Legal Practice:

COTTEN SCHMIDT, L.L.P. – Fort Worth, Texas, Founding Partner, 1992-present.

Brown, Herman, Scott, Dean & Miles, L.L.P., Fort Worth, Texas, Associate and Partner, 1977-1992. 

Mr. Schmidt represents clients in many types of business and real estate transactions, including leasing, construction, financing, purchases and sales of property and businesses. He also advises and assists clients with the planning, organization, and funding of business ventures and represents individuals, and businesses in family and business disputes through mediation, arbitration, and litigation. He works with land owners to negotiate mineral leases and easements and represents both employers and employees in employment disputes and litigation and in EEOC investigations. He has served as counsel for medical facilities, physicians, and affiliated entities and professionals in business matters, administrative proceedings and litigation, including hospital and professional contracting, regulatory issues, employee matters, credentialing, and other business and governance issues. He has served as counsel to a number of mental health and rehabilitation hospitals and nursing homes in Texas, previously having represented the Texas Independent Nursing Home Association in regulatory matters before the Texas Department of Health. He has represented medical professionals and facilities before the Texas Department of Health, the Texas Department of Health and Human Services and before various licensing and regulatory agencies.  He served for six (6) years (1988-1994) as a Commissioner and Vice Chairman of the Texas Commission on Alcohol and Drug Abuse and assisted in drafting and lobbying for legislation requiring insurance coverage for treatment of alcohol and drug dependency, both of which were adopted by the Texas Legislature.

Notables

Mr. Schmidt has served as legal counsel in the United States to foreign nationals both in litigation and in numerous areas of concern, including immigration issues, acquisition of real estate, employment of staff and professionals, property management and preservation of privacy.

Mr. Schmidt represents clients in the construction industry and counts as notable achievements recovery of substantial mechanic’s and materialman’s liens and a settlement from an insurance company whose agent had issued fraudulent certificates of insurance for a construction project where a worker was killed.

Mr. Schmidt and his team obtained a multi-million dollar jury verdict and ultimate settlement in a breach of fiduciary duty lawsuit for a client who was forced out of the business that he helped build. 

Mr. Schmidt has been able to help prominent families discretely resolve very substantial disputes before those disputes were exposed to public trial. One such case involved a contest over a will and another case was a parent-child dispute over whether very substantial monetary transfers were gifts or loans to be repaid.

Representing a real estate developer in a large residential development deal that failed, Mr. Schmidt extricated his client from a lawsuit for specific performance prior to trial through a series of successful partial summary judgments, resulting in a favorable pretrial settlement.

In the medical field, Mr. Schmidt successfully represented a physician under investigation for fraud, successfully defended a medical facility’s owners from claims of theft of business opportunities, and has assisted physician groups navigating complex contracts with hospital and other provider groups.

EXPERICENCE MATTERS:

For forty-seven years, Mr. Schmidt has successfully navigated and concluded numerous transactions of many different kinds and sizes. He has achieved successful resolutions of just as many disputes likewise of many different kinds and sizes. That is experience. When a client encounters a legal problem, especially one that is complex and may seem beyond resolution, it is having a wealth of diverse experience in such matters that allows Mr. Schmidt to assist his clients to find those unique and successful resolutions.

Education

  • B.S. in Liberal Arts and Sciences — University of Kansas, 1974

  • J.D. — Southern Methodist University School of Law, 1977

Admissions

  • State Bar of Texas, 1977

  • United States District Court, Northern District of Texas

  • United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit

Professional & Personal Associations

  • Tarrant County Bar Association

  • Fellow of the Texas Bar Foundation

  • Former Commissioner and Vice-Chair of the Texas Commission on Alcohol and Drug Abuse

  • Christ Chapel Bible Church

  • Colonial Country Club

  • Jewell Charity

Honors and Affiliations:

  • Tarrant County Bar Association

  • Fellow of the Texas Bar Foundation

  • Former Commissioner and Vice-Chair of the Texas Commission on Alcohol and Drug Abuse

  • Received the Heatly Award from the Texas Commission on Alcohol and Drug Abuse in 1987

Community Involvement:

  • Christ Chapel

  • Jewel Charity (Cook Children’s Hospital Supporting Organization)

  • Board Member and President of Homeowner Associations

  • Colonial Country Club (member since 1978)