VB Attorneys: The Houston Trial Firm That Took On Maersk After the Real Captain Phillips Hijacking

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When the container ship Maersk Alabama was hijacked by Somali pirates in 2009 — the incident later dramatized in the film Captain Phillips — several crew members hired a Houston law firm to take on one of the world’s largest shipping companies. Founding partner Brian Beckcom represented multiple Maersk Alabama crew members against Maersk, which the firm states ultimately settled with every client he represented. It’s an unusually specific credential for a firm that otherwise runs a deliberately small, boutique caseload.

At a Glance

Career History

Vuk Vujasinovic, a lifelong Houstonian, earned his J.D. from the University of Houston Law Center, where he served as an associate editor of the Houston Law Review, and began his career defending product liability suits at Shook, Hardy & Bacon before moving to plaintiffs’ work. Brian Beckcom, a University of Texas School of Law graduate, has been voted a Texas Super Lawyer 14 consecutive years — every year he has been eligible, per the firm. The two founded the firm in 2003 and have built its reputation substantially around federal maritime and Jones Act litigation, a specialized area of law distinct from standard state personal injury practice.

Practice Concentration

The firm deliberately limits its caseload rather than pursuing volume, concentrating on maritime and offshore injury (Jones Act seamen, tugboat and vessel crew), wrongful death, catastrophic trucking and transportation accidents, industrial explosions, oilfield injuries, and defective products. The firm’s stated model is that clients work directly with the two board-certified founding partners rather than being handed off to associates — a structural claim distinct from a marketing tagline, since it’s checkable against how the firm actually staffs cases.

Track Record

The firm’s current site states more than $1 billion recovered for clients in total across its history (an earlier public figure cited $455 million+, reflecting growth over time rather than a discrepancy). These are firm-published figures; past results do not guarantee or predict a similar outcome in any future case.

Client Voice

Client testimonials on the firm’s site are attributed by name or role, including Celeste Perez (defective tire rollover case), who said the outcome “changed my life” and allowed her to complete a master’s degree debt-free, and the Jarrod & Elizabeth McClendon family. Multiple maritime clients (a chief cook, tugboat captain, and tankerman) describe the firm helping them navigate unfamiliar legal terrain after workplace injuries at sea. One item of disclosable record: in a 2015 federal case, the firm sued a former client family over disputed attorneys’ fees following a wrongful death settlement; the court compelled the dispute to arbitration under the arbitration clause in the family’s own signed representation agreement, rather than ruling on the underlying fee dispute itself. The State Bar of Texas lists no public disciplinary history for either founding partner.

Beyond the Courtroom

The firm publishes a free consumer guide on navigating injury claims and maintains a regular blog aimed at educating prospective clients on maritime and injury law rather than only marketing the firm’s services.

Recognition

Vuk Vujasinovic and Brian Beckcom are each individually Board Certified in Personal Injury Trial Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization — the only “specialist” designation used in this profile, verified against the State Bar of Texas’s own attorney directory. Separately, Beckcom has been named a Texas Super Lawyer for 14 consecutive years, and Vujasinovic’s trial work has been included in VerdictSearch’s “Top 100 Verdicts of the Year” in Texas — both peer-review and industry-publication recognitions distinct from the state board certification.

Texas Legal Backdrop

Texas personal injury claims generally carry a two-year statute of limitations under Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code § 16.003. Maritime and Jones Act claims — a core part of this firm’s docket — instead fall under federal maritime law with its own three-year limitations period, a materially different framework that doesn’t follow Texas state procedure. Texas follows a modified comparative-fault rule under Civil Practice and Remedies Code Chapter 33 for standard state claims: a claimant found more than 50% responsible for their own injury recovers nothing, and a claimant at 50% or below has recovery reduced by their own percentage of fault. None of this is legal advice and does not account for the specific facts of any individual case; consult a licensed Texas attorney about your situation.

Awesome Attorneys Assessment

Two individually board-certified founding partners, a deliberately small caseload built around direct partner access, and a specialized maritime/Jones Act practice most general injury firms don’t maintain are all genuine, checkable differentiators — reinforced by a documented history of representing crew in one of the most publicized maritime incidents of the last two decades.

The honest trade-off is exactly the one the firm names about itself: a boutique caseload model means the firm accepts fewer clients than a high-volume shop, so it may not be the right fit for a straightforward, lower-value claim where speed and volume-based efficiency matter more than the depth of individual attention. And the 2015 fee-dispute litigation, while resolved through a standard contractual arbitration clause rather than any disciplinary finding, is worth a prospective client understanding upfront: contingency fee terms in complex, high-value wrongful death or maritime cases are worth reading closely before signing.

Methodology & Sourcing

This profile was researched and written independently by Awesome Attorneys in August 2026 without the participation, sponsorship, or payment of VB Attorneys. Primary sources: the firm’s own website (vbattorneys.com), including its case results, attorney biography, and testimonial pages. Independent verification: State Bar of Texas attorney directory (board certification, disciplinary history) for both founding partners; PR Newswire coverage of a 2010 VerdictSearch “Verdict of the Week” recognition; federal case record for Vujasinovic & Beckcom, PLLC v. Cubillos (S.D. Tex. 2015). Statutes cited in the Texas Legal Backdrop section were verified against the Texas Constitution and Statutes database (statutes.capitol.texas.gov).

Publisher Disclosure & Independence Notice

Awesome Attorneys is an independent legal-directory publisher. This profile was not paid for by VB Attorneys, and inclusion in our editorial coverage cannot be purchased. Our methodology and editorial standards are applied consistently across all firms we cover.