Jim Adler

Last updated

Jim Adler
Born
Jim S. Adler

(1943-05-23) May 23, 1943 (age 81) [1]
Dallas, Texas, U.S.
Education University of Texas at Austin (BA, JD) [2]
Occupation(s) Personal injury attorney, entrepreneur
Years active1967–present
Spouse
Deborah Adler
​
(m. 1982)​
[3]
Children4
Website www.jimadler.com

Jim S. Adler (born May 23, 1943), also known by the nickname of The Texas Hammer, is an American trial attorney and businessman. [4] [5] [6] He is the founder of Houston, Texas-based law firm Jim Adler & Associates. [7] Adler has been practicing law in Texas in the area of personal injury for 54 years. [8] Some of his TV advertisements have been a subject of controversy. [9] [10]

Contents

Early life

Jim Adler was born May 23, 1943, to Alexander Adler and Ruth Adler (1919–2014). [3] He was born and grew up in Dallas, Texas. Adler attended St. Mark's School of Texas [11] and then entered the University of Texas at Austin, where he earned his undergraduate degree. Continuing his studies at the University of Texas School of Law, he received his Juris Doctor degree (J.D.) in 1967. [2]

Due to his widely known trademark -The Texas Hammer and notorious TV ads, [11] Adler attracted the attention of the national media. He was the subject of the Last Week Tonight with John Oliver season 8, episode 231, segment: Jim "The Texas Hammer" Adler vs. Mike "The Alabama Hammer" Slocumb, where John Oliver ironically detailed a copyright infringement lawsuit. [5] [12] [13] Adler is also a character in the MTV cartoon series Beavis and Butt-Head . A similar attorney named Joe Adler appeared in Mike Judge's 2009 film, Extract , portrayed by Gene Simmons, who was also a personal injury lawyer.

Career

At the beginning of his career, Adler served in the U.S. Army and U.S. Navy. During his military service, Adler was appointed judge for the Office of Civilian Health and Medical Programs United Services (OCHAMPUS) and got his first legal experience while adjudicating health and medical disputes for the military personnel. [14] After being honorably discharged from the Army, Adler moved back to Dallas and did law enforcement work for the Texas State Securities Board. [15] Adler was admitted to the bar in 1967. [16]

Jim Adler is a member of the State Bar of Texas, [2] American Bar Association (ABA) [16] and American Trial Lawyers Association. [17] He is licensed to practice in the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and U.S. District Courts of Texas. [2] [8] [18]

Jim Adler & Associates

In 1973, Adler went into private practice and established Jim Adler & Associates, a law firm based in Houston. Initially, he tried a variety of legal areas including divorces and bankruptcies but later focused mainly on personal injury cases. [4] By 2021, the company employed over 30 lawyers and a staff of over three hundred paralegals, case managers, receptionists and law clerks. The law firm is headquartered in Houston, Texas with satellite offices in Dallas, San Antonio and Channelview. [11] [4]

As a number of sources note, Adler's law firm was retained by dozens of victims to represent and manage their personal injury claims after the Astroworld Festival crowd crush, [4] [19] a tragic incident that happened on November 5, 2021 at the annual Astroworld Festival organized by American rapper Travis Scott. [7] [20] [21] [22]

Adler began investing in commercials on television in the early 1980s. [15] He began using the "Texas Hammer" pseudonym in the early 2000s and registered it as a trademark with the USPTO in 2008. [15] [23] According to the Dallas Morning News and Dallas Business Journal, "Adler took acting lessons with a drama coach". [24] [11] The ads became popular in Texas but Jim Adler's notorious style of acting, where he often appeared holding a big hammer next to an 18 wheeler semi-trailer truck, attracted much criticism and attention for "pseudo-celebrity and turning lawsuits into an industry." [10] [9] [25] [24]

Adler has been involved in a series of lawsuits related to trademark and copyright infringement, where he has sued other lawyers for "copying his marketing strategy and using his trade name "The Texas Hammer" to obtain popularity among potential clients. [5] [26] One case in particular, Adler sued an Alabama attorney, Mike Slocumb, for airing commercials, "that were near duplicates of his own". The case became notable after the lawsuit became the subject of a segment on HBO's Last Week Tonight with John Oliver in August 2021. [5]

According to the lawsuit, "Adler's company spent over $100 million on TV advertising [13] in English and Spanish and the defendants have adopted Adler's famous persona and plaintiffs' intellectual property in a brazen bid to confuse and deceive consumers." [5] [27] Other lawsuits include Adler v. McNeil Consultants, [26] [28] Ramji Law Group of Houston, [29] [30] and more. [31] [32] [6]

