Alison L. Battiste

Alison L. Battiste is a partner in the complex litigation/dispute resolution group where she concentrates her practice in the areas of commercial and high-stakes litigation. As a trial lawyer and legal adviser, Alison represents both plaintiffs and defendants and assists clients with matters related to legal and professional responsibility, intellectual property, and technology. Alison also worked as an adjunct professor at the University of North Texas Law School in Dallas, where she taught a course on legal research and writing.

Prior to her legal career, Alison earned a B.S. in chemistry and an MBA from George Washington University in Washington, DC. While pursuing her graduate degree, Alison studied International Business at Fundação Getúlio Vargas in São Paulo, Brazil, which offers programs in economics, business administration, and international relations.

Alison is a Barrister in the Patrick H. Higginbotham American Inn of Court, with a three-year term beginning in 2018, and a member of the NEW Roundtable.  She has received numerous honors for her research, teaching, and community service.  She has been selected as a four-time “Texas Rising Star” from 2015-2019 and a “Texas Super Lawyer” in 2020 and she continues to stay active within the community through various outreach initiatives, including her role as a member of the Board of Family Gateway and a member of Leadership Dallas Class of 2021, Dallas Regional Chamber’s flagship leadership program.

Alison received her J.D. from the Georgetown University Law Center and participated in the International Law Study summer program at University College London in the United Kingdom. After law school, she worked at Merrill Lynch International in London, England. She is a fellow of the Texas Bar Foundation, Dallas Bar Foundation and Dallas Association of Young Lawyers Foundation and a member of the State Bar of Texas and the Dallas Bar Association.

Representative Matters

• Argued and won summary judgment, dismissing all claims against and awarding attorney fees to client in a commercial landlord/tenant dispute;
• Argued and defeated summary judgment filed by opposing party in oil and gas case;
• Protected client’s software source code from disclosure in a predatory copyright infringement case;
• Lead associate on Motion to Dismiss that successfully dismissed Chinese client on personal jurisdiction grounds;
• Successfully settled deceptive trade practices act claim with favorable terms to client against an aggressive consumer products company;
• Successfully settled hotly contested case involving bill of review filed against our clients;
• Successfully settled breach of contract case against national products manufacturing client;
• Successfully settled construction client’s case with a large payoff to client;
• Successfully dismissed case filed by aggressive Dallas attorney for failure to state a claim;
• Won a highly contested motion to compel appraisal and abatement after hearing;
• Negotiated condemnation settlement, pre-trial, resulting in more than ten times the amount originally offered by the condemning authority;
• Successfully argued to court that bad acts during a condemnation hearing by the condemning authority must be considered at a trial de novo;
• Lead associate in multiple condemnation cases defending large landowners and businesses, working with experts and defending landowners’ positions at commissioners’ hearings and at trial;
• Successfully argued highest and best use of condemned property in order to achieve the best results for clients in multiple eminent domain cases;
• Successfully defended franchisee after alleged breach of contract and warded off threatened lawsuit by franchisor prior to any court filings;
• Lead associate in suit representing manufacturing company against a provide equity firm over debt and equity issues and developed the successful theory of the case;
• Primary editor and researcher on a brief submitted to the Tenth Circuit, in which the judges, including Judge Neil Gorsuch, sides for client in OSHA case;
• Lead associate in premises liability case, defending a landlord after it entered into a buy and lease-back relationship with a fast-food lessee and catastrophic injuries occurred at one of the portfolio restaurants;
• Assisted numerous clients in avoiding litigation against them through pre-trial negotiations;
• Lead associate on team defending billions of trust assets from remote contingent beneficiaries and developed theory to protect confidential trust documents from disclosure;
• Successfully settled numerous deceptive trade practices act suits, with favorable terms for clients;
• Convinced plaintiff to nonsuit within three months after the filing of the original petition and after deposing plaintiff’s lead witness;
• Drafted and reviewed numerous corporate documents, including investor agreements, licensing agreements and corporate operating agreements;
• Drafted numerous employment agreements for clients wishing to protect themselves prior to hiring;
• Drafted successful summary judgment that got hundreds of workers’ compensation claims against textile client dismissed;
• Served on the trial team that successfully represented Halliburton in the BP Macondo oil spill case (Deepwater Horizon);
• As lead associate, obtained summary judgment for Halliburton in admiralty law case against foreign plaintiffs and successfully defended the summary judgment on appeal;
• Drafted a credit agreement on behalf of a large foreign lender who funded development projects in other countries; and
• Advised a domestic manufacturer and a foreign distributor on issues of United States law.

Education

Associations & Memberships

Family Gateway
Board Member (2020-present)

Patrick H. Higginbotham American Inn of Court, Barrister

CPR Panel of Distinguished Neutrals
International Institute for Conflict Prevention and Resolution
Member of the Employment Disputes Panel-South, the Mass Claims Employment Panel, and the Dallas ADR Panel

NEW Roundtable

Dallas Bar Association

State Bar of Texas

Texas Bar Foundation, Fellow

Dallas Association of Young Lawyers Foundation, Fellow

Dallas Bar Association, Fellow

Honors & Awards

Texas Super Lawyers, Thomson Reuters
2020-2021

Texas Rising Stars, Thomson Reuters
2015-2018

Bar Admissions

District of Columbia

Texas

U.S. Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit

U.S. District Court, Northern District of Texas

U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Texas

U.S. District Court, Southern District of Texas

U.S. District Court, Western District of Texas

U.S. District, Eastern District of Arkansas

U.S. District, Western District of Arkansas