Mark Wawro

Partner, Susman Godfrey
Suite 5100
1000 Louisiana
Houston, TX 77002
(713) 653-7804

Mark Wawro has produced an outstanding string of trial victories. Since 1980, he has won damage awards for plaintiffs totaling more than $790,000,000, and millions more by settlements. Wawro has been just as successful representing defendants. He teamed with Steve Susman at trial in Zapata County, Texas, to defeat a claim by Coastal Oil & Gas Corporation seeking a judgment worth more than $700 million. This case was profiled in The Texas Lawyer.

Wawro's trial achievements have been widely recognized. In 2005, The American Lawyer called two of his victories "impressive" and "well-litigated." The Texas Lawyer called his $536.2 million jury verdict "groundbreaking." Click the underlined links to see these articles. Wawro's cases have been profiled in the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Houston Chronicle, The National Law Journal, and USA Today.

Wawro is featured in The Best Lawyers in America, and listed as a "Super Lawyer" by Texas Monthly and Inside Houston. He has been called one of the "Best Lawyers: Business Litigation" and "Best Lawyers: Commercial Litigation" by The American Lawyer and one of the "World's Leading Litigation Lawyers" by International Commercial Litigation. He is ranked one of the best lawyers in the United States by both Chambers Global and Chambers USA. Chambers USA praised Wawro's "thorough preparation and excellent presentation skills in a broad litigation practice."

Wawro's busy trial practice has not kept him from pro bono and community service activities. In what The American Lawyer called an "impressive pro bono victory," Wawro teamed with Barry Scheck and the Innocence Project to overturn the wrongful conviction of George Rodriguez, who had been imprisoned based on inaccurate forensic evidence. This case was profiled in USA Today, The Texas Lawyer, and The Houston Chronicle. Wawro is on the Board of several non-profit organizations, including Texas Appleseed, Inprint, Inc., and the Gulf Region Advocacy Center. He is on the Advisory Board of the Texas Innocence Network and a member of the Museum of Fine Arts Film Committee.

Wawro was born and raised in Hartford, Connecticut and attended Brown University, where he graduated with honors in 1975. After working with Providence's poor and disadvantaged community through the Volunteers in Service to America program for one year at Rhode Island Legal Services, Wawro came to Texas to attend the University of Texas School of Law, where he served as Articles Editor of the Texas Law Review and graduated with honors in 1979. The following year, Wawro served as a law clerk to the Honorable Carolyn D. King of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

Wawro has written articles on trial tactics and antitrust issues and is Board Certified in Civil Trial Law by the State Bar of Texas. He is a member of the American Bar Association, the State Bar of Texas, and the Houston Bar Association, and is a Fellow of the Texas Bar Foundation.