Since graduating first in his law school class in 1971, David T. Lopez has been a lawyer in private practice in Houston. He has represented individuals and commercial establishments in state and federal courts in a broad range of matters, and for several years he also has been dedicated to dispute resolution outside the courts, internationally and domestically, both as an advocate and an arbitrator and mediator.
In articles and presentations at professional meetings and seminars, he has advocated early and diligent efforts at resolving disputes by good-faith negotiations that might result in resolutions achieved expeditiously and with less expense than extended litigation. He has served as a mediation and arbitration panelist of JAMS, and presently is on the panel of neutrals of the American Arbitration Association and the International Centre for Dispute Resolution. He also has represented hundreds of individuals in many mediation and arbitration proceedings.
He has tried more than 400 jury and non-jury cases in state and federal courts. In 2007, he was recognized by the Texas Bar Foundation with the Ronald D. Secrest Outstanding Trial Lawyer Award, and he has received other significant recognitions.
A list of some of his published articles and presentations is on this website. Lopez also has served as a faculty member at the University of Houston and the Thurgood Marshall School of Law and as an invited lecturer at The University of Texas.
He was graduated in 27 months from the South Texas College of Law with highest honors, and his additional training includes a one-year program conducted jointly by the University of Monterrey, Mexico, and St. Mary’s University, the Harvard University Program of Instruction for Lawyers, and the fellows course of the London Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, as well as basic and advanced training in mediation and arbitration. In turn, he has lectured and conducted training in Latin America, including Mexico, Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru and Panama.
In order to maintain current proficiency and advance professional principles of law, he has served and continues to serve in leadership positions of professional organizations, including as chair of the International Labor Law Committee and the Committee on Persons With Disabilities of the World Association of Lawyers, and chair of committees in local, state, and national bar associations.
Lopez was born in Laredo, Texas, was the first member of his family to graduate from high school, and worked as a journalist to earn a degree in journalism at The University of Texas, where he was managing editor of the student daily newspaper and editor of the student magazine. Prior to attending law school, he was a newspaper reporter, radio commentator, public relations executive and director of a press and publications department for an organization based in Mexico City and publishing materials in Spanish, Portuguese and English for distribution throughout Latin America and the Caribbean.