AZA Regulation, formally Ahmad, Zavitsanos & Mensing, has operated as a Houston trial agency since 2001, constructed round a gaggle of attorneys who attempt circumstances relatively than settle them. Chambers USA ranked the agency for its twelfth consecutive 12 months in 2025, describing it as a house for “true courtroom attorneys” with a monitor document in advanced industrial and mental property disputes. Identify companion Todd Mensing of AZA holds board certification in Civil Trial Regulation, a credential awarded to a median of fewer than 5 Texas attorneys per 12 months, and has tried greater than sixty circumstances throughout vitality, patent, contract, commerce secret, and employment issues. Particular documented outcomes, drawn from court docket data and agency summaries, present how the apply truly divides.
AZA’s core classes, as described by Chambers and mirrored within the agency’s personal case archive, embody industrial litigation, mental property, vitality, commerce secrets and techniques, non-competes, and company investigations. Greatest Legal professionals acknowledged the agency as Tier 1 in Houston for industrial litigation, mental property, employment legislation for administration, building litigation, private damage litigation for defendants, and appellate work in its most up-to-date version. For Todd Mensing and AZA, these classes don’t keep neatly separated; the trial document runs throughout all of them.
Power Disputes and the Subsurface
Amongst AZA’s documented vitality circumstances, the SilverBow Sources litigation produced one of the scrutinized Texas oil-and-gas verdicts of latest years. SilverBow Sources Working LLC and co-plaintiff El Dorado Fuel & Oil, Inc. sued ETC Area Providers, LLC, an affiliate of Power Switch, alleging that the defendant’s injection of pure gasoline processing byproducts trespassed on subsurface formations the plaintiffs had the correct to occupy.
Todd Mensing at AZA served as one of many trial counsel for SilverBow, alongside agency companions Taylor Freeman, Jane Robinson, and Cameron Byrd. A McMullen County jury within the 343rd District Courtroom returned a mixed award of $41.8 million: $24.5 million to SilverBow and $17.3 million to El Dorado. Verdict Search and The Nationwide Regulation Journal positioned the consequence on their nationwide top-verdict lists for 2023.
Taking Patent Claims By the Federal Circuit
Chambers ranked AZA’s mental property apply for the fifth consecutive 12 months in 2025 and the agency’s industrial litigation class for the twelfth. IAM Patent 1000, which tracks patent litigation specialists, has listed the agency and ranked Todd Mensing of AZA as a number one IP litigator. His patent and IP work spans infringement claims, commerce secret disputes, and industrial expertise circumstances, usually for vitality and industrial sector shoppers.
One of many agency’s most carefully adopted patent wins concerned a problem to Google over spreadsheet navigation patents. AZA represented Information Engine Applied sciences LLC, whose patents described “a extremely intuitive, user-friendly interface with acquainted pocket book tabs for navigating the three-dimensional worksheet setting.” A Delaware district court docket had dismissed these claims as protecting summary concepts ineligible for patent safety. The Federal Circuit reversed that ruling in October 2018, reinstating three of the patents and holding that the claimed expertise was sufficiently concrete to qualify.
That end result illustrates how AZA approaches patent disputes: representing patent holders in opposition to main defendants and carrying claims via federal appellate proceedings when district courts rule in opposition to shoppers. For Todd Mensing and AZA, the patent docket suits throughout the similar trial-oriented mannequin because the industrial and vitality work.
A Breach of Contract Case in Federal Courtroom
Port of Houston Authority v. Louis Dreyfus Commodities reveals how the agency’s industrial contract apply appears in federal court docket. AZA represented the Port of Houston Authority in a breach of contract go well with in opposition to a grain elevator operator in Case No. 4:19-cv-00746, earlier than U.S. District Choose Lynn Hughes within the Southern District of Texas. Todd Mensing served as lead trial counsel for AZA all through the continuing.
The dispute turned on upkeep obligations below a long-term working settlement with the grain elevator operator. After a jury trial, the Port of Houston acquired a $22.32 million verdict for breach of contract. Translating grain elevator upkeep requirements and operator efficiency benchmarks right into a damages framework the jury might quantify was a central problem at trial.
Commerce Secret Protection within the Power Sector
Sentinel Integrity Options, Inc. v. Mistras Group, Inc. reveals how Todd Mensing and AZA strategy commerce secret protection with a noncompete overlay. Sentinel, a competitor to Mistras within the industrial infrastructure inspection trade, sued Mistras and a number of other of its workers for breach of non-competition agreements, theft of commerce secrets and techniques, and tortious interference. Sentinel sought $9 million in damages.
AZA, with Mensing and John Zavitsanos as trial counsel, first defeated Sentinel’s efforts to acquire a brief restraining order and preliminary injunction. When the case proceeded to a three-week jury trial, Sentinel acquired a no-liability discovering on all claims and Mistras was awarded $750,000 in attorneys’ charges via trial, plus extra charges on enchantment. The court docket issued a ultimate judgment canceling Sentinel’s trademark and awarding Mistras its prices.
Sentinel additionally illustrates a sample that seems throughout a number of AZA commerce secret issues: shoppers accused of misappropriation who’re competing lawfully. Noncompete enforcement mixed with commerce secret claims and trademark disputes shouldn’t be uncommon within the vitality providers sector, the place personnel motion between rivals is widespread and former employers usually attain for injunctive aid as a primary response.
AZA’s employment docket extends past commerce secret protection to affirmative govt claims. Mensing received a jury verdict for former govt Gaines Watkins in opposition to Enter/Output Inc., a seismic knowledge firm, in an age discrimination go well with. The vitality trade context recurred: Watkins had labored within the seismic processing enterprise, and the case turned on whether or not his departure was an illegal termination relatively than a authentic discount in drive.
Throughout these apply areas, from vitality and patents to contract disputes, commerce secrets and techniques, and employment claims, the widespread thread is that Mensing and the agency have taken circumstances to verdict relatively than settling earlier than the jury might weigh in. Chambers’ description of the agency as residence to “true courtroom attorneys” displays a apply mannequin that’s trial-ready by design. Greatest Legal professionals named AZA Tier 1 in Houston throughout six litigation classes in its most up-to-date version. What the case document reveals, greater than any rating, is a agency that takes circumstances to the jury and wins a big share of them.
Preserve studying: John Zavitsanos Named One in every of Prime Regulation Agency Managing Companions within the Nation
