Samantha C. Jeffers is an Attorney in the Austin office of Germer. Samantha graduated Magna Cum Laude from Texas Woman’s University with a degree in Business Management. She then earned her law degree from The George Washington University Law School in 2019. Prior to joining the firm in 2022, Samantha practiced at a large insurance defense firm specializing in catastrophic personal injury, premises liability, and wrongful death claims. At Germer, Samantha focuses on medical malpractice, representing hospitals, physicians, and medical providers.

Shaunté M. Collins is a native Austinite and first joined Germer in 2020. She graduated from Duke University with a degree in Political Science and certificate in Politics, Philosophy & Economics. She then received her Doctor of Jurisprudence, with honors, from St. Mary’s University School of Law. While in law school, Shaunté was awarded the Chief Justice Alma Lopez “Women in Law” Student Leadership Award, was a Deans’ Academic Award recipient, and was inducted into the Phi Delta Phi legal honors society. Shaunté served as a Staff Writer for The Scholar: St. Mary’s Law Review on Race and Social Justice and was the winner and Best Speaker of the Linda and Dave Schlueter First-Year Moot Court Competition. Additionally, she served as a Judicial Intern for the Honorable Rebeca Martinez at the Texas Fourth Court of Appeals.

Ryan C. Bueche is the rare combination of a lead trial attorney and a lead appellate attorney. Prior to entering private practice, Ryan worked for four different federal judges in the United States Western District of Texas. While in law school, Ryan completed a nine-month federal internship with United States District Judge Walter Smith in Waco. After graduating from law school in 2008, Ryan worked as a Federal Law Clerk for United States District Judge Orlando Garcia in San Antonio, and from 2008 until 2011, Ryan served as a Federal Briefing Attorney to United States District Judge James R. Nowlin in Austin. Upon completing those three federal clerkships in 2011, Ryan joined Germer’s Austin office, and he was elected to be a Principal in 2015. Since joining Germer, Ryan has focused his private practice on trial litigation and appellate litigation, and he specializes in defending companies and individuals in lawsuits involving product liability, intellectual property, personal injury, insurance coverage, complex business disputes, and employment disputes. In his role as a trial attorney, Ryan is licensed to practice in all State and federal trial courts in Texas, and he is also licensed to practice before the United States District Courts in Michigan and Indiana. Ryan has successfully tried multiple cases to verdict as lead trial counsel. In all of those cases, the plaintiff was seeking to recover seven-figure damages from Ryan’s clients, and all of the juries in those cases returned favorable verdicts for his clients. Ryan has also worked on larger litigation teams in “bet-the-company” lawsuits, including a case that resulted in a defense verdict for Ryan’s client in which the plaintiff asked the jury to award the plaintiff more than $1 Billion. Ryan also regularly serves as lead counsel in administrative proceedings, including contested hearings before the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles. As an appellate attorney, Ryan has successfully briefed and argued numerous appeals as lead appellate counsel in State and Federal appellate courts. Within several months of entering private practice in 2011, Ryan served as lead appellate counsel before the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, and the Fifth Circuit issued an opinion in favor of Ryan’s client. Since 2012, Ryan has continued to regularly serve as lead appellate counsel for purposes of briefing and oral argument in numerous State and federal courts of appeals, including appeals to the following courts: • The United States Fourth Court of Appeals • The United States Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals • The United States Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals • The Texas Third Court of Appeals • The Texas Fourth Court of Appeals • The Texas Fifth Court of Appeals • The Texas Eighth Court of Appeals • The Texas Tenth Court of Appeals • The Texas Supreme Court Most recently, at the end of 2023, Ryan was lead appellate counsel in an appeal in which the Texas Supreme Court granted a Petition for Review and issued a ruling in favor of Ryan’s client, which is something that occurs is less than 6% of cases. Ryan’s broad appellate experience includes handling appeals involving product liability, commercial disputes, employment disputes, spoliation disputes, jurisdictional disputes, Anti-SLAPP disputes, and insurance disputes. Ryan also regularly serves as appellate support counsel for trials in State and federal court. For all of that work before trial and appellate courts, Ryan was given the honor of the Texas Super Lawyer Rising Star in 2017, 2018, and 2019, which is an award that is limited to 3% of attorneys under the age of 40.