AZA Law Firm’s 30-Year Houston Litigation Record and Expansion to Dallas

AZA Law Firm started the way a lot of Houston law practices do: two partners, a lease in a downtown office tower, and an open question about whether there was room for one more commercial litigation shop in a city already full of them. John Zavitsanos and Joseph Y. Ahmad opened for business in July 1993 from One Houston Center on McKinney Street. What made their venture different was a guiding principle that was easier to state than sustain: prepare every case for trial and go there if necessary.

More than three decades later, AZA Law Firm carries over 60 attorneys, has collected three Litigation Department of the Year awards from Texas Lawyer, and holds Chambers USA rankings in both commercial litigation and intellectual property. A January 2026 expansion to Dallas marked the firm’s first office outside Houston. Getting from a two-person practice to that point took a path that looked nothing like the growth playbook most mid-market firms follow.

Founding and First Decade

Zavitsanos, licensed in Texas since 1987 and board certified in Civil Trial Law, and Ahmad, who clerked for a federal judge in Michigan before relocating to Houston, board certified in Labor & Employment Law, did not grow AZA through mergers or lateral hiring waves. Disputes touching labor, whistleblower, First Amendment and patent claims arrived within the firm’s first decade.

Todd Mensing, a Stanford and UT Law graduate who had been practicing at Vinson & Elkins, helped form the current iteration of the firm in 2001. He was elevated to a name partners in 2011, with AZA’s current name being: Ahmad, Zavitsanos & Mensing PLLC. Zavitsanos addressed the naming at the time with characteristic bluntness: “We have to call ourselves AZA day to day or we couldn’t keep a receptionist.”

Both Zavitsanos and Ahmad have appeared on the Texas Super Lawyers Top 100 list for more than 20 consecutive years.

A Trial Calendar That Never Slowed Down

AZA’s website reports over 250 completed trials and a lawyer at trial nearly every month since 2016. Those numbers are worth breaking down: 23 cases across 2018 and 2019, six during the pandemic-shortened 2020, 27 combined in 2021 and 2022, 21 more in 2023, 18 in 2024, and 16 in 2025. Six additional trials had already concluded by early 2026.

“AZA is indeed a trial powerhouse. Lots of firms claim they try cases often, but we really do. We go to trial almost every month,” Zavitsanos told Texas Lawyer when the publication named AZA Law Firm its top boutique litigation department for the third time in 2022.

BTI Consulting, which annually surveys corporate general counsel about the opposing firms they consider most formidable, has placed AZA on its “Awesome Opponents” list repeatedly over the past dozen years, including for 2026. Law360 separately named the firm a Texas Powerhouse.

What Chambers USA Found Over 12 Years

Chambers USA has ranked AZA Law Firm in General Commercial Litigation for 12 straight years through 2025, adding an intellectual property ranking in five of those years. Seven AZA attorneys received individual Chambers recognition in the 2025 guide.

One anonymous reviewer told researchers: “AZA is absolutely relentless and fearless.” Another described the team: “They have a very deep bench with very talented junior lawyers. They are given experience very early on, including at hearings and trials, and it shows.”

Zavitsanos holds a Band 1 individual ranking. Mensing, who has tried over 60 commercial and intellectual property cases, is also ranked individually. Best Lawyers’ Best Law Firms has carried AZA Law Firm for 14 consecutive years, awarding Tier 1 recognition in Houston across five litigation categories, with additional national-tier designations in appellate and construction work.

Why Dallas, After 32 Years

Patent litigation pushed AZA Law Firm out of Houston for the first time. “At least for patent cases, there’s more going on in Dallas than there is in Houston,” Zavitsanos told The Texas Lawbook. “It made sense to have a Dallas office because our IP practice is blowing up.”

The launch team consisted of two partners and two associates, with a target of 10 attorneys within the first year. Warren McCarty, who had spent more than a decade at Dallas-based Caldwell Cassady & Curry, was tapped to manage the new office.

“More than anything, I found it was a place built on professionalism, and trust and loyalty, which can be hard to find these days,” McCarty told The Texas Lawbook.

Bloomberg Law referenced the move in a February 2026 story about broader law firm expansion into the Dallas market.