While she enjoys a general litigation practice, Nicole specializes in civil litigation, primarily medical malpractice defense. Other areas of practice that Nicole focuses on are premises liability and products liability. Her approach to cases is to make complex concepts accessible to the jury. Clients’ issues and concerns are approached personally and resolved collaboratively. Client collaboration remains a focus, with new secure internet tools to keep the client involved in the litigation process.
Nicole has nearly 27 years of experience as a litigator and has served as lead counsel in the defense of hospitals and nurses in a broad range of cases. Among many others, she has handled matters involving maternal and fetal injuries during labor and delivery, neurological damage, paralysis, drug overdose, respiratory depression as a result of conscious sedation procedures, pulmonary embolus, loss of limb, sexual misconduct in the hospital setting, aortic dissection, decubitus ulcers, and sepsis.
Her practice covers all phases of defense of health care liability claims, including discovery, witness preparation, expert retention, pretrial matters, motion practice, settlement negotiations, and trial. Many of these cases involve large document production against aggressive, well-financed plaintiff’s counsel.
As a result of her experience in litigating cases from start to finish, Nicole is frequently called upon to lecture and advise health care providers regarding issues relating to documentation, HIPAA violations, the dangers of social media, failure to go up the chain of command, and the effects of being reported to Texas’ licensing boards. She has presented and lectured to physicians, hospital directors, risk managers, floor nurses in a variety of units, and charge nurses on the defense of medical malpractice claims.
In addition, Nicole advises clients on a wide variety of matters, including HIPAA compliance, Physician and Nursing Peer Review matters, implementing and formulating Policies and Procedures, Root Cause Analysis, and Sentinel Events.
Nicole has successfully negotiated over 90 percent of all her claims to resolution. Those that did not resolve prior to trial ended in defense verdicts or settlements significantly below the demand. She has worked on numerous high-profile cases, including one involving a patient who claimed serious injury stemming from an improperly repaired episiotomy; Nicole’s client was ultimately dismissed from the case.
Over the years, Nicole has also secured reasonable settlements in matters seeking exceedingly high damages. With her thorough preparation, aggressive approach, and keen negotiations, she has obtained highly favorable results for her clients. These same clients praise Nicole’s frank and honest evaluations, quick grasp of and ability to communicate complex issues clearly and concisely, and ability to resolve and settle legitimate claims with minimal legal costs.
