Benjamin Sanchez

I'm a solo Texas lawyer with a litigation practice in the areas of commercial, construction, probate, collection, and consumer law.

My Early Years

I was born in Houston on Mother's Day in May 1969 and was referred to by my family as "moon baby" as they held me in their arms while watching Neil Armstrong walk on the Moon. My family's joy surrounding my birth quickly turned to disappointment as I was born underweight and sickly. I spent the better part of my first two years of life at Texas Children's Hospital. Although I came close to death as an infant, I made a strong recovery thanks to some wonderful doctors and nurses. I was involved in a study by Baylor Hospital in Houston that led to the formulation of soy milk for infants and toddlers. I shared the same floor as "the bubble boy" and was featured in a medical review article. Although my mother and father divorced a year after I was born, I was blessed that same year with the birth of my brother Chris.

As a skinny but healthy boy, I attended Field Elementary and Cooley Elementary in the Houston Heights. My fifth grade teacher, Mrs. Bell, changed the course of my life. While I was in the fifth grade, Houston ISD decided to change the grade structure of public schools in Houston the following year: elementary schools would stop at the 5th grade, middle schools would add the 6th grade and drop the 9th grade, and high schools would add the 9th grade. In addition, HISD decided that it would implement a new honors program called Vanguard in order to attract the best and brightest students to learn together from the best and brightest teachers. I was fortunate in that my local middle school, Alexander Hamilton Middle School in the Houston Heights, would become the pilot school for the Vanguard Program. Mrs. Bell told officials at Hamilton Middle School, my mother, and me that I had strong potential and suggested to all of us that I try to obtain a place in Vanguard. After various interviews, academic and character reviews, and tests, Hamilton Middle School accepted me as a member of the first-ever Vanguard class of Houston ISD!

By the end of my time at Hamilton, I had been given numerous awards and was named the Most Outstanding Vanguard Student of the Year! My best teacher at Hamilton was Mrs. Bowens, who always challenged me beyond my comfort zone. For example, after having achieved great success by my last year at Hamilton, I had second thoughts about taking the school's "ultimate math test" to see who would be named the Most Outstanding Math Student of Hamilton. I was afraid of the challenge and the potential embarrassment of not earning that accolade after putting my reputation as a math wizard on the line. Mrs. Bowens taught me that life does not come without risk and that reward never does. She urged me to take a leap of faith and stretch myself by participating in the test where I clearly was the favorite to earn the accolade. Needless to say, I won and was glad that Mrs. Bowens saw enough in me to encourage me to stretch beyond my comfort zone and go for it even when I thought I had nothing to gain and everything to lose.

After Hamilton, I moved on to HISD's only high school Vanguard Program, located at Jones High School in southeast Houston. My mother remarried while I was attending Hamilton, and, after my freshman year in high school, my stepfather, mother, brother, and I moved to Austin, Texas. I studied in the Honors Program at Stephen F. Austin High School in Austin and graduated with Academic Excellence Honors three years later. With two academic scholarships, I attended the University of Texas at Austin. I met Annette while working in a movie theater as a trainer during my freshman year at UT. We married four years later and celebrated 14 years of marriage in April 2006. After taking three years off from UT after my freshman year to work in the "real world" and coming to understand the hard realities of life, I went back to UT in 1992 and graduated in 1994 with a Bachelor of Arts in Government with a Minor in Business Management.

Studying Law

Having left Houston as a young teenager, I came back to Houston as a young, married man and attended the University of Houston Law Center. During my first year of law school, Annette and I were involved in a rollover accident in which our Ford Bronco II rolled over several times before landing upside down. I had been asleep in the passenger seat when I was awaken by the sudden unnatural movement of the truck. When I opened my eyes and saw what was about to unfold, I closed my eyes, braced myself for the scariest moment of my life, and heard nothing but Annette's deafening scream as the truck proceeded to rollover. After several rolls, we landed upside down, both still alive in our seatbelts. I unbuckled my seatbelt, fell to the ground, and then unbuckled Annette's seatbelt. We crawled out the driver's window and, by the grace of God, walked away from the accident with nothing more than minor bruises and headaches. By the end of my first year of law school, I had won the Outstanding Achievement Award in Legal Research and Best Brief in Legal Writing and been given the Outstanding Member Award of the Hispanic Law Students Association. During the summer after my first year of law school, I worked as a law clerk in the General Counsel Division of the City of Houston Legal Department and started the only law school chapter of the Texas Trial Lawyers Association.

