About Our Firm
Fred Hagans grew up near Waco, Texas. He vividly remembers his father, a mail carrier, coming home one day describing a dispute that had been keeping him up late at night. His father had finally talked to a lawyer, though, and the issue was now behind their family. It was at that moment that Fred realized he wanted to be a lawyer. And he wanted to be that kind of lawyer, who helps people with legal disputes.
When Fred graduated from law school, in 1972, he joined Bracewell LLP. Ten years later, Fred set out on his own to focus his attention on representing plaintiffs who needed his help. Fred has tried more than 100 jury trials since then. He enjoys digging into complex commercial matters—oftentimes on the weekends at the office—as well as finding any/all ways to help people and their families injured by the negligence of others.
Kendall Montgomery grew up in Houston. When Kendall graduated from law school, in 1984, he went to work for a defense firm where he was assigned to work on the one plaintiff’s case the firm was handling. Three years later, Kendall participated in a four month trial that resulted in one of the largest jury verdicts in Texas at the time. Kendall quickly recognized that his passion was working on complex commercial cases on the plaintiffs’ side and he has pursued that passion since. In 1999, though, Kendall found himself in a disagreement with his firm over payment of his compensation on a particularly successful case. Kendall hired Fred Hagans to represent him. Before long, his legal team expanded to include Joe Jamail, Ronny Krist, and lawyers from Bracewell. His case was settled after the first day of testimony, with Fred examining Kendall as the first witness. While Kendall was already jointly working on cases with Fred from his own law firm, it was shortly after the settlement of his case that Kendall decided to join Fred’s law firm. That was over twenty years ago.
William Hagans grew up in Houston and played basketball in nearly every gym in the city at some point. When he got to college, he found himself being drawn more and more toward law related classes. He would talk to his father about being a lawyer and about how it seems like the thing that he is naturally being drawn toward without any influence from Fred.
When William graduated from law school, in 2006, he followed in his father’s footsteps and began work at Bracewell LLP. Somehow, though, during his years there, William handled more of the sorts of cases—plaintiffs and even contingency-fee cases—that Fred’s firm primarily handles. In 2009, William was preparing for his first jury trial. He convinced Fred to try the case with him—for free, no less. When the jury returned a verdict in his client’s favor, he realized just how much fun it was to try cases with his father. Shortly after that, he joined the firm as well.
