R. James Amaro founded the Amaro Law Firm in 2005 after leaving his position as an attorney at a defense law firm. Not long after founding the firm, Mr. Amaro was hired to represent many individuals and families who had their lives destroyed by the BP refinery explosion in Texas City, Texas. Since then, James Amaro has successfully represented thousands of people and businesses in various legal matters, including personal injury claims, business disputes, insurance claims, hurricane claims, and commercial litigation.
Mr. Amaro tried one of the first lawsuits related to Hurricane Ike and took many more to the eve of trial for many business and home-owner clients. More recently, the Amaro Law Firm has been active in assisting thousands of cleanup workers and businesses which suffered injuries and losses due to the BP Deepwater Horizon Spill. Every year since being founded, the Amaro Law Firm has represented clients in legal matters and obtained just compensation for its clients who have been personally injured or suffered damages in business and insurance disputes. Mr. Amaro has instilled his firm and staff with his relentless tenacity to effectively represent the firm’s clients with the utmost duty of candor and loyalty.
Prior to founding the firm, James Amaro gained a wide breadth and invaluable work experience working at some of the largest national and state-based law firms in Wisconsin and Texas. In his career, Mr. Amaro has written federal opinions for a federal judge and worked for many large defense law firms.
In law school, Mr. Amaro served as a managing editor of the Wisconsin International Law Journal and his article was one of few selected for publication in that journal. His experiences have given him the perspective to manage his firm’s cases efficiently and effectively.
In the beginning of his legal career, James Amaro was an aggressive defense attorney with a Houston insurance defense firm where he learned how the “insurance racket” works. As a defense attorney, Mr. Amaro practiced in the areas of insurance coverage and defended clients in the areas of construction law, real estate law, toxic torts, product liability, commercial litigation and arbitration, personal injury, and wrongful death.
In college, James Amaro worked and studied in real estate, engineering, and internet technology as a student and as an entrepreneur during and after his college studies. To self-finance his education, he had obtained multiple academic scholarships to several top-tier universities across the United States and was heavily recruited by many Ivy League schools due to his competitive college entrance exam scores and his ranking number 4 in his senior class of nearly 400.
Despite the offers, James Amaro decided to stay in Texas and attend the University of Texas at Austin to study chemical engineering in its reputable program. In his chemical engineering studies, Mr. Amaro excelled and obtained an internship with a large engineering company in Houston called Bechtel Corporation at which he reviewed process flow diagrams and wrote a visual basic program for engineers to use to perform calculus and differential equations. He was in the advanced sequence of his studies in the middle of his junior year before he decided to change his major to economics and pursue a career in law.
Before finishing his studies in economics at the University of Texas, Mr. Amaro co-founded a popular internet-based business in Austin which provided marketing and social services to students and to companies marketing to students. The company exploded in popularity and was advertised on the radio within 3 months of launching and became one of the most visited websites in Austin by university students. Also while in Austin and only at the age of 20, Mr. Amaro obtained his real estate license and began selling and leasing real estate all over the Austin area.
Today, James Amaro still owns interests and invests in real estate and internet technology companies. Through his experience, Mr. Amaro has learned how the judicial system perceives insurance and personal injury claims and the common strategies of insurance defense law firms and the insurance companies that pay them. Through his business and entrepreneur experiences, he understands what makes businesses successful and how to protect valuable business interests.
Mr. Amaro comes from a large family from Sugar Land, Texas. His paternal grandmother came from a Sioux Indian reservation in North Dakota after meeting his grandfather who served in the Air Force in WWII with his brothers. Other parts of his family sought refuge from the violent Mexican Revolution which occurred in the early 1900s. They all settled in Sugar Land eventually and many of his family members worked hard and tirelessly at the Imperial Sugar Refinery for decades to support their families while living in housing subsidized by the refinery.
In high school, Mr. Amaro worked nights and weekends as a ranch hand driving tractors, as a grocery sacker at Gerland’s, as a car washer at an auto dealership, and as a dishwasher at a local restaurant. It’s from this experience and this great line of fighters, survivors, and blue-collar workers that Mr. Amaro has developed his tenacious work ethic and his deep empathy for his clients’ circumstances.
James Amaro leads an active life when he’s not busy helping his clients. He says “we do great, so we can do good” which means we do great work which gives us the privilege of giving back to the community. When not 100% focused on his clients, he is 100% focused on his family and helping others. Their growing family consists of James and his wife Angelica, their two rambunctious daughters, their 4 sisters and brothers, three nieces, two nephews, and a fur family of dogs, cats, and a horse. The Amaro family’s personal activities and hobbies include attending weekly church services, participating in various charities for the needy and immigrants, music, various outdoor activities, and traveling.
