wrongful death and personal injury lawsuit where an 18-wheeler struck a bridge under construction in an interstate highway construction work zone.
• Defended a national engineering firm in a suit involving geotechnical design issues related to the runway and landing areas of the nation’s only privately developed and operated commercial airport.
• Defended a national engineering firm in a suit involving the design of a 150-acre asphalt-pavement port facility on the Atlantic seaboard.
• Defended a national engineering firm in a two-week jury trial involving professional liability claim arising from the design of a temporary cofferdam at a public water reservoir in Florida.
• Defended a national engineering firm in a $150 million professional liability claim arising from the design and construction of a 15.5 billion-gallon regional water reservoir in Florida, resulting in a defense verdict after a five-week jury trial. Tampa Bay Water v. HDR Engineering, Inc., 731 F.3d 1171 (11th Cir. 2013).
• Defended a national environmental engineering and consulting firm in a $100 million professional liability and construction management claim arising from the design and construction of a municipal wastewater treatment plant in Arizona.
• Defended a vertically integrated engineering and construction firm in a $40 million claim arising from the design and construction of a cogeneration power plant located inside a petrochemical refinery in California’s Bay area.
• Defended an architectural firm in a multimillion-dollar claim arising from the construction of television broadcasting studios in Tampa, Florida.

Business Litigation

• Defended a home-office private equity firm in a jury trial for alleged breach of contract, tortious interference and civil conspiracy claims arising from failure to close an acquisition in a nonbinding letter of intent.
• Defended a company in a jury trial for attorney’s fees claim arising under the Texas Citizens Participation Act anti-SLAPP suit statute.
• Defended a contract electronics manufacturer in a $50 million California state court breach of warranty case arising from alleged defects in 60,000 printed circuit-board assemblies used in traffic control and monitoring devices sold throughout the United States and abroad.
• Represented a Pennsylvania-based provider of maintenance and repair operation supply-chain management services in various contractual disputes in Texas.
• Represented the United States’ oldest bottled water company and five of its regional distributors in defense of an unfair competition / false advertising case brought by a regional competitor in federal district court in Shreveport, Louisiana. Represented employers and employees in enforcing or defending trade secret claims and noncompetition agreements.
• Represented a buyer in a stock purchase agreement suing the seller for breach of contract, resulting in a $5.2 million recovery in arbitration proceedings in San Diego, California.

Real Estate and Environmental

• Represented a real estate development company in a multimillion-dollar, high-exposure real estate fraud and civil conspiracy case in a luxury residential golf course community located in Riverside County, California. Case settled during trial on favorable terms.
• Represented landowners in condemnation proceedings involving the construction of a 43-mile-long regional water pipeline.
• Represented a national hotel chain in condemnation proceedings involving taking part of local property in Texas.
• Represented a land developer in condemnation proceedings involving the construction of the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas.
• Successfully defended one of the nation’s largest independent natural gas exploration and development companies in a series of groundwater pollution cases brought by more than 50 families in Wise County, Texas. Mitchell Energy Corp. v. Bartlett, 958 S.W.2d 430 (Tex. App.–Fort Worth 1997, pet. rev. denied).
• Represented developers, lessors and lessees in various commercial lease disputes, including restaurant, warehouse, hazardous chemical and other commercial properties.

Product Liability

• Defended a roofing company in a multimillion-dollar respiratory injury claim arising from alleged inhalation vapors from a roofing adhesive product containing toluene diisocyanate (TDI).
• Defended a national roofing system manufacturing company in a $35 million claim arising from the partial collapse of the roof of a shopping mall on the Gulf Coast during Hurricane Rita.
• Represented owners of racehorses and horse breeding farm in a $25 million product liability claim against the manufacturer of cooling fans that malfunctioned and caused a barn fire, killing six breeding stallions and disrupting breeding farm operations.
• Defended a major Japanese computer equipment manufacturer at a 10-week jury trial in state court in Dallas in a $100+ million product liability / wrongful death suit against claims that its computer printer had malfunctioned and caused a house fire, in which a young mother died and her husband and daughters were seriously burned.
• National defense counsel for a Chicago-based football-helmet manufacturing and reconditioning company in personal injury and wrongful death lawsuits brought in state and federal courts throughout the nation.
• Defended a German automobile manufacturer against claims that a national advertising campaign emphasizing speed and road-handling capabilities of the car promoted unsafe driving techniques, which resulted in a major collision with resulting deaths and injuries to passengers.
• Defended a Japanese manufacturer of steel I-beams used in the construction of manufactured housing against claims of design defect, which allegedly caused the I-beam to bend and collapse on top of a person who was working under the house, resulting in quadriplegia.
• Counseled manufacturers with regard to their obligations under the Consumer Products Safety Act (CPSA) to report incidents of product hazards and to conduct nationwide product safety recalls, including notification to the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), notices to consumers, retrofits and replacements of defective products, and follow-up reporting obligations.

Class Actions

• Represented in Texas a U.S.-based international food company in a toxic tort class action and mass action litigation brought by Central American farm workers.
• Represented in Michigan a Texas-based oil and gas company in a royalty owners’ class action litigation alleging underpayment of royalties. Williams v. Terra Energy, Ltd., 2006 Mich. App. LEXIS 2309.
• Represented in Texas an international computer manufacturer’s employee in a consumer class action for misrepresentations concerning laptop computer battery life.
• Represented in Texas a consortium of water heater manufacturers in a follow-on consumer class action for defective water heater components.

Insurance Coverage and Policy Claim Litigation

• Obtained summary judgment for property and casualty insurance carrier in declaratory judgment action for denial of coverage under “scheduled non-owned location” policy endorsement for multimillion-dollar claims for first-party property damage and third-party liability claims arising from fire at chemical processing plant. Tokio Marine Specialty Ins. Co. v. Flow-Chem Technologies, et al., 2022 WL 267590 (S.D. Tex. Jan. 28, 2022), adopted, 2022 WL 989439 (S.D. Tex. March 3, 2022), aff’d, 2022 WL 16860761 (5th Cir. Nov. 11, 2022).
• Defended a liability insurance carrier in litigation involving the interpretation of additional insured policy provision and indemnification provision in underlying contract.
• Represented the United States’ largest apartment management company in a complex claim in Ohio state court against a group of excess insurance carriers for tornado damage to a 50-acre apartment complex involving issues of replacement-cost coverage, business interruption losses, extra expense claims, and defenses of fraud and false swearing claims.
• Represented a New Jersey–based insurance company in complex coverage action involving 130 health care facilities with claims for rescission based on misrepresentation, questions of exhaustion of policy limits and roles of offshore captive insurance companies.

Previous Experience

After graduating cum laude from law school, David served a one-year judicial clerkship with the Supreme Court of Texas.

Personal Interests

Outside the office, the best place to find David is outdoors — fine-tuning his game on the golf course, riding his bicycle in charity road rallies, exploring local hike and bike trails, or kayaking the lakes and rivers of Texas.