Chris A. Blackerby is a successful trial lawyer with 30 years of experience in a wide range of matters focusing principally on product liability and personal injury litigation as well as commercial and patent litigation. He has tried complex cases throughout Texas and elsewhere totaling over $2 billion in controversy. After graduating law school, Chris served as a Briefing Attorney to the Honorable James R. Nowlin in the United States District Court, Western District of Texas. After a successful practice at a large law firm in Austin, Chris joined Germer in 2008. Chris is a “Texas Super Lawyer” and is rated an AV Preeminent Attorney by Martindale-Hubbell. Chris routinely handles complex product liability lawsuits for manufacturers. His clients include tire, automotive, agricultural and construction equipment manufacturers. He has defended cases involving tires, air bags, seatbelts, roof/vehicle structures, rollovers, fires, seats and seat backs and general crashworthiness.

Thomas M. Bullion III graduated with honors from the University of Texas at Austin in 1978 with a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering. After working for several years as an engineer, he went to law school at the Southern Methodist University School of Law in Dallas, Texas and graduated in 1984. Tom graduated Order of the Coif, was Chief Counsel of the Moot Court Board, and a member of the Barristers. Tom has been AV rated by Martindale-Hubbell since 1990. After practicing at another Austin firm, he joined Germer in early 2008. Tom is licensed to practice in the Supreme Court of Texas, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, and all United States district courts in Texas. He is a Fellow in the American College of Trial Lawyers and a member of the State Bar of Texas, Austin Bar Association. Tom has been recognized by “The Best Lawyers in America”, by BL Rankings, publication, since 2001 and a “Texas Super Lawyer”, a Thompson Reuters publication, from 2003-2007 and 2009-2023. Tom practices in the areas of products liability and personal injury.

Justin D. McMinn is a trial lawyer who aggressively represents personal injury plaintiffs and criminal defendants throughout the state of Texas.  He has a strong passion for seeking justice and helping his clients rebuild their lives after serious injury accidents.Justin was born and raised in Central Texas.  After completing high school, Justin attended the University of Texas where he earned his Bachelor's degree in Government.  Justin then went on to earn his Juris Doctorate degree from Texas Tech University School of Law.  While attending Texas Tech, Justin worked for a law firm that specialized in Personal Injury Litigation.  Here, Justin developed his passion to help people who had been seriously injured in accidents.  Justin worked up and helped prepare hundreds of personal injury claims for litigation.  After graduating law school, Justin accepted a position with the McMinn Law Firm, which was founded by his older brother Jason B. McMinn.  Justin represents criminal defendants and is experienced in negotiating favorable plea agreements, pretrial litigation, and preparing cases for trial.  This past year, Justin was named a partner in the McMinn Law Firm.Select Cases in 2008 Represented an Austin man who was hit by an 18-wheeler truck that was in the wrong lane and crushed his bucket truck that he was using to repair a traffic light.  The Austin man suffered from spinal injuries. After exposing the poor safety history of the trucking company, they agreed to settle the case for $1,950,000 with a client recovery of $1,025,000.  Represented a six year old Austin girl who sustained a brain injury at a local Austin business.  Prior to trial, the local business agreed to settle the case for $250,000 with a client recovery of $125,000.  Represented a Buda family that was involved in a head on automobile collision.  The husband and wife received spinal injuries from the impact of the collision. Prior to trial, the at fault driver's insurance company agreed to settle the case for $165,000 with a client recovery of $82,000.  Represented an Austin man that was hit by a car that jumped the curb and struck him while he was riding his bicycle.  After suit was filed, the insurance company agreed to pay $100,000 with a client recovery of $50,000 for the Austin man's spinal injuries.  AffiliationsJustin is a member of the Texas Young Lawyers Association, State Bar of Texas and the Texas Trial Lawyers Association.  Justin is an alumni of the Texas Kappa Alpha Order and a member of the Silver Spurs Alumni Association.

Kyle is a lifelong Texan who has practiced in courtrooms across the State. After graduating from the University of Texas at Austin with a bachelor’s degree in Government, he attended Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law. During law school, Kyle worked as a law clerk for a firm in Dallas, interned with Chief Judge Ricardo Hinojosa of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas in McAllen, and Justice Elizabeth Lang-Miers of the 5th District Court of Appeals in Dallas. After law school, Kyle began his legal career clerking for the Honorable Karen Gren Scholer, a federal District Judge in the Northern District of Texas. During this time, he dealt exclusively with the Court’s criminal cases, ranging from illegal reentries across the border up to complex drug smuggling rings operating in North Texas. Kyle then served as an Assistant District Attorney for the Dallas County DA’s Office, handling hundreds of cases while honing his skills in trial. Another move down I-35 to Austin continued Kyle’s career as a defense attorney at a local firm downtown. He represented clients across Texas from Conroe to San Angelo, Edinburg to Abilene and everywhere in between. Kyle is now making his expertise available to clients in the Austin area. With experience as both a prosecutor and a defense attorney, Kyle can help you navigate any criminal charge you may face and will make sure that your rights are protected during the most stressful of times.

Missy K. Atwood is a principal in the Austin office at Germer, PLLC. She has over 25 years of experience in civil litigation, healthcare law and administrative law. She has tried more than 60 cases to verdict as first-chair trial counsel in State District Courts and Federal Courts. She represents clients in a wide variety of complex civil litigation, as both lead counsel and local counsel, including high exposure medical malpractice, products liability, pharmaceutical products liability, construction, anti-trust, insurance coverage, and commercial litigation. She is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, a Member of the American Board of Trial Advocates, and is Board Certified in Personal Injury Trial Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization.

Dan Christensen has been practicing law since 1994. He started his career working in military courts, notorious for their strict adherence to rules and procedures. For the last several years, Dan has focused his practice exclusively on representing injury victims. He has been involved in almost 200 trials during his career in numerous federal and state courts against the largest defendants, including the U.S. Government. Dan will utilize his experience and proven results while fighting for you. Regardless of the size of the opponent, Dan has the experience and legal knowledge to aggressively advocate for his clients. And, just as important, he will give you and your case the personal attention it deserves from the initial free consultation through trial. Dan received a bachelor’s degree with Honors in 1991 and his J.D. with distinction from the University of Iowa in 1994. After graduating from law school, he served in the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General’s Corps (JAG) in Fort Hood, Texas. He served as a prosecutor and defense counsel in numerous administrative hearings and courts-martial ranging from minor offenses to kidnapping, rape, and capital murder. After being honorably discharged from the U.S. Army JAG Corps, Dan joined a Texas personal injury law firm. Dan worked as the Chief of its Litigation Department and was the firm’s principle trial lawyer for years, trying numerous cases each year. Also, as the head of the firm’s personal injury division, Dan supervised and mentored between 15 and 20 trial lawyers at a time as they prosecuted thousands of cases.

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.