Grabowski, Walter T.

Professional Background

Ms. Goss focuses her practice in the area of probate, trust, and guardianship litigation and administration. She has extensive experience consulting with and advising individuals and families in connection with probate, trust and guardianship matters before they reeach the courts, as well as representing plaintiffs, defendants, and other interested parties in cases involving breach of fiduciary duties, fraud, misrepresentation, constructive trusts, conversion, accounting issues, undue influence, lack of capacity, tortuious interference, marital asset classification, breach of contract, conspiracy, and conflicts of interest.  She also has represented fiduciaries and beneficiaries in resignation, removal, trust modification, and declaratory judgment actions.  These clients include both corporate and individual trustees, executors, and guardians.  She also has handled insurance coverage lawsuits.

Ms. Goss earned her undergraduate degree in mathematics at Vanderbilt University (B.A. 1981) and law degree from the University of Houston Law Center (Cum Laude, J.D. 1988), where she was a member of the Houston Law Review and Order of The Barons.  Upon graduation in 1988, she joined Andrews Kurth L.L.P., in Houston, Texas, as an associate practicing in the area of probate, trust, and guardianship litigation and administration, and later became a partner in the firm. Ms. Goss has written and spoken on fiduciary litigation and insurance coverage issues, and in 2003, she became the author of the Probate Code Plus, by Jones McClure Publishing, publishers of the O'Connor's Litigation, Expert, and Annotated Code Series.

Representative Cases and Results

Representing Plaintiffs:

Multimillion dollar recoveries for plaintiffs against decedents' estates and fiduciaries.

Representing Defendants:

Successful resolution by settlement or summary judgment in favor of defendants in suits involving will contests and fiduciary litigation.

Speaking Engagements and Publications  

Co-Author with Ken Fair, O'Connor's Probate Code Plus by Jones McClure Publishing Company (2009-2010, 2008-2009 editions) (May be previewed at http://www.jonesmcclure.com/). 

Author, O'Connor's Probate Code Plus by Jones McClure Publishing Company (2007-08, 2006-07, 2005-06, 2004-05 and 2003-04 editions).

Contributor, O'Connor's Texas Rules*Civil Trials by Jones McClure Publishing Company (2003 edition).

Author, A General Review of Fiduciary Liability, presented at The Charter Bank Seminar Series, Feb. 15, 1996.

Author, Liability Insurance Duty to Defend and Indemnify (Substituting Pockets When Your Client Gets Sued), presented at the Andrews & Kurth L.L.P. Seminar Series, 1995.

Author, Issues of Corporate Fiduciary Liability and Litigation Management, presented at the Texas Bankers Association Financial Services Division 1992 Southwest Trust Conference, Austin, May 7-8, 1992; to the Corpus Christi Estate Planning Council, Corpus Christi, Jan. 21, 1993; and to the Trust Financial Services Division of the Texas Bankers Association, Dallas, Oct. 22, 1993.

Author, Discovery Toolkit-Probate, Trust and Guardianship Litigation, presented (as updated and revised) at the State Bar of Texas 25th Annual Advanced Estate Planning and Probate Course on June 6-8, 2001, in Houston, Texas; at a training seminar for the Denton County Bar Association on February 1, 2002 (by Judge Don Windle); at the Attorneys in Tax and Probate Conference on April 2, 2002; at the Tarrant County Probate Bar Litigation Seminar on April 26, 2002; at the Houston Bar Association Wills and Probate Institute at South Texas College of Law on January 23, 2003; at the State Bar of Texas 29th Annual Advanced Estate Planning and Probate Course on June 8-10, 2005 in Ft. Worth, Texas (as additionally updated and revised by Ruth Ann Stiles, Associate Judge of  Probate Court No.1 in Harris County, Texas); at the South Texas College of Law Wills and Probate Institute on September 14, 15, 2006 in Houston, Texas; and at the Houston Bar Association Probate, Trusts and Estates Section November 2008 Meeting.

Author, Gunfight at the OK Corral: Litigation and Discovery Issues, presented at the State Bar of Texas Advanced Guardianship Course 2010, on April 16, 2010, in Dallas, Texas (with Co-Presenter, Mary C. Burdette, Calloway, Norris, Burdette & Weber, PLLC)

 

Bar Membership and Professional Associations

Ms. Goss is a member of the Houston Bar Association and is licensed to practice law in Texas and before the United States District Court for the Northern and Southern Districts of Texas.  She is a fellow the Texas Bar Foundation.