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Howry Breen & Herman: The Firm Behind One of Texas’s Largest Verdicts of 2023

In 2023, Sean Breen walked into court for a burned and paralyzed client and walked out with a $53.9 million verdict — one of the largest in Texas that year. This Austin personal injury attorney firm has been stacking up Texas Verdicts Hall of Fame recognitions since 1995, in a state where that list is genuinely hard to make.

At a Glance: Austin Personal Injury Attorney Firm Overview

Origin & Background

Howry Breen & Herman was founded in Austin in 1995 and has grown into a multi-practice trial firm anchored by its personal injury and commercial litigation work. Randy Howry, a founding partner, holds the unusual distinction of being board certified in both Personal Injury Trial Law and Civil Trial Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization — two separate certifications, each requiring its own exam and ongoing recertification. Sean Breen, another name partner, has built a three-decade record of catastrophic-injury verdicts and settlements recognized repeatedly by the Texas Verdicts Hall of Fame.

Note on scope: the firm also maintains a separate commercial and business litigation practice that represents both plaintiffs and defendants, “from small local businesses to Fortune 500 companies.” This profile covers the firm’s personal injury practice specifically, which — consistent with the firm’s own public-facing PI marketing and no evidence found of PI defense work — is treated here as plaintiff-side only.

Practice Concentration

The personal injury team handles auto and truck collisions, motorcycle accidents, catastrophic and brain injury cases, medical malpractice, and wrongful death claims. The firm states it works with outside specialists to build detailed three-dimensional presentations of how a brain injury occurred and how it has affected a client’s life — a specific, verifiable investment in case presentation rather than a generic claim of “aggressive representation.”

Notable Work

Past results do not guarantee or predict a similar outcome in any future case. Verdict and settlement figures are as reported by the firm and by independent legal trade publications (Texas Lawyer, VerdictSearch, The Recorder).

Client Voice

Independently verifiable consumer review volume for this firm’s personal injury practice specifically was thin in available public sourcing — a genuine gap for a firm with this litigation record, and one disclosed directly rather than papered over. The firm’s recognitions instead come predominantly from legal trade publications and peer-review sources (Texas Lawyer’s “Best of 2020” reader poll naming it Top Personal Injury Law Firm in Austin, and America’s Top 100 Attorneys recognition for both Howry and Breen), which reflect industry and public-poll standing rather than individual client testimonials.

Beyond the Courtroom

The firm has been recognized in the Austin Business Journal’s annual “Best of the Bar” edition and has been named a U.S. News–Best Lawyers “Best Law Firm” across multiple tiers in nine separate practice areas — a breadth of recognition consistent with the firm’s multi-practice structure beyond personal injury alone.

Recognition

Randy R. Howry is Board Certified in both Personal Injury Trial Law and Civil Trial Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization — the only “specialist” designation used in this profile, because it is the one independently state-administered credential in this firm’s record. Sean Breen has been named to Best Lawyers in America since 2007 in Commercial Litigation and Personal Injury Litigation, and both Howry and Breen have received America’s Top 100 High-Stakes Litigators recognition in multiple years. These are peer-review, trade-publication, and state-board based recognitions rather than firm self-description.

Texas Legal Backdrop

Texas personal injury claims are generally subject to a two-year statute of limitations under Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code § 16.003, running from the date of injury or, for wrongful death, from the date of death. Texas follows a modified comparative-fault “51% bar” rule under Civil Practice and Remedies Code Chapter 33: a claimant found more than 50% responsible for their own injury recovers nothing, while a claimant at 50% or below has recovery reduced by their share of fault. Medical malpractice claims specifically carry additional notice and expert-report requirements under Chapter 74 of the same code, distinct from the rules governing an ordinary auto-accident claim. This is general background information, not legal advice, and does not account for the specific facts of any case.

Awesome Attorneys Assessment

A $53.9 million verdict in 2023, multiple Texas Verdicts Hall of Fame recognitions going back to 2011, and a founding partner who is dual board-certified in both Personal Injury Trial Law and Civil Trial Law — a combination few Texas attorneys hold — make this one of the more independently substantiated litigation records in this directory’s Austin PI coverage. These aren’t self-published claims; they’re figures tracked and verified by an independent legal trade publication over more than a decade.

The honest gap: this firm’s public-facing consumer review presence is thinner than its litigation record would suggest, and because the firm operates both a plaintiff-side PI practice and a separate mixed-representation commercial litigation practice, a prospective client should confirm directly, before engaging the firm, exactly which attorneys and which side of the docket they’ll be working with — the firm’s overall client list is more varied than a single-focus PI boutique’s would be, even though the PI practice itself appears to be plaintiff-only based on everything found in this research.

Methodology & Sourcing

This profile was compiled from Howry Breen & Herman’s own website (howrybreen.com), including its personal injury, about-us, and brain-injury practice pages, Super Lawyers’ firm and attorney profiles, Best Lawyers’ firm directory listing, and Yelp’s business listing (which describes the firm’s dual PI/commercial litigation structure). Verdict and settlement figures cited are attributed to Texas Lawyer, VerdictSearch, and The Recorder as reported by the firm.

Publisher Disclosure & Independence Notice

Awesome Attorneys is an independently researched legal directory. This profile was not paid for, commissioned, or reviewed by Howry Breen & Herman, LLP prior to publication. Awesome Attorneys may in the future offer sponsored placement products to firms profiled on this site, but sponsorship status has no bearing on editorial content, and inclusion in this directory is not an endorsement of any firm for any particular legal matter. Nothing in this profile constitutes legal advice or a lawyer referral; readers with a legal question should consult a licensed Texas attorney directly.