Christine D. Burkhart is a principal in the San Antonio office. She has over 19 years of experience in civil litigation primarily focusing her practice on construction defect litigation, representing general contractors and subcontractors, premises liability, product liability and trucking/transportation matters. Most of her cases concern highly complex matters with substantial damages. While a talented and skilled litigator, Christine has successfully achieved highly desirable settlements in multimillion dollar cases. Prior to pursuing her career in the law, Christine worked in mortgage lending for 13 years in Northern Ohio and Las Vegas. During that time, she handled loan originations, loan closings and became an underwriter. Thereafter, she moved into management and oversaw loan operations and sales for branch offices in the region. Her knowledge of the business and ability to understand the relationships and impact of the laws and regulations give Christine’s clients added value beyond her legal knowledge.

Adrian Senyszyn is a principal at Germer PLLC, and he practices in the areas of construction, cybersecurity, health care law, HIPAA, employment law, administrative law, and personal injury. Mr. Senyszyn represents clients throughout Texas. Much of his construction practice involves large, multiparty construction defect litigation. Mr. Senyszyn represents both general contractors and subcontractors, and he has represented many scopes of work to include HVAC, swimming pools, electrical, roofing, waterproofing, masonry, framing, window manufacturers, concrete, and ornamental steel. He also advises about mechanic’s and materialman’s liens and other issues that affect the general business of contractors. Mr. Senyszyn’s cyber security practice includes the health care sector where he routinely advises health care practices about privacy and security rules. Mr. Senyszyn has extensive experience managing claims through the breach notification process, and he has advised many practices suffering catastrophic breaches. Mr. Senyszyn also defends clients before courts and administrative agencies such as the Office of Civil Rights, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Texas Medical Board. Mr. Senyszyn has experience defending class action claims related to cybersecurity breaches. Mr. Senyszyn often speaks about health care issues, cybersecurity and HIPAA rules. Mr. Senyszyn has been recognized as a “Texas Superlawyer” by Thompson Reuters from 2021-2025, “Best Lawyers®” since 2022, and a “Top Attorney” according to Texas Monthly since 2023.

James A. Tatem is a graduate of the University of Texas where he received a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in 1989. He received his Doctor of Jurisprudence degree from South Texas College of Law in 1992. Tatem James A. is admitted to practice before Texas state courts and the United States District Court for the Northern, Southern and Eastern Districts of Texas. Jim has served as a first-chair trial lawyer in a variety of personal injury and property damage cases as well commercial cases. Jim has extensive experience in products liability, premises liability, toxic torts, superfund and environmental litigation, construction litigation, real estate, civil litigation, class and collective actions, commercial litigation, insurance law, mediation/arbitration, and personal injury defense.

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.