Civic and charitable involvement

Jim Adler has worked with or board-chaired several US-based nonprofits and civic organizations, including Joint City/County Commission on Children, the Multiple Sclerosis Society, The Guild for the Blind, Habitat for Humanity, The American Cancer Society, Alzheimer’s Disease & Related Disorders, Arthritis Foundation and American Heart Association, among others. [14] [33]

In honor of Jim Adler, for his contributions to Kids Meals, Camp for All and other nonprofits, the mayor of Houston Sylvester Turner proclaimed July 30, 2021 as "Jim Adler Day". [34] He is also a supporter and fundraiser for the Democratic Party. [35]

Personal life

Jim Adler is married to Deborah Adler. They currently reside in Houston, Texas and have four children, including the eldest son Bill Adler, also a lawyer at Jim Adler & Associates.[ citation needed ]

Related Research Articles

A personal injury lawyer is a lawyer who provides legal services to those who claim to have been injured, physically or psychologically, as a result of the negligence of another person, company, government agency or any entity. Personal injury lawyers primarily practice in the area of law known as tort law. Examples of common personal injury claims include injuries from slip and fall accidents, traffic collisions, defective products, workplace injuries and professional malpractice.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Melvin Belli</span> American lawyer (1907–1996)

Melvin Mouron Belli was a United States lawyer and writer known as "The King of Torts" and by insurance companies as "Melvin Bellicose". He had many celebrity clients, including Zsa Zsa Gabor, Errol Flynn, Chuck Berry, Muhammad Ali, The Rolling Stones, Jim Bakker and Tammy Faye Bakker, Martha Mitchell, Maureen Connolly, Lana Turner, Tony Curtis, and Mae West. During his legal career, he won over $600 million in damages for his clients. He was also the attorney for Jack Ruby, who shot Lee Harvey Oswald days after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

Jim "The Hammer" Shapiro is an American attorney and author who was known in the Rochester and Florida areas for his aggressive television commercials, as well as for a letter of solicitation he sent to a comatose accident victim.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Winston & Strawn</span> American law firm

Winston & Strawn LLP is an international law firm headquartered in Chicago. It has more than 900 attorneys spread across ten offices in the United States and six offices in Europe, Asia and South America. Founded in 1853, it is one of the largest and oldest law firms in Chicago.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">W. Mark Lanier</span> American lawyer (born 1960)

William Mark Lanier is an American trial lawyer and founder and CEO of the Lanier Law Firm. He has led a number of high-profile product litigation suits resulting in billions of dollars in damages, including Johnson & Johnson baby powder and Merck & Co.'s Vioxx drug.

Richard "Rick" G. Frenkel was an in-house intellectual property counsel and director of intellectual property at Cisco Systems. He was once the anonymous author of the Patent Troll Tracker blog, focusing on the subject of "patent trolls" and "a must-read blog among top intellectual property litigators".

Alexander & Catalano was an Upstate New York based law firm practicing in the area of personal injury and worker's compensation related cases. The firm was headquartered in Syracuse, but also had offices in Rochester and Binghamton.

Carl Edwin Douglas is an American civil rights, wrongful death, personal injury, employment, and criminal defense attorney specializing in police misconduct cases. He is best known for being one of the defense attorneys in the O. J. Simpson murder case, who were collectively dubbed the "Dream Team". Douglas was the managing attorney at the law office of Johnnie Cochran Jr., before leaving to establish The Douglas Law Group in 1998. The practice is now known as Douglas / Hicks Law. Douglas' other notable clients have included: singer Michael Jackson, actors Jamie Foxx and Queen Latifah, former NFL safety Darren Sharper and rappers Tupac Shakur and Sean "Puffy" Combs.

Albert Lee Giddens is an American trial lawyer in Texas. His firm made its name handling plaintiff's litigation, representing clients suing for wrongful death and personal injuries throughout the state of Texas. Giddens is Board Certified in both Personal Injury and Civil Trial Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ken Paxton</span> American politician and lawyer

Warren Kenneth Paxton Jr. is an American politician and lawyer who has served as the attorney general of Texas since 2015. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served in the Texas Senate representing the eighth district and as a member of the Texas House of Representatives.

