Paula Sweeney
Paula Fisette Sweeney, Of Counsel, came to Slack & Davis from Dallas law firm Howie & Sweeney, a firm she founded with John Howie in 1995. Paula and John practiced together until his death in December 2002.
Ms. Sweeney is based in our Dallas office and handles serious injury and death cases arising from medical and hospital negligence, defective medical devices and prescription drugs, products liability and negligent trucking. She is an AV®-rated attorney (Martindale-Hubbell Peer Review Ratings) and has been Board Certified in Personal Injury Trial Law since 1986. She is a frequent teacher and invited lecturer, having been asked to speak to legal, medical, nursing and other professional groups across Texas and much of the United States.
She is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, the International Society of Barristers and the International Academy of Trial Lawyers. She is past president of the Texas Trial Lawyers Association (1998), the Dallas Trial Lawyers Association (1991) and the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA)-Dallas (2000). She previously served as a governor of the American Association for Justice and as a director of the State Bar of Texas. She served for 15 years on the Supreme Court Rules Advisory Committee and also served on the Supreme Court Task Force on Medical Malpractice Discovery and the Supreme Court Task Force on The Jury Charge.
Honors include: Texas Nurses’ Association Health Care Professional of the Year award, Alumna of Distinction from the University of Dallas, D Magazine’s Best Lawyers in Dallas (2001-2011), Law & Politics magazine’s Super Lawyers (2003-2011), and Texas Lawyers‘ “Extraordinary Women in Texas Law” (2008). She was also featured in a Texas Monthly article, “The Crusader,” for her work on behalf of malpractice victims, and in 2003 received the Defender of Democracy Award from Common Cause, Texas, in recognition of her work to protect the citizens of Texas from the lobby-driven onslaught against their right to access the courts.
Ms. Sweeney’s annual survey article on Health Care Law in Texas has been recognized as “Best Continuing Legal Education Paper” from the State Bar of Texas and “Best Non-Judicial Article” from the Texas Judicial Council. In 2009 she was awarded the State Bar of Texas’ prestigious Gene Cavin Award for lifetime achievement in supporting Continuing Legal Education in Texas. She is featured in the publications Best Lawyers in America, Who’s Who in American Law, The Bar Register of Preeminent Lawyers and in the Million Dollar Arguments audiotape series.
2011 Speaking Engagements
- “Megatrends in Health Care Liability Litigation” at the Texas Trial Lawyers Association (TTLA) Annual Meeting and Medical Malpractice Seminar (June 2011, Austin)
- “Medical Malpractice Update” at the State Bar of Texas Advanced Personal Injury Seminar (July 2011, Dallas)
- “Fireside Chat with a Legend” session sponsored by TTLA (August 2011, Brownsville)
- “Med Mal Update and Primer on Opening Statements” hosted by TTLA (August 2011, Mc Allen)
- “Medical Malpractice Update” at the State Bar of Texas Advanced Personal Injury Seminar (August 2011, San Antonio)
- “Sex and Race Issues in the Courtroom” at the Dallas Bar Association Bench Bar meeting (September 2011, Horseshoe Bay)
- “Medical Malpractice Update” at the TTLA convention (December 2011, Houston)
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