Extraordinary legal cases require an extraordinary team, and the lawyers at Garcia & Martinez fit the bill quite well. The Rio Grande Valley firm has been litigating some of the most complex legal cases in the Valley for several years. Between the three of them, Albert Garcia, Adrian Martinez, and Alejandro Martinez have over 60 years of experience handling complex lawsuits involving large insurance, oil and gas, manufacturing, and investment companies.
A diverse and expansive combination of backgrounds and experience is what makes Garcia & Martinez a driving force in the legal arena. Even the history of how the firm came about is unique. Former banker Albert Garcia was a very respected lawyer in insurance, product liability, and consumer protection litigation, while Adrian Martinez, former Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) prosecutor, had years of experience in environmental, oil and gas, property rights, and business litigation. The two met when they were opposing counsel in a high-profile lawsuit involving Halliburton, one of the largest oil and gas companies in the country. Despite their conflicting positions, they developed a good friendship and mutual admiration for each other’s work. A short time later, they founded Garcia & Martinez – a full-service boutique law firm specializing in business and insurance litigation, product liability, personal injury, and with the recent addition of Alejandro Martinez, immigration.
The firm expanded to immigration work with the recent addition of Alejandro Martinez as a general partner. Prior to joining, he was a co-founder and partner at a McAllen law firm specializing in immigration matters. Martinez has extensive knowledge in government law and immigration. “I have a passion for helping people who have been in the worst of places to obtain humanitarian visas,” said Alejandro Martinez.
Even more notable than their individual resumes is what this team has been able to accomplish together. Of note, Garcia & Martinez obtained a large verdict for a Valley client in a high-profile case against the National Heritage Foundation, a company in the Washington D.C. area that managed hundreds of millions of dollars for philanthropic families. The National Heritage Foundation had two types of programs that they marketed to high-income families as a way to reduce their income taxes—a split dollar life insurance plan and a charitable gift annuity. After Garcia & Martinez obtained a $9 million verdict for its Valley clients, it brought to light the problems with these programs and eventually led to the National Heritage Foundation’s agreement to reimburse hundreds of investors the money they had invested in its programs.
Garcia & Martinez is also on the forefront of litigation involving urban drilling. As populations boom and cities expand, the trend over the last several years has been for oil and gas production to migrate from rural areas and move closer to residential neighborhoods. While oil and gas exploration is very important to the Texas economy, a person’s home is their castle; their right to live peacefully in their home is also sacred in Texas. The firm has represented several dozens of people in Hidalgo County who live near oil and gas drilling operations. In some cases those operations have damaged their homes and interfered with their legal right to enjoy and live peacefully in their homes. Garcia & Martinez was forced to sue several large oil and gas service companies in multiple lawsuits to protect their clients’ rights.
Recently, Adrian and Alejandro Martinez advised several Edinburg residents when Royal Production Company sought a permit from the City of Edinburg to drill a gas well adjacent to a residential neighborhood. Also, the law firm continues to prosecute an urban drilling case against several oil and gas service companies on behalf of several dozen families in Peñitas.
Garcia & Martinez hopes to continue to make an impact on its community by protecting the rights of Rio Grande Valley residents, regardless of how big or powerful the company or institution they are going against. “Many of our clients are referred to us by other attorneys,” said Martinez. “They know we are well-equipped to handle these complex cases.”