Kip A. Petroff is a Texas trial lawyer and is the founding partner of Petroff & Associates. His firm made its name handling plaintiffs' litigation, including representing clients suing blood banks for negligent screening of blood donors and suing the manufacturers of defective breast implants. However, he is best known for representing clients in lawsuits filed against American Home Products Corporation for heart valve injuries and other injuries arising from two diet drugs Wyeth marketed, Pondimin, and Redux.

Brad Lowber Hendricks is an American attorney, former President of the Arkansas Trial Lawyers Association, and President of The Brad Hendricks Law Firm, one of the largest firms in the State of Arkansas. He is the son of Lowber Hendricks, a prominent Arkansas attorney and Pulaski County Circuit Court Judge. Brad's decision to become an attorney is largely attributed to his father, Lowber Hendricks. His siblings are Karol Anne McNutt and Bryan Hendricks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tony Buzbee</span> American lawyer and politician

Anthony Glenn Buzbee is an American lawyer and political figure. In 2019, Buzbee ran for mayor of Houston, Texas, but lost to incumbent Sylvester Turner. He also ran for Houston City Council in 2023, but lost to incumbent Mary Nan Huffman.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vic Feazell</span> American lawyer

Vic Feazell is an American lawyer, who was a District Attorney in Waco, McLennan County from 1983 until his resignation in 1988. During his time in office he was involved in the investigation and prosecution of the 1982 Lake Waco murders and also several crimes to which Henry Lee Lucas had been linked. Feazell currently resides in Waco, Texas, and is an attorney with his own firm. He is known for his commercials sporting the "Drive Laid Back" slogan.

Stephen Daily Susman was an American commercial plaintiffs attorney, and founding and name partner of Susman Godfrey LLP. He won more than $2 billion in damages and settlements in just three cases, including a $1.1 billion settlement on behalf of Texas Instruments in Samsung Electronics v. Texas Instruments, and a $536 million jury verdict in El Paso Natural Gas Co. v. GHR Energy Corp.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas M. Melsheimer</span> American lawyer

Thomas M. Melsheimer is a trial lawyer and a partner at the international law firm of Winston & Strawn, where he also serves as managing partner of its Dallas office and a member of the firm’s Executive Committee. His trial experience encompasses both civil and criminal litigation. On the civil side, he has tried to verdict cases involving patent infringement, trade secrets, insider trading, antitrust, breach of fiduciary duty, fraud, product liability, and False Claims Act (FCA) violations. On the criminal side, he has tried to verdict cases involving bank fraud, public corruption, copyright infringement, aggravated sexual assault, and kidnapping. His clients include a variety of high-net-worth individuals and notable corporations, including the Dallas Mavericks and owner Mark Cuban, Microsoft, Bank of America, and Texas Instruments. Melsheimer is the co-author of a best-selling book on trial advocacy, On the Jury Trial: Principles and Practices for Effective Advocacy

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael P. Fleming</span>

Michael P. Fleming was a Houston, Texas based attorney and elected official. Fleming was board certified in personal injury law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. Fleming was the managing partner of Fleming Law, P.C. Fleming was elected as county attorney in Harris County, Texas in 1996 and reelected the following term in 2000. Fleming was the lead attorney for Harris County before the Supreme Court of the United States in the case Christensen v. Harris County, a case that defined the limits of the Fair Labor and Standards Act and the authority of opinion letters issued by Department of Labor. Fleming came from a family with several generations of politicians. His grandfather was Harry Raymond Fleming and great-grandfather was George William Kyte. He and his widow Natalie, the elected judge of Harris County Criminal Court at Law Number 3, had six children.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles L. Babcock</span> American attorney (born 1949)

Charles L. "Chip" Babcock is an American attorney with the Texas-based law firm Jackson Walker L.L.P. He is best known for serving as lead litigator for Oprah Winfrey in several cases, including a 1998 lawsuit regarding an episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show about mad cow disease. He is a graduate of Brown University and the Boston University School of Law.

John Steven Mostyn was an American attorney and the founder of Mostyn Law in Houston, Texas. Mostyn and his wife also founded the Glenda Jean Mostyn and Joe E Moreno Educational Foundation, a charity to assist children with special needs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Astroworld Festival crowd crush</span> 2021 crowd disaster in Houston, Texas, US

On November 5, 2021, a fatal crowd crush occurred during the Astroworld Festival, an annual musical event hosted by American rapper Travis Scott at NRG Park in Houston, Texas. Eight people were pronounced dead on the day of the incident, and two more died in the hospital in the following days. The Harris County medical examiner's office declared the cause of death to be compressive asphyxiation while the manner of death was ruled an accident.