During my second year of law school, Annette developed leukemia. By the end of my second year of law school, I not only had worked, attended school full-time, helped Annette's sister take care of Annette while she was unable to work (thank you Diana!), and participated in various student and professional activities, but also was named the Board of Advocates' Advocate of the Year and awarded the Judge James De Anda Scholarship from the Houston Hispanic Bar Association. I took off the first semester of my third year in law school to care for Annette at her worst when Diana moved back home to Austin and to take on a greater role in supporting us financially. Annette went into complete remission in 1997 and has stayed in remission ever since! I went back to law school in the Spring of 1997 and was named a Dean's Scholar by the end of that semester. During my last semester at law school, I was awarded the Judge Criss Cole Award for achieving extraordinary success in the face of severe obstacles. Although I graduated a semester later than my entering class as a result of the semester I had taken off, I vowed to quickly catch up by passing the bar exam on my first try. I achieved that goal, and Judge Lupe Salinas swore me in to practice law in September 1998.

Early Success as a Solo

Upon being licensed, I split my time between a personal injury docket at a Houston plaintiffs' firm and a general practice out of my home office. Due to having been an active member of local and state bar associations as a law student, I had a referral network when I began to practice law and therefore never had to advertise for clients. As my general practice quickly grew, I stopped contracting for the personal injury firm and focused full time on my general law practice. Within six months of being licensed, I was asked by a prominent local attorney, a legal malpractice specialist who had become the national guru of ATV litigation, to be his lead counsel in his law partnership dissolution suit against his law partner. A 12-member jury returned a verdict in our favor after a two-week trial in the Spring of 1999. That particular success and my large client base allowed me to open a law office near the Galleria in Houston. Although I still maintained a general practice, my business clientele increased as I began to represent more small businesses in litigation and as general counsel.

Moving Away and Moving On

Although I had a successful law practice in Houston, Annette and I were saddened by the passing of Annette's mother in September 1999, after losing her second battle with cancer. With the disheartening loss, we decided to move closer to some of Annette's family who lived in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. We moved to Dallas at the end of 2000, where I continued my solo practice. I maintained my Houston office, traveled back and forth between Houston and Dallas, and started generating Dallas clients. In the Fall of 2002, I had successfully whittled down my Houston docket and generated enough Dallas clientele to force me to make a decision as to whether to close my Houston office and open a Dallas office or join a law firm and bring my Dallas clients with me. Having successfully practiced as a solo practitioner for four years upon being licensed, I was ready to broaden my horizons and join a law firm.

Joining and Succeeding in a Law Firm

I joined the law firm of John H. Carney & Associates in September 2002. JHC had six attorneys and a diverse litigation practice, including commercial, personal injury, family law, and residential homeowners' claims. I started by primarily representing homeowners making mold claims on their homeowners' insurance policies. The family law attorney moved on soon after I started at JHC, so I began helping in family law as well (having practiced family law as part of my solo practice). Once I moved into the courtroom as the family law practice required, JHC realized that litigation, rather than claims handling, was where I belonged. I quickly became the senior litigation associate for the firm's commercial litigation. I thrived during that time and became the lead associate on a complex real estate, construction, loan, and government fraud case wherein I represented 50 business clients against approximately 25 different entities and individuals, including banks, title companies, real estate developers, brokers, agents, and other assorted businesses. At the same time the civil case was proceeding, the Small Business Administration and FBI were conducting a joint criminal investigation into the same schemes that were the bases of the civil suit. Because I was the designated attorney for the plaintiffs in the civil suit, which involved heavy discovery and pre-trial motion practice, I routinely and successfully represented the clients against a number of opposing counsel both in the conference room and the courtroom. In late 2003, Annette and I were ready to lay down roots and buy a home. Just as we were ready to purchase, Annette and I gave the idea more thought and decided that we truly loved Houston and longed to move back. We put the brakes on buying a home in Dallas and moved back to Houston during the holiday season in 2003.

