Mikal Watts

Partner with Watts Guerra LLP

Mikal Watts is a founding partner of WATTS GUERRA LLP, located in San Antonio, Texas and of WATTS GUERRA LLC, located in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico. He has decades of experience litigating complex mass tort cases involving defective products and corporate malfeasance. WATTS GUERRA has more forty (40) lawyers and 200 employees in seven (7) offices located in Texas, Puerto Rico, California, and Oregon, handling personal injury, toxic torts, product liability, automotive defects, medical device, pharmaceutical, commercial, oil & gas and wildfire litigation.

Mr. Watts graduated from the University of Texas School of Law with honors at the age of 21 and became briefing attorney for Hon. Thomas R. Phillips, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Texas. He is board certified in Personal Injury Trial Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization, is a AV Rated Lawyer by Martindale-Hubbell, and has served on the Executive Committee for Texas Trial Lawyers Association (“TTLA”) and Attorneys Information Exchange Group (“AIEG”). Mr. Watts was recently invited to join the prestigious Inner Circle of Advocates.

Mr. Watts has been appointed to leadership positions in numerous MDLs. He has served on the Plaintiff Steering Committee (“PSC”) in In Re: FEMA Trailer Formaldehyde Products Liability Litigation, MDL 1873, In Re: Oil Spill by the Oil Rig “Deepwater Horizon” in the Gulf of Mexico

(MDL 2179), In re: California North Bay Fires Cases (JCCP 4955), In re: Valsartan N-Nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA) Contamination Products Liability Litigation (MDL 2875), In re:Texas Opioid Litigation (Texas MDL No. 18-0358), In re: Juul Labs, Inc. (MDL 2913) and In re: Zantac Products Liability Litigation (MDL 2924), and co-liaison counsel in In re: Kincaid Fire (JCCP 5157); In re: Zogg Fire (JCCP 5165) In re: Bobcat Fire (20STCV42356-lead case) and In re: Dixie Fire (JCCP 5208). Mr. Watts has also served as co-lead counsel In re: Pradaxa (Dabigatran Etexilate) Products Liability Litigation (MDL 2385) and in In Re: Stand ‘N Seal (MDL 1804), and as co-liaison counsel, In Re: Silica (MDL 1553). Members of WATTS GUERRA served as co-lead counsel in In Re Incretins Mimetics Products Liability Litigation (MDL 2452) and In re: Syngenta Litigation (Minnesota Consolidated MDL). In addition to prior membership on PSCs, Mr. Watts has personally tried as lead trial counsel the “first in the nation” trial cases for major pharmaceutical and product liability litigations consolidated into MDLs, including trial of the first Ford/Firestone tire lawsuit (see MDL 1373); the first Rezulin plaintiffs’ verdict (see MDL 1348); the only plaintiffs’ verdict in Sulzer hip implants (see MDL 1401); trial of first Baycol case (see MDL 1431); trial of first welding rods case during MDL 1525; trial of two bellwether cases during In re Vioxx (see MDL 1657); and the only Plaintiffs’ verdict during In Re: Levaquin (see MDL 1943).

Collectively, Mr. Watts’ firm has achieved verdicts in excess of $1.6 billion (including four 9-figure verdicts and 23 verdicts of $10 million or more), and total recoveries for its clients exceeding $4 billion. Mr. Watts also has substantial experience in negotiation the settlement of complex mass torts. In 2019, retired bankruptcy judge Randall Newsome, the court-appointed mediator, in In Re: PG&E Corp., Bankruptcy Case No. 19-30088, appointed Mr. Watts to the four-person Plaintiffs’ Negotiating Team that secured a $13.5 billion settlement with PG&E for more 70,000 wildfire victims. In 2017, Judge John W. Lungstrum, D. Kanas, appointed Mr. Watts to the four-person Plaintiffs’ negotiating team in In Re: Syngenta Corn, that achieved a $1.5 billion settlement for more than 200,000 farmers across the United States. In 2014, Judge David Herndon of the Southern District of Illinois appointed Mr. Watts to the Plaintiffs’ Negotiating Team in In Re:Pradaxa, where we achieved a $650 million settlement before the first bellwether trial in just twenty months following the formation of MDL 2385. Recently, as a member of the PSC of the Texas state court MDL in the Opioids litigation, Mr. Watts is working as the liaison to the federal MDL Plaintiffs Executive Committee in In re: National Prescription Opioid Litigation (MDL 2804) to settle the litigation against opioids manufacturers such as Purdue Pharmaceuticals and Johnson & Johnson, and opioid distributors Amerisource Bergen, Cardinal Health and McKesson. federal MDL co-lead Joe Rice, and court-appointed special master Francis McGovern, to fashion nationwide settlement solutions in In re: National Prescription Opioid Litigation (MDL 2804).

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