One side or the other is going to lose the Judge’s ruling on any contested legal issue. When that happens on a key, life or death, legal issue, the most important question becomes – could a fresh eye review by the right team of specialists possibly snatch victory from the jaws of defeat?
Probably the single most important skill set of the Roach Newton appellate team is to identify and develop a new legal argument to solve a seemingly intractable legal problem. Roach Newton excels in both in identifying a silver bullet appellate issue to reverse an adverse legal ruling and in developing a new legal argument to persuade a trial judge or opposing trial counsel that a particular ruling would be reversible.
For over 25 years, Randy Roach has taught his law students his judge-centered and law-driven approach to identify and develop legal solutions to otherwise seemingly intractable legal problems. Connecting dots in new ways to see around legal corners.
Examples of these legal innovations include:
- Rule 166 motions for trial court rulings on pure questions of law
- Negating fraud claims as a matter of law
- Constitutional due process challenges to punitive law
- Negating supposed contract rights and obligations as a matter of law
- Negating gross negligence as a matter of law
- Concurrent, law-based settlement of coverage and underlying claims
- Negating causation as a matter of law
Roach Newton’s unique, judge-centered and law-driven fresh eyed approach to legal issues couples a deep understanding of 1) controlling jurisprudence with 2) studied insights into judicial decision-making based on 30 years of co-teaching judicial decision-making with appellate judges. Randy Roach has not only co-taught appellate advocacy at two law schools with appellate judges and guest lecturers from the Texas Supreme Court and intermediate appellate courts, and conducted two statewide surveys of all appellate judges, he has also moderated 20 state and national CLE panels of appellate and trial judges on topics related to effective judicial advocacy. As demonstrated in the following Representative Cases, Roach Newton is adept in successfully identifying and presenting their judge-centered and law-driven fresh eyed legal arguments on appeal, in motions for rehearing, and in trial motions requesting key legal rulings.
Some of those representations include:
- Engaged by major hospital equipment manufacturer to seek En Banc Rehearing in federal 5th Circuit, obtaining an En Banc review, and obtaining reversal in favor of client.
- Engaged by large national coin-operated laundry company to obtain new trial and later to seek and obtain rehearing from the Texas Supreme Court on its denial of review.
- Engaged by large Texas-based oil and gas company to seek rehearing of 8-figure adverse opinion by Texas Supreme Court.
- Engaged by Texas maritime service company to seek and obtain rehearing on a denial of review by the Texas Supreme Court.
- Engaged by large Texas-based oil and gas company to formulate arguments on rehearing of Pennsylvania state court judgment involving hundreds of millions.
- Engaged by large national construction company to seek rehearing in Texas Supreme Court on construction of its insurance policy and to obtain important change in that Court’s opinion regarding the Texas rules of contract construction.
- Engaged by large oil and gas companies to seek rehearing of that Court’s construction of “additional insured” coverage and obtain new opinion along lines advocated by Roach Newton.