Coming Back Home

I was ready to begin a new challenge in my career upon returning to Houston. After having turned down several offers of employment over the first three months of 2004, I finally found what I was looking for at Leyh & Payne, LLP. This firm was dedicated to representing business owners and corporate clients in commercial, construction, real estate, and bankruptcy litigation. Upon arriving at L&P in April 2004, I developed a litigation practice involving commercial, construction, and consumer litigation. Soon after I began working at L&P, I added probate litigation to the firm's practice areas. I represented large national and local corporations, surety companies, financial and lending institutions, law firms, and construction companies in a litigation practice. The highlight of my practice at L&P was the successful defense of multimillion dollar bond claims litigation against two surety companies that bonded a major construction company for their work on the Central Concourse Project at the Hobby Airport. I enjoyed the expansion and direction of my practice in the years I spent at L&P.

Diagnosed with Cancer

Every year since Annette went into remission for her leukemia, she and I have had annual physicals. During my annual physical in Dallas in early 2004, as I was looking for employment in Houston, my doctor noticed an abnormality in my blood. After consultation with an oncologist in Dallas, I opted for a second opinion from M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, where Annette was successfully treated. For months the doctors ran tests without being able to pin down a diagnosis. Finally, in the late summer of 2004, my treating physician at M.D. Anderson was able to diagnose me as having MDS, a form of blood cancer related to but not exactly like leukemia. During the fall of 2004, while maintaining a full-time workload at L&P and being an active volunteer for various bar associations, I was put on a pill protocol and required weekly blood transfusions (I tell people it was like filling up your car with gas once a week, but I was filling up my body with good blood once a week). Although the protocol kept the cancer from becoming worse, it also was not improving my health. In January 2005, Dr. Estey and I decided to try a more aggressive protocol that required chemo injections instead of taking pills. Beginning in February 2005, I started getting five injections a day for seven straight days with 21 days off between chemotherapy cycles. By January 2006, I was in remission and had stopped chemotherapy. Dr. Estey claims that my recovery is amazing, as I no longer need blood transfusions or chemotherapy. Although I continue to go back for regular checkups, my medical team and I believe that my amazing recovery will only continue to improve. In fact, in my last check in April 2007, my blood counts were at their highest levels during the past three years.

Succeeding More Than Ever

I am a firm believer in God and know that, while I have done many good deeds through him, he has much more in store for me as I continue his work. In 2004, I was given 10 years to live and told that I might not be able to work. Yet, I never gave up hope or slowed down, as I continued to work full-time and increased the amount of volunteer and leadership activities. I have maintained a successful 15-year marriage to my best friend, kept a full working schedule, volunteered for different activities, and taken on bar leadership and public service roles. I currently am the Chair of the State Bar of Texas Hispanic Issues Section, President-Elect of the Mexican American Bar Association of Texas, President of the Mexican-American Bar Association of Houston. I am a Trustee on the Board of Trustees of the Houston Lawyer Referral Service and a member of the editorial board of The Houston Lawyer. I currently serve on the Houston Automotive Board (appointed by Houston Mayor Bill White). I regularly participate in LegalLine, a free call-in legal hotline offered twice-a-month by the Houston Bar Association. As a Mentor in the Houston Bar Association's Mentor/Protege Program, I mentor young attorneys. Apart from that program, I mentor young attorneys and law students. I regularly accept family law cases on a pro bono basis through the Houston Volunteer Lawyers Program. I get more than enough strength to successfully take on everything in my life from the love of family and friends and my faith. All that I am and do is because of their love and support.

In March 2007, one month away from my three-year anniversary with L&P, I re-opened my law firm in downtown Houston. Given my practice and my leadership roles in our community, working for someone else in west Houston simply was not cutting it. Although I enjoyed my practice and the people at L&P, I had to take more control over my practice and move downtown. I was blessed to have some clients leave with me and to immediately pick up new national clients with an ongoing caseload for me. I have already hired a secretary and look to hire a paralegal by the end of 2007 and an associate by the end of 2008. For particular cases and clients, I have created Sanchez Ougrah Etheridge, An Association of Sole Practitioners. My practice and life are the best they've ever been, but I know that my rewards are simply a product of God's blessing and the seeds I have sown and continue to sow.

