Matsuk, Leonard A.

Melanie McDonald Worthington is licensed to practice in all Texas state courts and the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas. Ms. Worthington’s experience includes civil and complex business and commercial litigation, including insurance coverage disputes, multi-party environmental disputes, and defense of personal injury litigation. She has experience at both the trial and appellate levels, in state and federal courts, and in all forms of alternative dispute resolution.

Ms. Worthington is a native of Houston, Texas. She enjoys cycling, traveling and SCUBA diving with her family.

Practice Areas/Experience

Ms. Worthington's current practice is environmental litigation. She is part of the firm's team that is serving as Special Counsel to the State of New Jersey in pursuing natural resource damages and assessment costs, remediation costs and other damages associated with contamination of the Passaic River and Newark Bay.  In addition to environmental litigation, she has significant experience in complex, multi-party insurance coverage disputes involving multi-million dollar insurance claims.
 
Professional Background

Ms. Worthington has been licensed to practice law in Texas since 1988. She joined Jackson Gilmour & Dobbs, PC in September 2010. She has also worked as an associate attorney at Connelly Baker Wotring & Jackson, PC and at Sewell and Riggs (now Gardere Wynne Sewell).

In addition to practicing law, Ms. Worthington has eight years experience working as an insurance broker. In that capacity, she designed, negotiated and brokered Directors and Officers Liability, ERISA Fiduciary Liability, Employment Practices Liability, Commercial Crime and other financial services insurance placements for publicly-traded and privately-held companies. Most recently, Ms. Worthington was an insurance broker at Lockton Companies LLC in Houston.

Ms. Worthington received her Bachelor of Arts in Spanish and English from The University of Texas in 1984 and her Doctor of Jurisprudence from University of Houston in 1988. Between undergraduate and law schools, Ms. Worthington continued her studies of the Spanish language and culture while attending Vanderbilt University on the campus of the University of Madrid. Ms. Worthington is fluent in Spanish.