Attorney Highlight - Hon. Mike Lee

My name is Mike Lee. I'm a native and lifelong resident of the city of Dallas. I work at The Willis Law Group main office in Garland, affectionately known as G-1.

What Is Your Background?

I went to Bishop Dunn High School and the University of Dallas before going off to the University of Texas at Austin for law school. Since my graduation from law school, I have been involved in litigation practice almost exclusively for the past 38 years. I had the good fortune of being appointed to a District Court bench twice by Governor Greg Abbott. I served as Judge of the 95th District Court and of the 256th District Court before I joined the Willis Law Group as Senior Counsel.

What Areas of Practice Do You Focus On?

My practice is focused on complex civil litigation, partly in the transportation realm, partly in the premises Dram Shop realm, and also in complex commercial litigation, such as cases involving credit card companies, the big companies, and suits between those companies.

What Is Your Favorite or Most Memorable Case?

My favorite case is one that we received at the Willis Law Group just a month after I started as senior counsel with the firm. I was assigned to handle this litigation. It was a suit that arose out of a double fatality in Far West Texas. Two elderly sisters were backseat passengers in a Toyota van that was driven by the son of one of them at highway speed while driving on a ranch to Market Road. He ran a stop sign, and he ran it again at highway speed. And our client was the truck driver and his company, who broadsided that Toyota minivan and flipped it six times, which sadly resulted in the deaths of the two elderly ladies. We got into the litigation and jumped in with both feet and engaged in early discovery, including meeting with and then deposing the state trooper, gaining enough information about the driver of the minivan that we were able to take a deposition of him up front. We were able to convince him to admit on record that he was the sole cause of the deaths of his mother and his aunt. The result of that is that this litigation, which had huge exposure to or potential exposure to our client, was ultimately dismissed without payment by our client by the plaintiff. And the litigation team that we put on that case did an outstanding job to reach that result.

What Is Your Greatest Accomplishment?

The highlight of my professional career, and my greatest accomplishment, has been developing a career of such substance that the governor of the state of Texas twice appointed me to serve on a District Court bench. This has undoubtedly been the highlight of my career to date.

What Do You Like About Being an Attorney?

Engaging in the practice of law as an attorney gives me the opportunity to deal with the problems my clients face and try to resolve those problems, which are sometimes very significant, in a way that is beneficial or at least acceptable to them. And that is clearly the thing I liked most about being an attorney.

What Do You Like About Living in Dallas?

I love the city of Dallas. It gives me every opportunity to do anything I want to do and see anything I want to see. And yet it's close enough to the rural parts of the state that I can get out and enjoy time at the lake or in a state park. But then I can always go back home and have access to my office, to major league sports, to the arts, and everything else that I could wish to encounter, all within the city of Dallas.

What Is A Fun Fact About You??

I'd like to mention two fun facts about myself that are not in my firm profile. One is that I've run and finished five marathons. Something that, to me, seems impossible. And frankly, I can't believe I've done that. I won't run another marathon. However, I ran and completed five. Additionally, I was a college baseball player, and I did so with a lot of skills. I was a second-baseman in college after being a catcher in high school. But I didn't have the arm to really compete anywhere other than effectively at second base, though I did play some catcher, some second, some shortstop, and some third base while in college, and I was a pretty good ballplayer. The interesting thing about that is that a scout let me know that as well as I played the game and as good as my statistics were, I was not likely to make the major leagues and, in fact, would not make the major leagues. And I thanked him for telling me that because I told him well, then you've made my decision easy. I'm going to law school.

What Are Your Charitable Endeavors?

I have been heavily involved in elementary education at the parochial school level. I served 20 years on my parochial school board, and for 19 of those, I served as Chair of the Finance Council. I also served nine years of that as the head track and field coach for the middle school kids. I am so pleased that one of my two children has ended up teaching in public schools at the elementary school level. And we are very pleased with our son's choice of career because elementary education has been a passion of mine throughout.?

The second charitable organization I'd like to address is my involvement with the Texas Lawyers Assistance Program. And through the Texas Lawyers Assistance Program , I've been involved for the last 30 years with an organization called Texas Lawyers Concerned for Lawyers and have served as one of the three trustees of something known as the Sheeran-Crowley Wellness Trust. I've served as a trustee since 1999. The Sheeran-Crowley Trust works with lawyers, judges, and law students across the state who suffer from a mental condition, alcoholism, or addiction and who need treatment for that condition but do not have the funds to pay for the treatment. The trust makes it possible for every lawyer, judge, and law student who needs that sort of treatment to receive that sort of treatment. And I'm very proud of the work we have done in the Sheeran-Crowley Wellness Trust to make that available across the entire state of Texas to the entire profession.

I am in recovery from alcoholism. I have not found it necessary to take a drink of alcohol for a little over 30 years since September 9, 1993, and the recovery programs that I have worked on, including my recovery through the Texas Lawyers Assistance Program and Texas Lawyers Concerned for Lawyers, have made me a much better person, a much better citizen, a much better husband, a much better parent, and unquestionably a much better lawyer. And it is without that recovery, of course, that I could never have ascended to the bench in the first place. Much less being an alive, productive individual. My sobriety is very important to me. It's very important to my wife and my children. And it is one of the driving aspects of my life.