Meet Daniel Johnson
Daniel Johnson, a founding partner of Houston's Johnson Garcia LLP, is a seventh-generation Texan who grew up in a small Brazoria County town where he absorbed the values of hardworking people. He headed to Austin for college, earning a philosophy degree from the University of Texas while working late nights as the venue manager at the legendary honky-tonk Stubb's. Before settling on law, he followed a wandering curiosity into teaching, instructing English to university students outside Tokyo and later teaching Spanish and ESL to low-income high schoolers in inner-city Houston. That blend of grit and intellectual range would come to define his approach to advocacy.
Law school is where everything crystallized. At South Texas College of Law Houston, Daniel distinguished himself almost immediately, and it was during his first semester that he met Juan Garcia. The two became study partners and close friends, and the earliest sketch of what would become Johnson Garcia LLP took shape between them more than fifteen years ago. Daniel graduated in 2004 as valedictorian of his class, served as an Articles Editor on the Law Review, and racked up state and national moot court championships, including the American College of Trial Lawyers' national tournament in New York City and a national title he won at Harvard alongside Garcia.
After finishing at the top of his class, Daniel earned a coveted federal clerkship, working closely with two U.S. District Court judges in the Southern District of Texas and gaining an inside view of how complex cases move through the federal system. He then built a formidable "big law" career, practicing in the litigation section of Fulbright & Jaworski (now Norton Rose Fulbright) before moving to Sutherland Asbill & Brennan (now Eversheds Sutherland), where he rose to senior partner and was named managing partner of the firm's Houston office. Representing some of the world's largest corporations in high-stakes disputes gave him a deep understanding of how the other side thinks, knowledge he now turns to his clients' advantage.
Ultimately, Daniel chose to walk away from that corporate world to devote his entire practice to representing injured people, founding Johnson Garcia LLP to do exactly that. His work spans wrongful death, brain injury, catastrophic burn, 18-wheeler, and offshore and maritime injury cases, among other serious claims, and the firm has recovered hundreds of millions of dollars for those it represents. A Fellow of the Texas Bar Foundation, Daniel has been recognized year after year as a Texas Super Lawyer (and earlier as a Rising Star), and was named to the Houston Business Journal's 40 Under 40. As the firm puts it, what matters most to him is helping everyday people.