brian@clearmanlaw.com

Brian focuses his practice primarily in the areas of commercial litigation and personal injury, both at the trial and appellate levels.  In addition, Brian has experience in class action litigation as well as controversies involving ERISA, Medicare, regulated industries, oil and gas and real property.  He has also counseled clients in the entertainment industry.  In fact, after college, Brian earned his living as a musician, touring and recording with several well-known Austin bands.

After law school, Brian joined the business and international transaction section of Vinson & Elkins, LLP.  He joined McClanahan & Clearman in 2003 and founded The Clearman Law Firm with Scott in 2008.  

• Co-counsel in defending an arbitration award of $2.37 million in favor of a laser eye surgery practice against a national chain of laser vision correction centers before the Fifth Circuit.  Our client received $1.3 million.  In this case, the attorneys' fees and expenses were $1.07 million. 
• Settlement of $9,975,000 against Dynegy and others on behalf of a group of participants and beneficiaries in an ERISA plan.  Net of fees and expenses, the class recovered $7.48 million of the settlement.  The expenses were paid out of the fees paid to the attorneys.  In this case, the attorneys' fees and expenses were $2.495 million
• Settlement of $4.7 million for a client in a dispute over the rights to proceeds from an offshore oil and gas property.  The settlement has yet to be paid.  The attorneys' fees and expenses will be no more than 33% of the settlement, if it is paid as agreed.  Thus, the attorneys' fee and expenses will be $1.551 million.
• With Scott, served as nationwide counsel for an orthodontic practice management company and successfully defended his client against a group of approximately 65 orthodontists in multi-state litigation involving over 35 lawsuits pending in various federal and state courts.  
• Successfully represented five Texas hospital systems against Aetna in an appeal to the Supreme Court of Texas over a state court’s jurisdiction to hear claims for reimbursement under Medicare totaling more than $13 million. 
• Negotiated a management services contract on behalf of an Austin-based singer/songwriter. 

• Southwestern University, B.A., 1988
• University of Arkansas School of Law, J.D., summa cum laude, 2002
• Arkansas Law Review, Articles Editor
• Pearson Fellow
• Recipient of the Bard Rogan Natural Resources Award

• Texas
• United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
• United States District Courts for the Southern, Eastern, Northern and Western Districts of Texas

• State Bar of Texas, Appellate Law Section 
• American Bar Association
• Bar Association of the Fifth Federal Circuit
• Houston Bar Association   Houston Bar Association

• Illinois v. Wardlow: High Crime Areas, Flight, and the Fourth Amendment, 54 ARK L. REV. 879 (2002).

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