Mr. and Mrs. Amaro believe in giving back and paying it forward. They founded and manage a nationally recognized non-profit, Baseball for Babies, whose mission is the bring more babies home™. Mr. Amaro also sits on other non-profit boards. He was honored with the invitation to serve on the University of Wisconsin Alumni Council and Sugar Land Heritage Foundation. Mr. Amaro also serves on the board as the vice president of a non-profit which manages a historic Texas cemetery, San Isidro Cemetery. The Amaro’s and the firm also support scholarships for underprivileged youth and give back to the schools which supported Mr. Amaro’s education.
Admissions
Texas, 2002
Wisconsin, 2002
Illinois, 2015
Colorado, 2018
New Mexico, 2022
US. Supreme Court
US. Court of Federal Claims
US. Courts of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
US. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit
US. District Court for the Southern District of Texas
US. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas
US. District Court for the Western District of Texas
US. District Court for the Northern District of Texas
US. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin
Pro Hac Vice Eastern District of Louisiana
Education
University of Texas at Austin, B.A. in Economics, Minor in History
University of Wisconsin at Madison Law School, J.D.
University of Groningen – Groningen, Netherlands – International Law
Professional Affiliations & Memberships
Texas Trial Lawyers Association
Houston Trial Lawyers Association
Capital Area Trial Lawyers Association
Dallas Trial Lawyers Association
Association of Plaintiff Interstate Trucking Lawyers of America – National Advisory Board
Texas Bar College Membership – Attorney
Academy of Truck Accident Attorneys
Mass Tort Trial Lawyers Association – The National Trial Lawyers
American Association of Justice
American Association of Justice – President’s Club Member
American Association of Justice – Trucking Litigation Group
American Association of Justice – Traumatic Brain Injury Group
American Association of Justice – Motor Vehicle Collision Section
American Association of Justice – Gulf Coast Oil Spill Litigation Group
Honors & Awards
The Best Lawyers in America (Litigation – Insurance) – Best Lawyers® (2024)
The Best Lawyers in America (Personal Injury Litigation – Plaintiffs) – Best Lawyers® (2024)
Top 100 Super Lawyers in Houston – Thomson-Reuters (2020, 2021, 2022)
Rated AV® Preeminent™ – by Martindale-Hubbell® (2006– Present)
Super Lawyers – Rising Stars (Personal Injury) by Thomson-Reuters (2014 – 2015)
Super Lawyers (Personal Injury) by Thomson-Reuters (2016 – Present)
Top 25 Brain Injury Trial by National Trial Lawyers (2017 – Present)
Top 10 Trucking Trial Lawyers by National Trial Lawyers (2017 – Present)
Top 40 under 40 Injury Lawyers by National Trial Lawyers (2013 – 2016)
Top 100 Trial Lawyer – by National Trial Lawyers (2011 – Present)
Top 100 Trucking Trial Lawyers – The National Trial Lawyers (2018 – Present)
Top 100 Lawyers by National Trial Lawyers (2015 – Present)
Top Houston Personal Injury Attorney – Houstonia Magazine (2015, 2016, 2018 – Present)
Million Dollar Advocates Forum – by Multi-Million Dollar Advocates Forum (Life Member)
Multi-Million Dollar Advocates Forum – by Multi-Million Dollar Advocates Forum (Life Member)
Appellate Attorney of the Week – Texas Lawyer (2018)
Elite Trial Lawyers – Consumer Protection Finalist – by The National Law Journal (2018)
Nominee – Appellate Advocacy Award – by Pound Civil Justice Institute (2021)
Notable Appeals
In re Kristensen, 2014 WL 3778903, No. 14-14-00448-CV (Tex.App.— Houston [14th Dist.] July 31, 2014, no pet.)
Blevins v. Pepper-Lawson Constr., L.P., 2016 WL 5942220, No. 01-15-00820-CV (Tex.App.— Houston [1st Dist.] Oct. 13, 2016, no pet.)
In re N. Cypress Med. Ctr. Operating Co., Ltd., 559 S.W.3d 128 (Tex. 2018)
In re Chris Kilmer and Del Rio Const. Servs., No. 05-20-00814-CV (Tex. App.—Dallas [5th Dist.] Apr. 7, 2021)