One word that describes Maria — relatable.
She believes that the art of communication has been lost and works passionately to bring it back to find commonality between her clients and the juries that decide the outcome of their cases or clients and opposing counsel. Whether speaking to a jury in New York City or one in a small Montana town, she tells her client’s side of the case in a manner that is understood, valued and appreciated.
Medical Device Litigation
Maria has focused her practice on defending medical device companies in national litigation. Maria has been called upon to try these complex medical cases. Not only is her strength in understanding the complex medical issues presented, but in reducing those medical issues to simple ones so that the jury understands how the device is designed to work in the body and the rigorous FDA process device manufacturers must comply with to bring a product to the public. Maria is also known for the sensitivity she brings to the courtroom. An ardent litigator to opposing counsel, she understands that jurors dislike conflict and can judge the merits of the case even when the trial attorneys show empathy for the medical conditions at issue. Her career began early on in breast implant litigation. She represented a corporate joint venture member of a breast implant manufacturer in numerous multi-plaintiff lawsuits filed by women who had breast implants and allegedly suffered from increased risk of cancer, auto-immune disease, chronic fatigue syndrome and other physical, mental and emotional aliments. More recently, she has been trial counsel and national team member in the national hip and vaginal mesh litigation and has been called upon to defend the manufacturers in jurisdictions in many states. She is currently local trial counsel for an IVC filter manufacturer in the national heart filter litigation.
Toxic Tort Litigation
Maria began representing several companies in toxic tort litigation in Texas a few years after she started her practice. Her clients quickly realized that her trial skills could be utilized in jurisdictions far beyond her home state. Since 1995, she has been national trial counsel for several clients in jurisdictions around the country. She has tried cases from coast-to-coast, and her client demands continue to place her in the most challenging cases in the country.
Asbestos: She represented a company whose former refractory division, at one time, sold a number of asbestos-containing products. She defended a major building products manufacturer who once made asbestos-containing products. Likewise she defends an international energy equipment company in trials in numerous states. In most cases tried to verdict, the plaintiffs have a rare form of incurable cancer most notably caused by asbestos exposure.
Silica and Chemical Exposures: Successfully defended several companies that sold industrial products that contained silica sand, kaolin clay, aplite, alumina and related industrial minerals for glass, foundry, building products and ceramics who were sued by persons who were exposed to these products and who contracted silicosis or other respiratory diseases.
Class Action Litigation
Maria has extensive experience in defending class action lawsuits. She has represented many companies defending against potential classes seeking damages for personal injuries, business and economic loss and statutory damage claims.
Mass Tort: Maria has defended class action cases for clients who have manufactured, sold or distributed products alleged to cause personal injuries, including respiratory impairment, cognitive deprivation, cancer, nervous disorders, chronic fatigue, various auto-immune deficiency diseases and other illnesses.
Software Defective Design and Allegedly Deceptive Trade Practices: Maria headed a team of attorneys who defended software designers and manufacturers against accusations that their software products were defectively designed, released to the public with knowledge of the defects, and was done so with the knowledge and intent to harm the consumers of the products.
Telephone Consumer Protection Act: Maria and her team of attorneys successfully defended a client in a proposed nationwide class action of recipients of unsolicited facsimiles in a relatively new area in the law where the statute presented numerous certification and constitutional issues.
Commercial Litigation
Maria has continually enjoyed representing clients in a vast array of business disputes — and her clients appreciate her business acumen and litigation savvy. Her engagements have included a wide range of strategies from pre-litigation mediation, intensive litigation and when called for, arbitration or trial. She has tried dozens of cases to verdict and defended those clients on appeal as well. A few significant cases are highlighted below.
Successfully defended at trial multiple Chicago apparel companies sued for breach of contract. An individual who worked for the predecessor corporation brought suit against Maria’s clients for breach of contract, unjust enrichment, quantum meruit and other contractual claims. After deliberating for 10 minutes, the jury returned a take-nothing judgment for Maria’s clients.
Represented a number of high-profile commercial landlords in the Dallas-Fort Worth area in commercial landlord/tenant disputes. Maria orchestrated commercial lockouts of tenants, tried forcible entry and detainer actions, sought property damages suffered by landlords and successfully defended large damage counterclaims brought by former tenants at trial.
Represented insurance companies at trial in several breach of contract, and other contractual remedies including fraud, fraudulent inducement and Texas Deceptive Trade Practices actions brought by policy holders against the companies. Maria and her team exonerated their clients at trial or on appeal.
Represented at trial an international multi-million dollar company in the business of customized printed circuit board assemblies seeking recovery of costs associated with excess inventory arising from a $6.5 million business relationship. Both companies sued each other on numerous theories including breach of written and oral contracts, fraud, fraudulent inducement, economic duress and declaratory judgments. Although the jury found the companies liable on certain theories of recovery, that liability was legally excused and Maria’s client was absolved of payment of more than a half million dollars in damages.
Represented a debtor, a large diversified building materials company, in a bankruptcy adversary proceeding wherein the debtor case was the largest filed bankruptcy at the time in the Northern District of Texas. In the adversary proceeding that arose from the bankruptcy, the debtor was sued by a French cement manufacturer for deed reformation of a contaminated waste site adjacent to the largest cement manufacturing plant in the United States. The plant, located in Michigan, had been sold by the debtor to the French company years before.
Successfully represented commercial contractors in various matters from contract disputes with owners and subcontractors, defense of defective design claims and construction defect cases. In each case, although prepared to try the cases to a jury, Maria and her team were able to successfully achieve a resolution of the claims.
Successful representation of an international franchise company’s termination of a master franchise securing a judgment in excess of $1 million and defeating all claims against it for failure to disclose under the Federal Trade Commission Regulations and fraud in federal court. She similarly successfully defended the company in several lawsuits in breach of contract litigation in Texas.
Representation at trial of an international oil and gas company when sued for multi-millions of dollars on loss of well claims asserted by a drilling operator and land and royalty owners. After years of litigation culminating in jury selection, Maria and her team were able to negotiate a beneficial resolution of all claims brought by all parties. In unrelated litigation, Maria and her team defended an oil rig component part manufacturer in a catastrophic wrongful death case that successfully resolved short of trial.
Representation of a commercial land investor in a federal court jury trial who sued for breach of fiduciary duty and breach of contract involving a limited partnership’s investment in undeveloped commercial property. At trial, Maria defeated all claims against her client and ultimately appealed the jury verdict to the United States Supreme Court.
Representation of an international technology services and consulting firm as lead counsel in an arbitration proceeding involving over 5 million pages of documents, numerous witnesses and experts in a multi-million dollar dispute between the parties.
Inclusion and Diversity
Ms. Karos, when not in the courtroom, has dedicated much of her career to diversity and inclusion in the legal profession. Through women’s initiatives that she has lead, programs she has started and fostered, she has not only lead these initiatives but also included many diverse attorneys on her trial teams with substantive leadership rolls in pretrial hearings and trial. Ms. Karos continues her commitment to fostering the careers of diverse attorneys in her practice as well as consulting with others on strategies to successfully advance their careers in the law for the best representation of the clients we serve.