DeLoach, Juanita

Cynthia Galvan is a Texas native and a Shareholder at Brown Sims who looks after the best interests of her clients by reviewing the long-term effects as well as the short run effects of each and every case she defends.

Most clients are concerned about the immediate costs and expenses associated with a claim or lawsuit and are eager to defend the case without necessarily looking at the big picture and the possible bad legal precedent that can be set by a case that should never make its way in front of a judge or jury.

While Ms. Galvan has tried many cases to successful verdicts for her clients, once in a while the best long-term option for a client is to attempt settlement of claims that could end up setting bad legal precedent for subsequent claims of the same nature.

For instance, while representing a large Houston refinery in a Maritime Personal Injury case, Ms. Galvan's evaluation of the case included not only the potential loss of this one case in particular, but an evaluation of losses that might occur in the future if the case went to trial and the court reached the wrong decision.

One wrong decision by a court (designating certain refinery workers as Longshoremen or Jones Act Seamen) could mean reclassification of hundreds of employees who could bring future claims that might cost hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars in future losses to the refinery. By settling one potentially bad case, Ms. Galvan's client paid a small amount of money to keep an improper jurisdictional award out of the law books. Ms. Galvan's strategy of looking at both the short and long-term effects of one seemingly small lawsuit ended up saving the client more than they ever initially realized in both money and legal precedent.

Even though work and her children keep her busy, she finds the time to speak on maritime issues at continuing education classes for attorneys, and participates in round table discussions at networking lunches on general employment issues. Ms. Galvan is also involved with the St. Anne's Society at Vincent de Paul Catholic Church.

Ms. Galvan graduated from the University of Texas with a Bachelor of Business Administration in Finance in 1987 and a Doctor of Jurisprudence in 1990 from the University of Texas School of Law. She is a Member of the State Bar of Texas, the Houston Young Lawyers Association, Texas Women's Lawyers and the Texas Business Network. She is on the Board of Directors of the University of Texas Houston Texas Exes.