Ryan is a Houston personal injury lawyer who’s recovered the largest verdicts and settlements in history for clients who were catastrophically injured, seriously burned, and tragically killed across Texas, Louisiana, New Mexico and the United States. His record-setting verdicts and settlements have received national media attention, distinguished Ryan as one of the top personal injury lawyers in the country, and qualified him for lifetime membership in both the “Million Dollar Advocates Forum” and the “Multi-Million Dollar Advocates Forum,” organizations limited to less than 1% of the top trial lawyers in the country. In recognition of these and his firm’s many other accomplishments, Zehl & Associates was one of only two law firms in the United States to be consecutively selected as the 2020, 2021, and 2022 “Personal Injury Law Firm of the Year” by Law.com and The National Law Journal. Ryan has been featured on the cover of Texas Super Lawyers magazine (a Thompson Reuters publication), voted as one of the top 100 personal injury lawyers in Texas by the National Trial Lawyers Association, and selected as a “Texas Super Lawyer” and “Rising Star” every year since 2009. After graduating in the top 5 percent of his law school class, Ryan worked as a briefing attorney for Justice Scott Brister of the Texas Supreme Court. When his term with the Supreme Court expired, Ryan joined Gardere’s litigation and appellate group, where he quickly distinguished himself as an aggressive trial lawyer in complex commercial and personal injury cases. Ryan has been interviewed on CNN, Fox & Friends, Good Morning America and news outlets throughout Texas and appeared in almost every major newspaper across the world, including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, the International Herald Tribune, Bloomberg, the Houston Chronicle, and the Dallas Morning News.

Mike Tilton is a trial lawyer and a founding partner of Tilton & Tilton LLP. He is a fearless and relentless lawyer for his clients. Mike has helped to obtain millions of dollars for injured clients, taking on oil companies, railroads, trucking companies, drug manufacturers, and some of the largest corporations to ensure that his clients receive the justice they deserve. Growing up as the son of a military father and school teacher mother, Mike learned early on that hard work, preparation, and dedication are the keys to success. He takes these skills and applies them to all areas of trial practice, whether it is negotiating a settlement with insurance adjusters or battling some if the biggest defense firms in the court room. Mike received his bachelor’s degree with honors in Political Science and Psychology from the University of Houston and earned his law degree from the University of Houston Law Center. While in law school, Mike honed his courtroom skills by excelling in numerous advocacy programs and serving as a member of the interscholastic Moot Court team and the Board of Advocates. Immediately following law school, Mike worked at one of the oldest and most prestigious litigation firms in Houston where he participated in his first trial immediately after being sworn in as a lawyer. He later joined another successful plaintiff’s practice where he helped obtain millions of dollars in verdicts and settlements for his clients. Mike has gone to trial and handled cases throughout Texas and in almost a dozen different states Throughout his legal career, Mike has worked on a wide variety of cases, ranging from automobile accidents to complex pharmaceutical litigation with millions of dollars at stake. No matter the size, Mike treats every case with the attention it deserves. He realizes that an injury is one of the most traumatic events his clients will suffer, and therefore fights tooth and nail to get his clients the justice they deserve. Mike’s commitment to his clients and professionalism has earned him numerous accolades. For every year since 2012, Mike’s colleagues voted him as a Texas Super Lawyer Rising Star, an honor bestowed to only 2.5% of all attorneys in Texas. Mike was also nominated as a “Top 40 under 40” by the National Trial Lawyers, an honor given to only 40 trial lawyers in Texas every year. In 2021, Mike was voted as one of the Top 100 Rising Stars in Texas by Super Lawyers and featured in Texas Monthly Magazine.

When Kurt Arnold represents someone, he’s all in. He’s won billions for his clients. In fact, he has recovered more than $1 billion in a single year multiple times and shattered records with his historic verdicts and settlements. He has helped clients recover losses after major maritime disasters such as the Deepwater Horizon and the El Faro. For Kurt, no fight is too difficult or complicated. He refuses to take “no” for an answer. When something bad happens, Kurt fights for his clients, no matter what. He never backs down, no matter how big the challenge. Kurt co-founded Arnold & Itkin at 25 and has since won more than a dozen jury verdicts and settlements in excess of $100 million, over 100 jury verdicts and settlements in excess of $10 million, more than 1,000 recoveries exceeding $1 million, and multiple nationwide product recalls. Kurt’s record-setting verdicts include a $117 million recovery, the largest in single-plaintiff personal injury verdict in Louisiana. He holds a record in Hawaii after securing a $42 million verdict. He broke a U.S. record when he obtained a $44 million verdict on behalf of a single-leg amputee. He’s won record-setting individual recoveries for clients of $92.7 million, $87 million, $81 million, $78 million, and $72 million. Kurt has also achieved record settlements for workplace accidents of $357.7 million and $171 million. Other record-setting results earned by Kurt include: • Largest settlement for an individual burned at a worksite in United States history. • Largest settlement for a wrongful death case in United States history. • Largest settlement for a man killed offshore in United States history. • Largest settlement for families injured in a plant explosion in United States history. • Largest settlement for an undocumented worker in United States history. • Largest settlement for a worker injured in Texas oilfield. • Largest jury verdict for a single amputee in the United States. • Largest jury verdicts in multiple states throughout the country. Kurt consistently receives the legal industry’s highest honors. He has been named to the top 50 Elite Trial Lawyer list by National Law Journal and was recognized by Lawdragon as one of the 500 Leading Lawyers in America. He has been named to the Best Lawyers in America® in Admiralty and Maritime Law and Personal Injury Litigation. He was also asked to join one of the most prestigious organizations in the legal profession: The Inner Circle of Advocates. Serious accidents require the best lawyers. When people get hurt or lose someone they love, they call Kurt. To him, every case is personal. He treats his clients like family, fighting hard to get them the result they need to rebuild their lives. Kurt attended the University of Texas, where he graduated with honors at the age of 19. He then attended the University of Texas Law School and graduated in the top 5% of his class. Kurt is licensed to practice in Texas and Pennsylvania, as well as before the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals and before the U.S. Supreme Court. Kurt lives in Houston with his wife Tara and their children Jaxon and Isla. Kurt and his family attend St. Paul’s Methodist Church and are founders of the Arnold & Itkin Foundation.