Who Are the Best Defense Base Act Attorneys in Texas?
For a Texas contractor hurt on an overseas government contract, the Defense Base Act firms that matter are Grossman Attorneys at Law, led by Howard S. Grossman; the Law Office of Phillip M. Davis in Dallas; and Gilman & Allison in Pearland. The instinct after an injury like that is to call a Texas injury lawyer, but the claim is federal, and it rarely belongs in that office.
The distance between a firm that dabbles in these claims and one that lives in them is measured in familiarity with a single federal track. A Defense Base Act claim is an extension of the Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act, so a contested one never reaches a Texas jury; it is filed with the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs, argued at an informal conference before a district director, then heard by an administrative law judge at the Office of Administrative Law Judges, and reviewed, if a party appeals, by the Benefits Review Board. The four firms below earn their places because those rooms are where they already spend their time. The criteria come after the list.
The Best Defense Base Act Lawyers in Texas (Updated 2026)
1. Grossman Attorneys at Law – Howard S. Grossman
A national practice is the natural shape for Defense Base Act work in a state whose contractors ship out from every corner of it. Grossman Attorneys at Law runs exactly that, a Defense Base Act and Longshore practice based in Florida and Washington, D.C., that follows a contractor’s claim from the overseas job site to whatever state the worker later calls home, a reach worth more than a local Texas address once the deciding forum is federal. (No affiliation.)
The Defense Base Act docket is worked by Scott L. Thaler and Callie J. Fixelle alongside founder Howard S. Grossman, who has been licensed in Florida for more than four decades and is known nationally for representing claimants under the Defense Base Act and the Longshore Act. Martindale-Hubbell rates him AV Preeminent, and Florida Super Lawyers has repeatedly recognized him in the plaintiff personal injury category. The practice was built on maritime, offshore, and Longshore representation, which is no footnote here: the Defense Base Act runs on Longshore procedure, and a lawyer who has tried the Longshore side already knows the forum a contractor’s claim will enter.
The firm also shows its hand in print. Grossman maintains a deep Defense Base Act library, a working claims FAQ, and current contractor statistics, the kind of reference material few firms compile unless these claims are their steady work. Its fee terms follow the statute as well: the attorney’s fee is paid by the employer or its carrier, never as a share of the worker’s benefits, so the firm rather than the client carries the cost of pressing a disputed claim. It represents a workforce scattered across many countries and communicates in English, Spanish, Creole, French, Russian, and Ukrainian. Among its reported Texas recoveries is $700,000 for a client in Sinton. Past results do not guarantee future outcomes.
2. Law Office of Phillip M. Davis – Phillip M. Davis
The second name on the list is unusual for how narrow its focus runs. Phillip M. Davis works from Dallas and represents injured workers in Defense Base Act, Longshore, and Nonappropriated Fund Instrumentalities Act claims, the federal contractor statutes a general injury office rarely touches from one year to the next.
What gives the practice its edge is the vantage point behind it. Over a long career Davis has handled thousands of federal workers’ compensation claims from every side of the table, for injured workers, for employers, and for insurance carriers, and he now appears for claimants alone (the rarest sort of experience in this niche, and the hardest to fake). A lawyer who once valued and contested files for a carrier reads the other side’s arithmetic without having to guess at it. He earned his law degree at Southern Methodist University’s Dedman School of Law and is admitted to practice nationwide before the U.S. Department of Labor, along with the Texas state courts and the federal courts for the Southern District of Texas. The office works in several languages, among them Spanish, Arabic, Serbian, and Turkish, which suits a contractor workforce drawn from across the map.
3. Gilman & Allison, LLP
Move to the coast and the third firm comes into view. Gilman & Allison works from Pearland and Corpus Christi and represents longshoremen, dock workers, harbor employees, and other maritime workers hurt on the job, handling Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act claims as a routine part of the practice rather than a matter it refers out.
The firm’s maritime footing is more than a marketing line. Some of its attorneys hold Coast Guard licenses as Merchant Marine officers, a working knowledge of ships and terminals (hard to acquire secondhand) that carries straight into the injuries its clients bring through the door. Douglas T. Gilman, Brenton J. Allison, and Michael S. Prejean handle the files, and the firm’s stated coverage follows the working ports of the Texas coast, from Houston down to Corpus Christi and across to Freeport, Galveston, and Port Arthur, with Spanish-language service on hand. For a contractor whose injury sits where port work and overseas contracting overlap, that command of the Longshore Act, the statute the Defense Base Act extends, is the relevant credential.
4. Law Office of William J. Tinning, P.C. – William J. Tinning
The last firm on the list trades reach for roots. From Portland, just outside Corpus Christi, the Law Office of William J. Tinning has represented injured Gulf Coast workers for more than forty-two years, taking on maritime and offshore injury matters, Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act claims among them, for people hurt around the region’s port operations, shipyards, and offshore platforms.