References

  1. ↑ "Jim Adler Net Worth: An In-Depth Analysis of "The Texas Hammer" - THE HUSBAND BLOG". The Husband Blog. thehusbandblog.com. June 27, 2024. Retrieved June 30, 2024.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Mr. Jim S. Adler". Texas Bar Association.
  3. 1 2 "Ruth Adler". The Dallas Morning News.
  4. 1 2 3 4 "Astroworld Festival Crowd Crush Victims Retain Jim Adler & Associates". Irving Weekly.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 Thornton, William (August 23, 2021). "Mike 'Alabama Hammer' Slocumb's legal battle with 'Texas Hammer' featured on HBO's 'Last Week Tonight with John Oliver'". AL.com.
  6. 1 2 "'Texas Hammer' Lawyer Gets Another Chance in Trademark Lawsuit". Bloomberg Law.
  7. 1 2 Knopper, Steve (November 12, 2021). "Personal Injury Attorneys Are Rushing to Represent Astroworld Clients". BillBoard Pro.
  8. 1 2 "Jim S. Adler". Justia Lawyers.
  9. 1 2 Margolick, David (December 17, 1993). "Texas Lawyers To Vote On How Far Their Ads Can Go". The New York Times.
  10. 1 2 "TV lawyer guide: Bar proposals aim at attorney ads". The Houston Chronicle.
  11. 1 2 3 4 Wylie, Melissa (June 12, 2015). "The Texas Hammer: Lawyer Jim Adler talks advertising and the law". Dallas Business Journal.
  12. ↑ "Jim Adler, The Texas Hammer". Last Week Tonight with John Oliver.
  13. 1 2 "Jim Adler". Last Week Tonight with John Oliver.
  14. 1 2 "In this Trial Lawyer Nation podcast, Michael Cowen sits down with prominent Texas attorney, Jim Adler, AKA "The Texas Hammer," for a discussion on building a law practice on a solid reputation". Trial Lawyer Nation.
  15. 1 2 3 "Jim Adler, Personal-Injury Lawyer". Texas Monthly.
  16. 1 2 "Jim S. Adler Esq". American Association for Justice.
  17. ↑ "Jim Adler & Associates". The American Association for Trial Lawyers.
  18. ↑ "Jim S. Adler vs ANGEL L. REYES & ASSOCIATES" (PDF). The United States District Court Northern District of Texas, Dallas Division.
  19. ↑ "Personal Injury Attorneys Are Rushing to Represent Astroworld Clients". Power99 FM.[ permanent dead link ]
  20. ↑ "Lawyers and Lawsuits Line Up Following Astroworld Tragedy". Houston Press.
  21. ↑ "Lawsuits over Astroworld tragedy start rolling in". Southeast Texas Record.
  22. ↑ "Astroworld Festival victims remembered, update on lawsuits against Travis Scott". CW39 Houston.
  23. ↑ "The Texas Trademark - Trademark Details". Justia Trademarks.
  24. 1 2 Mervosh, Sarah (November 4, 2015). "Which Attorney's Ad Would You Argue For?". The Dallas Morning News.
  25. ↑ Skurnik, Josh (September 20, 2016). "Texas-sized business: Critics, lawyers discuss controversy behind personal-injury attorneys". KSAT.
  26. 1 2 "5th Circuit rules for 'The Hammer' in lawyer's trademark suit over purloined keywords and click-to-call ads". Aba Journal.
  27. ↑ "Texas Hammer' truck wreck lawyer sues 'Alabama Hammer' for stealing his shtick". CDL Life.
  28. ↑ "Fifth Circuit Drops THE HAMMER, Reinstates Law Firm's Keyword Trademark Infringement Suit Alleging Initial Interest Confusion". The National Law Review.
  29. ↑ "Jim Adler, The Texas Hammer, Sues Houston Lawyer Over Mobile Edits". Texas Law.
  30. ↑ "Texas Hammer Nails Trademark Infringement Appeal". The National Law Review.
  31. ↑ ""Texas Hammer" has second chance to nail referral center for trademark infringement". Goodmansip.
  32. ↑ "The Right Tool for the Job: Fifth Circuit Revives "Texas Hammer" Trademark Lawsuit". IP and Media Law.
  33. ↑ "Attorney Jim Adler". Jim Adler & Associates.
  34. ↑ Estrada, Rachel (July 30, 2021). "City of Houston Jim Adler Day in Texas, July 30, 2021". CW39.
  35. ↑ "Analyst: Clinton could bring in $1 billion in campaign contributions". Click2Houston.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.