About

Brad Hartz is an attorney in Houston, Texas. His career has taken him from the United States Army to private practice at two international law firms, and on to a senior in-house litigation role at a Fortune 100 technology company.

Military service

Brad was commissioned as an infantry officer in the United States Army in 2000, following his graduation from Texas A&M University. He served on active duty for five years, deploying to Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. In early 2005, his unit supported security operations in Kirkuk that enabled the January 30, 2005 elections for the Iraqi Transitional National Assembly, Iraq's first multi-party national elections in decades, held under active threat of insurgent attack in one of the country's most strategically and ethnically contested regions. Brad was awarded the Bronze Star Medal and the Combat Infantryman Badge for his wartime service. He resigned his commission at the rank of captain to attend law school.

Private practice

Brad earned his J.D., cum laude, from the University of Houston Law Center in 2007. He joined Baker Botts L.L.P. as a litigation associate, practicing in commercial, energy, antitrust, and labor and employment litigation, and contributing to matters that included a $5 billion plaintiff's verdict on a fraudulent transfer claim and a Department of Justice antitrust investigation. During his years at Baker Botts, he also served as a special prosecutor for the City of Houston, trying more than fifteen cases to verdict in municipal court. In 2010, Brad moved to Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP, where he continued to practice complex commercial litigation, including representation of a global investment bank, an international office developer, and an oilfield services provider in the Gulf of Mexico oil spill multidistrict litigation. He continued trying cases during his Morgan Lewis years as a special prosecutor for the City of Missouri City, Texas.

In-house practice

Brad joined HP Inc. in 2014 and now serves as Assistant General Counsel for Affirmative Recoveries and Senior Commercial Litigation Counsel, managing a portfolio of the company's most significant plaintiff-side and defensive matters. His practice is described in more detail on the Areas of Practice page.

Two ideas that shape the practice

Two lessons from the Army followed Brad into practice, and still shape how he advises the business, evaluates matters, and works with outside counsel.

The first is that accurate understanding of risk is paramount. Every decision worth making is a decision under uncertainty, and the lawyer's job is to see the situation clearly before doing anything else.

The second is that acceptance of risk, including the possibility of failure, is the price of admission. Litigation is adversarial by design. Parties that refuse to accept the possibility of losing tend to make worse decisions than parties that have looked squarely at that possibility and decided to proceed anyway.