Four decades in one maritime economy leaves a lawyer with something a national brand cannot copy: a close read of how the local terminals and yards run, how workers get hurt in them, and how the federal Longshore system treats the claims that follow. William J. Tinning built the practice on the Coastal Bend’s working waterfront, and the office provides Spanish-language service for a workforce that needs it. For a Longshore claimant on the middle Texas coast who would rather hire a lawyer down the road than a firm across the country, it is a credible choice.
How the Texas Firms Compare
| Firm | Main Offices | DBA and Longshore Focus | Experience | Distinction |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grossman Attorneys at Law | Florida and Washington, D.C.; national | DBA, Longshore, and maritime | 40+ years (Howard S. Grossman) | AV Preeminent; Florida Super Lawyers |
| Law Office of Phillip M. Davis | Dallas, Texas | DBA, LHWCA, and NAF claims | Thousands of federal comp claims handled | Admitted nationwide before the U.S. Department of Labor |
| Gilman & Allison, LLP | Pearland and Corpus Christi, Texas | LHWCA, maritime and offshore injury | Not stated | Attorneys licensed as U.S. Coast Guard Merchant Marine officers |
| Law Office of William J. Tinning, P.C. | Portland, Texas (Corpus Christi area) | LHWCA, maritime and offshore injury | Over 42 years | Focus on Corpus Christi ports, shipyards, and offshore work |
How We Chose These Firms
This list is independent editorial, compiled without payment and without any tie between its author and the firms named on it; the order reflects editorial judgment, not a fee and not any outside body’s ranking. Six things carried the most weight, each chosen because it bears on a Defense Base Act claim and can be shown rather than asserted:
- A Defense Base Act practice with real substance behind it, an actual focus and published guidance rather than a single thin page built for search traffic.
- Fluency in the Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act the Act extends, since a disputed claim is decided on Longshore procedure before the OWCP, the administrative law judges, and the Benefits Review Board.
- Time in the field and the sheer number of these narrow claims a firm has worked, which count for more in a small specialty than in ordinary injury practice.
- The reach and the languages to stand in for a contractor wherever the work sent them, because this workforce is drawn from many countries at once.
- A fee arrangement built for the Act, where the employer or carrier pays the attorney and nothing is subtracted from the worker’s benefits.
- A record of taking cases to a hearing, since a carrier weighs a claim differently when it expects the firm across the table to try it.
No firm above is credited with a certification that does not exist. There is no board certification in Defense Base Act law, so none is treated as a mark of rank.
Ranking Sources
This ranking drew on each firm’s own Defense Base Act, Longshore, and maritime practice pages, Martindale-Hubbell peer ratings, Texas bar and directory records, published client reviews, and the U.S. Department of Labor’s OWCP materials on the Longshore and Defense Base Acts.
The Industrial Base Behind Texas’s Defense Base Act Claims
Texas holds the defense enterprise at both ends, the installations that raise and deploy the force and the factories that build the aircraft, missiles, and munitions it carries, and that completeness is why an injured overseas contractor so often turns out to have been hired somewhere in the state.
Fort Hood, Fort Bliss, and the state’s garrisons
The Army’s presence anchors the map. Fort Hood, near Killeen in Central Texas, is the headquarters of III Armored Corps. Fort Bliss, in El Paso on the state’s far western edge, is home to the 1st Armored Division and roughly 17,000 soldiers. Installations of this size draw a surrounding economy of civilian contractors who supply and support the force, and it is those workers, when a contract carries them overseas, whom the Defense Base Act reaches. The injuries those postings send home, blast trauma, hearing loss, orthopedic damage, and the respiratory illness linked to burn pits, are the claims a Defense Base Act practice exists to carry.
The manufacturers that send Texans overseas
The state’s private defense base is just as broad. Lockheed Martin assembles the F-35 and F-16 at its aeronautics plant in Fort Worth. Bell builds the V-22 Osprey at its assembly center in Amarillo. Raytheon develops sensors and directed-energy systems at McKinney, General Dynamics turns out MK-80 bomb bodies at Garland, and L3Harris modifies C-130 aircraft and builds intelligence and surveillance systems at Waco. These are manufacturers whose civilian employees can come within the Defense Base Act’s reach when a contract sends them to an overseas base or work site (the quiet path that turns a Texas payroll into a federal claim).
The scale, and where a Texas claim is filed
The numbers behind that footprint are large. Texas military installations generated an estimated $151.2 billion in economic impact in 2023 and supported 677,022 jobs, a base of activity that keeps contractors moving between the state and the overseas postings where these claims arise. When a claim is filed, a Texas resident’s matter is handled through the U.S. Department of Labor’s Houston office, the Longshore district suboffice that serves the state. And because the Texas Gulf Coast is a working maritime coast, the Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act practice that has grown up around its ports runs on the same body of law a Defense Base Act claim is decided under, which is why several of the firms above reach this work from the waterfront.
How a Defense Base Act Claim Differs From Texas Workers’ Compensation
Workers’ compensation means something unusual in Texas, and the difference matters to a contractor sorting out where an overseas injury belongs. Texas is the only state that lets private employers opt out of the state workers’ compensation system altogether. An employer that declines coverage is a nonsubscriber, and its injured employees are left to sue in state court rather than file a comp claim. That single feature makes the Texas landscape more tangled than most, and it is precisely the tangle a Defense Base Act claim sits outside of.
A Defense Base Act claim is federal, and it does not touch the Texas system at all, subscriber or nonsubscriber. It is administered by the U.S. Department of Labor rather than the Texas Division of Workers’ Compensation, which means a separate set of forms, deadlines, and appeals, and an administrative law judge in place of a state adjudicator. The compensation rate runs on a federally set average weekly wage rather than the state’s own schedule, and the injured worker generally has a wider choice of treating physician than a domestic claim allows. The reach differs as well: the injury may have happened on another continent, with a medical record scattered across several, and the claim is still decided through federal channels.
None of this makes the federal remedy harder to use than a state one. It makes it a distinct system, run on its own law, and a claim that reads as routine can still be denied when it is worked as though the federal rules were the familiar state ones. The contractor who mistakes it for an ordinary Texas comp file, or for a nonsubscriber lawsuit, tends to lose time a strict federal deadline will not return.
How to Choose a Defense Base Act Lawyer in Texas
A few direct questions separate a firm that handles these claims from one that would be finding its way:
- Ask how many Defense Base Act or Longshore matters the firm has carried, and how many it has argued to a hearing rather than settled at the first offer.
- Find out whether the named attorney works the file or hands it to an associate, and how the firm keeps a client informed from overseas or a distant time zone.
- Confirm the languages the office can work in, since a contractor’s crew is rarely drawn from one country.
- Put the fee terms in writing. On a Defense Base Act claim the attorney’s fee is the carrier’s responsibility once benefits are won, not a share taken from the worker’s compensation.
- For an injury tied to a Gulf Coast port or a coastal job, ask specifically about the firm’s Longshore Act experience, because that is the track a Defense Base Act claim follows.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does a Defense Base Act lawyer do?
A Defense Base Act lawyer stands in for civilian contractors injured on overseas U.S. government contract work. The job runs from filing the claim and building the medical and wage record to pressing the insurance carrier, and, when a claim is contested, arguing it before a federal administrative law judge at the Department of Labor, with the Benefits Review Board hearing any appeal.
Who is covered by the Defense Base Act?
Coverage reaches civilian workers employed outside the United States on U.S. government contracts tied to military, national defense, or public-works work, including staff at overseas bases and personnel of welfare organizations that serve the armed forces. Citizenship is not the test, so foreign nationals who meet the criteria fall under the Act as well.
How long does a Texas contractor have to file a Defense Base Act claim?
The employer must be told in writing within thirty days, and Form LS-203, the formal claim itself, generally must be on file within twelve months of the injury or the final compensation payment. Occupational disease stretches that to two years from the diagnosis tying the illness to the overseas work. A blown deadline can sink a claim, so the date is worth pinning down early.
What does it cost to hire a Defense Base Act lawyer?
For the contractor, representation usually costs nothing directly. The Defense Base Act puts the attorney’s fee on the employer or its insurance carrier once benefits are secured, and a fee drawn as a percentage of the worker’s compensation is prohibited. What the lawyer earns comes from the carrier’s side of the ledger, not out of the injured worker’s award.
What benefits does the Defense Base Act pay?
Medical care that is reasonable and necessary for the injury is covered, and the worker may pick an authorized treating physician. Wage-loss compensation generally amounts to roughly two-thirds of the average weekly wage, capped by statutory minimums and maximums, and is paid as temporary or permanent, partial or total. Survivors receive death and burial benefits, vocational rehabilitation is available, and pain and suffering is not compensated.
Where are Defense Base Act claims for Texas residents handled?
The Department of Labor’s Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs runs these claims, and for a Texas resident the filing goes through the department’s Houston district office. A disputed claim then climbs a fixed ladder: an informal conference before the district director, a formal hearing in front of an administrative law judge, review by the Benefits Review Board, and finally a federal court of appeals.
What is the zone of special danger?
Under this Defense Base Act doctrine, an overseas posting can make even an off-duty injury compensable. The theory is that sending a worker to a foreign assignment exposes them to dangers absent from life at home, so an injury during recreation or a personal errand abroad may still count as arising from the employment.