The Love of My Life

Annette, I love you and thank you. You have forever changed my life. Though life has thrown us some curve balls and hit us with occasional fast balls, we have endured and enjoyed our accomplishments as a team. You truly are the wind beneath my wings! I hope that everyone has or finds that special person in your life who gives you unconditional love and support!

My Attitude

I am a true believer in faith, love, and happiness. I have persevered through thick and thin with a positive attitude. I do not expect that we can go through life without failure, but I aim for "failing forward" each time. I learn from my mistakes and become a better person because of them. I have made my share of mistakes, but after each mistake, I pick myself up and move forward! I am grateful to my father for teaching me as a young boy that life is too short to waste time being mad or sad. I took that advice to heart and made it a life philosophy. I routinely speak to children and adults about a variety of subjects, but I always try to convey a positive message about hope, attitude, and achievement.

I would be remiss if I did not include here a quote that symbolizes my life philosophy, by one of my heroes, President Theodore Roosevelt: "It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat."

My Charity

I have been blessed with a warm, nurturing, and generous family, including not only my blood relatives, but also the families of my wife and my stepfather. My friends and family have always given me the gifts of love and charity, and I try to pass those gifts on to others. I believe in helping others because it is not only the right thing to do as a successful professional in today's world, but also the moral thing to do as a Christian and the social thing to do as a human being. I give of my time extensively, especially when it involves children or helping those unable to hire attorneys. I regularly speak to students on a number of topics, including life as an attorney, the legal system in Texas, how to achieve success, and keeping a positive attitude. For one of my speaking engagements, I spoke on the special meaning of Brown vs. Board of Education to three classes at Waller High School in Waller, Texas, as part of the Houston Bar Association's commemoration of the 50th anniversary of that landmark United States Supreme Court 1954 opinion that essentially ended the "separate but equal" doctrine of the Jim Crow era in our country's history. The Waller Times, the local newspaper, was kind enough to highlight me on their front page. One of my most cherished speaking highlights was being the keynote speaker of the Year 2000 graduation ceremony of my alma mater, Hamilton Middle School in Houston.

I donate enough time to be part of the Pro Bono College of the State Bar of Texas, an exclusive organization whose members qualify by going above and beyond the call of their professional duty in donating free or low cost legal services. In order to effectively help others, I believe in being skilled and knowledgeable in my legal practice and thus participate in enough continuing legal education to qualify me as a member of the College of the State Bar of Texas, an exclusive organization whose members qualify by going far above and beyond the minimum annual continuing legal education requirements to maintain their law licenses in Texas. The greatest reward for me is the sincere appreciation I get from people I meet from all walks of life and the simple knowledge that I adhere to the values in which I firmly believe! In honor of the volunteer work that I perform, The Houston Lawyer kindly named me a "Local Hero" and profiled me in its May/June 2005 issue.

My Hobbies

With all that goes on my life, I don't have a lot of personal free time. I don't have much time to watch television. Annette and I watch American Idol together, but that is about the only regular programming I watch on television. The occasional television programming I enjoy consists mostly of biographies, histories, political and government programming, and home and garden. Annette and I enjoy going to see movies on the big screen. I read biographies, histories, and law. I'm a music buff and love to dance and sing! Finally, if you've made it this far and are still reading, then you have probably figured out that I believe in self improvement. Towards that end, I always have a few books and audio programming out for constant learning.

My Future

While I do not know where God will take me in the future, I know that I will continue to love and be loved, help and be helped, and show and be shown that all things in life are possible. The end of one era is the beginning of a new one! Life is not meant to be passively watched as it goes by, but actively participated in as we go through it! As Dr. John Maxwell, one of my favorite speakers, says, "Success is not a destination; it is a journey!" I leave you with another of my favorite quotes: "Through our great good fortune, in our youth our hearts were touched with fire," by President Abraham Lincoln.