R. Dean Gresham is a founding partner of Trial Lawyers United and a veteran trial attorney with more than 25 years representing individuals in catastrophic personal injury, wrongful death, and mass tort cases. His practice focuses on commercial trucking crashes, oilfield explosions, industrial accidents, defective products, toxic exposures, premises liability, and institutional negligence.

Mr. Gresham began his legal career on the defense side, representing corporate defendants in personal injury litigation. After two years, a single case changed his professional trajectory. He was assigned to defend a fast-food restaurant in a premises liability case where a six-year-old child fell from a playground onto concrete covered by half an inch of astroturf. The company’s internal documents described the facility as a “death trap,” and despite knowing of the danger, the company did nothing to correct it. The experience revealed fundamental injustice in his role on the defense, and he moved to the plaintiff side—a decision that has defined his career ever since.

Throughout his practice, Mr. Gresham has litigated complex cases involving catastrophic injuries and death. His results include leading families in the deadliest trucking manslaughter case in Texas history, where criminal charges resulted against the defendant company; forcing a natural gas utility to change consumer safety warnings nationwide through a class action against Atmos Energy; prompting safety reforms at a major Texas sporting venue following a motocross death case; and representing more than 200 homeowners in the LBJ Express highway construction defect litigation in Dallas. He has also handled 18-wheeler crashes, oilfield explosions, industrial accidents, and complex premises liability and institutional negligence cases nationwide.

Over the last 25 years, I am honored to have been chosen by my peers to receive many awards and accolades, including: