Angela C. Zambrano

ANGELA ZAMBRANO is a co-leader of the firmwide Commercial Litigation and Disputes practice and member of the firm’s COVID-19 Task Force. She represents companies and boards of directors in commercial litigation and internal investigations, including class actions and multi-jurisdictional disputes. Angela has served as trial counsel in cases before numerous federal and state courts around the country and in multiple evidentiary hearings in arbitration proceedings. Angela regularly litigates cases involving allegations of fraud, misappropriation of trade secrets, breach of contract, bad faith and breach of fiduciary duty, as well as class action consumer, shareholder, and employment claims, and business torts for companies in a wide variety of industries, including telecommunications, real estate, private equity, energy, insurance, healthcare, transportation, data storage, media and entertainment, and agriculture.

Angela frequently represents private equity firms in their key litigation matters, including in earn-out disputes, purchase price adjustments, indemnification disputes, investigations, and arbitration. Angela also regularly represents such clients in employment-related disputes, including trade secret disputes, covenants not to compete and class action employment claims.

Angela is known as being an aggressive litigator with excellent courtroom skills, including obtaining and defending against temporary restraining orders. Angela is also a trusted business counselor and often provides pre-litigation advice related to contract and employment issues for privately held and publicly traded companies. She has extensive experience in conducting internal investigations, including in accounting, data breach, whistleblower, and employment related matters. In addition, she has extensive experience in bankruptcy-related litigation including trying multiple bankruptcy-related matters.

Angela has served as an adjunct professor of law teaching on pretrial procedure at SMU Dedman School of Law. She is ranked by Chambers and Partners in Texas Commercial Litigation. Angela has also received a variety of awards for her litigation skills. She was recently recognized in “Commercial Litigation” in the 2016–2020 editions of The Best Lawyers in America and selected as one of the “Best Lawyers in Dallas” by D Magazine 2018–2020. Angela served as President of the Dallas Women Lawyers Association in 2016 and received the Outstanding Director Award in 2019. Since 2007, she has been recognized annually by Texas Super Lawyers as a leading lawyer in the area of Business Litigation. In 2017, she was recognized by SMU Dedman School of Law as an Emerging Leader. She also received the 2017 Distinguished Alumni Award from SMU Women in Law. In 2015, 2016 and 2017, she was listed as a “Local Litigation” star in Texas by Benchmark Litigation and recognized in Who’s Who Legal: Litigation.

Angela’s recent representations include:

• Currently representing a chemical manufacturing company in trade secret litigation, including successfully obtaining preliminary injunctive relief and temporary restraining order;
• Currently representing a publicly traded company in action against the federal trade commission (FTC);
• Currently representing a retail client in multiple wage and hour collective actions;
• Currently representing a publicly traded company in class action litigation related to location services;
• Recently represented a publicly traded company as lead trial counsel in a final evidentiary hearing of an earn-out arbitration and obtained a complete victory for her client, including a multimillion dollar counterclaim award;
• Recently represented an energy company in state court matter as lead counsel and successfully obtained a summary judgement of all claims against client;
• Currently representing an energy company in arbitration relating to indemnification claims;
• Currently representing a publicly traded company in an alleged whistleblowing claim;
• Currently representing a client relating to orders from USDA and TDA;
• Currently representing a publicly traded building products company in an earn out proceeding;
• Recently represented a mortgage company in class action relating to the purchase of assets from the government;
• Currently representing a publicly traded building products company in a group of securities class actions and derivative actions;
• Currently advising on data breach and privacy-related investigations and related litigation;
• Represented a private equity client in the arbitration of an earn out dispute relating to a healthcare company in which she obtained a complete victory for her client;
• Represented a mortgage company in multiple  misappropriation of trade secrets and employee-related disputes, including  successfully compelling a dispute  to arbitration;
• Successfully represented an energy company, healthcare companies, and a telecommunications company in multiple FLSA and wage payment matters;
• Represented a private equity client in an arbitration where she obtained several early favorable rulings and ultimately a favorable settlement in which the client was able to recoup its entire investment;
• Represented several insurance-related entities in an action involving allegations of fraud and breach of contract in which she obtained a dismissal with prejudice for all of her clients;
• Representation of a pharmaceutical company in an arbitration with its vendor in which she obtained interim measures from the arbitrator shortly after the arbitrator was appointed, leading to a favorable settlement for her client;
• Successfully represented an entertainment company in connection with class action consumer disputes related to the company’s rewards program and gift cards;
• Represented energy company in trespass dispute where she successfully defeated plea to the jurisdiction and motion for protection; and
• Represented a telecommunications company in complex dispute related to transport charges in federal court.