Robert M. (Randy) Roach, Jr.

Robert M. (Randy) Roach, Jr. is the founding partner of Roach Newton LLP, a Texas litigation and appellate boutique with a special focus on the Texas Supreme Court, and offices in Houston, Austin, and Beaumont.  Randy’s almost 40 years of practice, which began at Vinson & Elkins in 1981, have focused on a unique combination of appeals, trials, and being the outside appellate lawyer added to trial teams. This combination has led to a career of high-profile appeals, major insurance coverage litigation, and being the legal ruling specialist at trial and arbitration for Fortune 500 companies and top trial lawyers.  He has served as state, regional, and national counsel for several major corporations with responsibility for specific legal issues decided by trial and appellate judges worth hundreds of millions and billions of dollars, such as punitives and intentional torts, insurance coverage, and contract interpretation disputes.

As an adjunct professor at the University of Texas and University of Houston law schools for the past 30 years, Randy has taught classes on advanced appellate advocacy and on insurance appeals.  All his classes focus on Randy’s judge-focused and law-driven methods for identifying, developing, and presenting winning legal solutions, at any point in the life cycle of dispute resolution.  In his classes, Randy teaches advanced Texas Supreme Court jurisprudence on gross negligence and punitives, insurance, breach of contract, fraud, fiduciary duties, and oil and gas.  He has made over 200 CLE presentations to lawyers on these same substantive law and advocacy topics.

Reflecting his unique fusion of nationally recognized appellate and trial practices, Randy is a member of both the invitation-only American Academy of Appellate Lawyers and the American Board of Trial Advocates.  Similarly, he is board certified both in Civil Appellate Law and in Personal Injury Trial Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization.  He has been named a Texas Super Lawyer and one of the top 100 lawyers in the Houston region.  His Firm’s appellate and insurance practices are nationally recognized by U.S. News. Randy has been listed in Best Lawyers in America for Appellate Practice and Insurance Law and in Chambers USA Leading Lawyers for Business-Insurance.  He is also listed as “Go-To” lawyer for Insurance Coverage Disputes on LinkedIn.  He is a sustaining member of PLAC and a member of the Insurance Information Council.

Giving back to the profession he loves, Randy has been the Chair of the State Bar of Texas’ Appellate Section, the Chair of the Council of Chairs of the State Bar of Texas, and the Chair of the Houston Bar Appellate Section.  Randy also served on a State District attorney grievance committee, and he was appointed as a special prosecutor on appeal in a series of high profile attorney disbarment proceedings.  When the Insurance Section of the State Bar was first created, Randy served as the Section’s Liaison to the Judiciary.  He is a Trustee of and Fellow in the Texas Supreme Court Historical Society.

Born in Westchester New York, Randy attended elementary school in Chicago and secondary school in Houston. While at Houston’s Memorial High School, he won numerous interscholastic writing and debate competitions, was awarded Superior Speaker at the National Student Congress, and was a class and student body President. He received his undergraduate B.A. degree magna cum laude from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. and received his J.D. from the University of Texas School of Law, where he was on the Texas Law Review and won the Hildebrand Moot Court Championship.  Prior to law school, Randy worked as a writer for the U.S. Senate Nutrition Committee and for the U.S. Supreme Court.