Quentin Brogdon ’89
May 11, 2022 –– For Quentin Brogdon, the 2022 President of the Texas Trial Lawyers Association and 1989 UH Law Center graduate, trial work is more than a job – it’s a passion.
Brogdon has primarily handled civil cases, specifically personal injury cases, for the bulk of his career, many in which he felt that he “was able to make a real difference in real people’s lives.”
And Brogdon, partner at Crain Brogdon Rogers LLP in Dallas, said he “wouldn’t have it any other way.”
Brogdon, who considers himself a shy, introspective person, didn’t expect to enjoy being in front of people in a courtroom setting. But one class in his last year at the UH Law Center changed everything.
“It was only after I attended a trial advocacy class at the University of Houston Law Center that I discovered my passion for law and my passion specifically for trial work,” he said, adding that it was adjunct professor John M. O’Quinn’s presentation on expert witnesses that specifically motivated him to become a trial lawyer.
Brogdon went on to earn his law degree from the UH Law Center and a master’s in business administration from the University of Houston’s C.T. Bauer College of Business in 1989.
“During over 30 years in the practice of law, I have encountered lawyers from a myriad of different law schools,” Brogdon said. “I have never felt underprepared. In fact, I have always felt that my experience and training at the University of Houston Law Center prepared me fully for any and all challenges that I have faced since I graduated from law school.”
After working at a large commercial litigation firm and then for Harris County District Attorney’s Office, Brogdon shifted his work to personal injury cases and hasn’t looked back.
“Individuals can have their lives transformed by the outcome of a jury trial,” he said.
“Becoming president of the Texas Trial Lawyers Association is the culmination of a professional lifetime of being a trial lawyer,” Brogdon said. “The lawyers who comprise the Texas Trial Lawyers Association have more heart, more passion, and more fight than any lawyers I know. I am truly humbled and honored to be their president.”
As someone who’s dedicated his career to trial work, Brogdon said the “demise of the jury trial” is of deep concern to him, particularly for aspiring and newly-minted lawyers.
He encourages young lawyers who want to get trial experience to “make a concentrated, determined effort” to do so.
“When parties have a dispute that needs to be tried at the courthouse, they need to be able to have access to lawyers who have the experience, the abilities, and the ethics to try their dispute,” Brogdon said.
In addition to his leadership at the Texas Trial Lawyers Association, Brogdon is also a fellow at the International Academy of Trial Lawyers, American College of Trial Lawyers, and International Society of Barristers. He has previously served as the president of the American Board of Trial Advocates - Dallas Chapter, Dallas Trial Lawyers Association, and Association of Plaintiff Interstate Trucking Lawyers of America.
The first decade or so of practicing law, Brogdon said he “simply came to work each day and practiced law.” He was involved in very few legal associations, he said.
“At about the 10-year point in my practice I had an epiphany. I decided that in order to avoid burnout, I needed to get involved in as many legal associations as possible and to work to give back to the profession,” Brogdon said.
It was this community involvement and diversification of his time and talents that “literally saved [his] personal and professional life,” Brogdon said.
“I have found that the friendships and associations I have made with other lawyers in the profession have been enriching, sustaining, and just plain fun."
