Sedgwick is pleased to announce that partner
Karen Maston and associates
Keshia Babin,
Diane Huynh and
Stephanie Perkins have joined the firm's Complex Litigation group in the Houston and Austin offices. Additionally, special counsel
John D. Surma has joined the Houston office as part of the Commercial Practices group.
Ms. Maston has two decades of experience representing clients in trial and appellate work in the state and federal courts in environmental and toxic tort, commercial, product liability, wrongful death and property damage cases. She is actively involved in both legal and charitable communities. She has served as a coordinator for the National Institute for Trial Advocacy Program for Trial Associates, is a certified mediator by the American Academy of Attorney-Mediators, Inc. and has served as a past treasurer of the Association of Women Attorneys Foundation Board. She also served as an adjunct professor in Trial Advocacy in Fall 2008. She is on the Texas State Bar's Court Rules Committee, and has served on the Committee on Professionalism, the Child Abuse and Neglect Committee and the Special Olympics Committee for the State Bar of Texas.
Ms. Maston obtained her B.A. (1978), graduating
cum laude, from the University of Missouri-Columbia. She obtained her J.D. (1986) from the University of Texas.
Joining Ms. Maston are associates Ms. Babin and Ms. Huynh
in Houston and Ms. Perkins
in Austin.
Mr. Surma focuses his practice in the areas of regulatory compliance and litigation involving the U.S. Department of Labor-Occupational Safety and Health Administration, state OSHA programs, the U.S. Chemical Safety Board, and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality; catastrophic injury and death claims; plant and refinery explosion and failure investigation and subsequent representation of clients; large-scale commercial/construction litigation; real estate transactions; oil and gas leases; pipeline easement drafting and litigation; and general business counseling. His multinationally based clients include chemical manufacturers, industrial service companies, and air service companies, among others.
Mr. Surma earned his J.D. (1994) from the University of Wisconsin Law School. He received his B.S. (1992),
summa cum laude, from the University of Wisconsin, where he was a member of the Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society.