Our Focus
Land Acquisition
Public infrastructure begins in private hands. Before a road, a levee, a water line, or a reservoir can serve the public, the land beneath it has to be acquired, lawfully, fairly, and often from owners who never chose to sell. It is exacting work, governed by constitutional limits and unforgiving procedure, and it is where many public projects are won or lost.
We handle it with a clear understanding of what is at stake on both sides of the table. The landowner across from our client is frequently a resident of the community that project will serve, and how an acquisition is conducted is remembered long after it closes. We move projects forward efficiently and defend our clients' authority to acquire, while treating every owner with the fairness the public trust demands.
Acquisition is sustained, parcel-by-parcel work that few in-house teams are staffed to carry at scale. We take it on alongside yours, from the first project conception through negotiation, hearings, and trial if necessary, so your staff can keep the rest of the project moving while the ground is secured beneath it.
What We Handle
- —Full-cycle eminent domain and voluntary acquisition, from project conception through trial
- —Right-of-way and easement acquisition for infrastructure, utilities, and pipelines
- —Special commissioner hearings, valuation, and condemnation litigation
- —Right-to-take challenges and inverse condemnation defense
- —Emergency access, survey, and possession relief
- —Fee simple and complex multi-parcel acquisition for public projects
Representative Experience
- —Obtained a rehearing in the Texas Supreme Court that limited an opinion of first impression on pipeline companies' right to take.
- —Counseled public entities in acquiring thousands of miles of right-of-way and fee simple interests to support infrastructure and public projects.
- —Served as land acquisition counsel to a regional water system, advising on site selection, easements, crossing agreements, and fee simple purchases for water supply infrastructure.
- —Obtained a judgment that the state lacked the right to take a portion of a property under condemnation.
- —Defended governmental entities against inverse condemnation claims, protecting public assets through expert valuation testimony.
- —Represented a large Texas county in one of the largest condemnation cases on record by the gap between compensation offered and demanded, resolving a claim near the county's valuation against a demand more than twice as high.
- —Secured emergency injunctive relief for immediate site access, keeping surveying, geotechnical, and construction activity on schedule.
- —Acquired more than eighty parcels to assemble land for essential school construction.
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