Joseph Y. Ahmad

Joseph Y. Ahmad, a founding partner in the Houston law firm of AZA, is a lawyer for executives and has been recognized nationally as one of the best lawyers in his field. He represents executives in a variety of matters, including breach of contract, trade secrets, covenants not to compete, breach of fiduciary duty and other matters.

He was elected to the prestigious American Board of Trial Advocates, an elite group of the country’s leading judges and civil trial lawyers. He has been selected by his peers as one of the “Best Lawyers in America” since 2003 and he was named a “2015 Lawyer of the Year” in the Houston area. Mr. Ahmad has been recognized as a leading lawyer in “Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business.” He has been named to the Texas Super Lawyers list since 2003, been on the Texas Super Lawyers Top 100 in Houston since 2006, and been in the Texas Super Lawyers Top 100 in Texas every year but one since 2006. He was also named a Benchmark Litigation Star in 2016-2022. Mr. Ahmad received the 2019 Distinguished Member Award from the South Asian Bar Association of Houston. He has received a rating of AV Preeminent by Martindale-Hubbell.

Having tried more than 50 cases to a verdict, and argued more than a dozen cases on appeal, he is a nationally recognized expert and frequent lecturer on a variety of law topics for organizations such as the American Bar Association, State Bar of Texas, The University of Texas School of Law, and the University of Houston Law Foundation.  He has been a frequent commentator on legal issues for various media entities, including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Houston Chronicle, and local television stations.

In early September 2024 he was the lead lawyer winning a $25.6 million non-compete breach of contract jury verdict pitting AZA client doctors’ group Fondren Orthopedic Ltd. against healthcare giant HCA Healthcare. Other recent engagements include representing: a general counsel sued for trade secret theft, an owner of an accounting practice who signed a covenant not to compete and employment agreement with the buyer of his practice, and a group of physicians with senior administrative roles within their medical center to represent them in a breach-of-contract dispute. And he was recently widely quoted by media nationally for his representation of Dr. Hasan Gokul, a doctor improperly accused of stealing COVID-19 vaccine. AZA is handling Dr. Gokal’s civil lawsuit against Harris County and Harris County Public Health for discrimination based on his race and national origin. Media coverage includes CNN’s “Texas doctor fired for using leftover Covid-19 vaccine doses sues county for discrimination.”

He also recently won a $62.65 million verdict from a Nevada jury in a nationally watched case for emergency room physician group clients who were underpaid by United Healthcare, the largest insurer in the nation. The jury in this seven-week trial unanimously found malice, oppression, and fraud in the underpayment of the doctors. This verdict against a cluster of United Healthcare affiliates will serve as a bellwether for more than two dozen similar cases around the nation against various insurers.

Mr. Ahmad also maintains a blog, Legal Issues in the Executive Suite, where he explores issues involving trade secrets, covenants not to compete, executive compensation and other matters of importance to executives. Click here to read Legal Issues in the Executive Suite.