Don D. Martinson

Director

Don Martinson joined the firm in 1973. His practice at Fanning Harper Martinson Brandt & Kutchin, P.C. is concentrated on mass tort and related products liability litigation, health care liability litigation, bad faith litigation, insurance coverage analysis and related insurance coverage litigation, and appellate advocacy.

He also devotes much of his practice to insurance coverage disputes arising out of commercial construction defect lawsuits being filed by real estate property developers and owners against general contractors and their subcontractors, and on disputes between primary, umbrella and excess carriers resulting from catastrophic bodily injury and property damage claims.

Throughout the late 1970s and early 1980s, Don’s practice focused on the defense of property insurance companies in first-party property damage lawsuits, mostly arising out of commercial and residential arson fires. When the Texas Supreme Court recognized a new tort in the mid-1980s, the “duty of good faith and fair dealing” owed by insurers to insureds, Don’s practice shifted to the defense of the new “bad faith” lawsuits filed primarily against property and worker’s compensation insurers.

By the late 1980s he was involved in the defense of declaratory judgment / bad faith lawsuits filed in Texas by Fortune 500 corporations against their CGL insurers seeking coverage for the corporation’s mass toxic tort and pollution clean-up liability exposures.

Don received his B.A. from The University of St. Thomas and went on to the Baylor University School of Law where he received his J.D. cum laude in 1973. As a law student, he served on the Baylor Law Review and was selected as a member of the Harris Honor Society.

He has been included in the Annual Texas Super Lawyers publication by Texas Monthly Magazine for the past three years.  His successful ruling before the Supreme Court of Texas in Re Universal Underwriters of Texas Insurance Co. was named one of the state’s most significant appellate victories for 2011 by Texas Lawyer newspaper.

A member of the State Bar of Texas and the Texas Association of Defense Counsel, Don is also a Life Fellow of the Texas Bar Foundation and Fellow of the Dallas Bar Foundation.

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