HOUSTON – Jan. 11, 2016 – Roland Garcia, a shareholder at global law firm Greenberg Traurig, LLP, was recently recognized as the Appellate Lawyer of the Week by Texas Lawyer magazine. This honor follows his team’s unanimous appellate court victory in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals on behalf of Corpus Christi record label and recording studio Hacienda Records and Recording Studio regarding a copyright infringement lawsuit over a Tejano music song. Garcia led the legal team in the trial court victory and was lead counsel in the appellate court victory.
"The Fifth Circuit ruled that you don't just look at the lyrics, you look at the totality of the songs to determine substantial similarity," Garcia said.
“This was a hard-fought case,” commented Rick Garcia, executive vice present of Hacienda Records, “and we are extremely pleased with this successful result.”
In addition, Garcia was also named in the 2015 edition of Texas Super Lawyers magazine in the General Litigation category. Attorneys selected by Texas Super Lawyers magazine are nominated by their peers and through independent research. Only the top 5 percent of Texas attorneys in nearly 70 practice areas are selected for inclusion in the publication.
Furthermore, Garcia has been named to the 2015 list of Top 25 Latino Lawyers by Latino Leaders Magazine. The list recognizes the most prominent Latinos working in the nation's legal industry.
“We congratulate Roland on this well-deserved recognition,” said Douglas C. Atnipp, co-managing shareholder of the firm’s Houston office.
Garcia has tried lawsuits in state and federal trial courts, and has argued appeals in state and federal appellate courts. He has handled many high profile cases and has been quoted regarding these cases by The National Law Journal, Houston Chronicle, Dallas Morning News, Austin-American Statesman, Corpus Christi Caller Times, Texas Lawyer, and others.
Garcia has handled a wide range of copyright infringement and commercial litigation cases and appeals. Additionally, he has considerable experience in local, state and national governmental relations and political matters, and in government contracts, grants, procurement, concessions, open records and public information act demands, and due process challenges.
Active in the legal profession, Garcia was the first minority to be elected president of the Houston Bar Association, the fifth largest voluntary bar association in the country, with more than 11,000 members. He also served as president of the Texas Young Lawyers Association, an elected position of the 22,000 member statewide lawyers’ organization. Garcia was president of the Hispanic Bar Association and president of the Dispute Resolution Center. He was also an elected director of the State Bar of Texas, and was a trustee of the Texas Bar Foundation.