About Joseph

Joseph Y. Ahmad, a founding partner in the Houston law firm of Ahmad, Zavitsanos, Anaipakos, Alavi & Mensing P.C., is a lawyer for executives and has been recognized nationally as one of the best lawyers in his field. He represents executives in a variety of matters, including breach of contract, trade secrets, covenants not to compete, breach of fiduciary duty and other matters.He was elected to the prestigious American Board of Trial Advocates, an elite group of the country’s leading judges and civil trial lawyers. He has been selected by his peers as one of the ”Best Lawyers in America“ since 2003 and he was named a ”2015 Lawyer of the Year“ in the Houston area. Mr. Ahmad has been recognized as a leading lawyer in ”Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business.“ He has been named to the Texas Super Lawyers list since 2003, been on the Texas Super Lawyers Top 100 in Houston since 2006, and been in the Texas Super Lawyers Top 100 in Texas every year but one since 2006. He was also named a Benchmark Litigation Star in 2016-2017.Having tried more than 50 cases to a verdict, and argued more than a dozen cases on appeal, he is a nationally recognized expert and frequent lecturer on a variety of law topics for organizations such as the American Bar Association, State Bar of Texas, The University of Texas School of Law, and the University of Houston Law Foundation. He has been a frequent commentator on legal issues for various media entities, including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Houston Chronicle, and local television stations.His more recent engagements include representing: a general counsel sued for trade secret theft, an owner of an accounting practice who signed a covenant not to compete and employment agreement with the buyer of his practice, and a group of physicians with senior administrative roles within their medical center to represent them in a breach-of-contract dispute.He maintains the Legal Issues in the Executive Suite blog https://www.azalaw.com/blog/REPRESENTATIVE CASESBrady v. Fort Bend County and R. George Molina, 58 F.3d 173 (5th Cir. 1995), reh’g en banc granted (Aug. 25, 1995), appeal dismissed (Nov. 17, 1995) Primeaux v. Conoco, 961 S.W.2d 401 (Tex.App.-Houston [1st Dist.] 1997, no writ) Washinton v. HCA Health Services of Texas, Inc., 152 F.3d 464 (5th Cir. 1998), cert. granted 119 S.Ct. 2388 (1999) Brady v. Fort Bend County, 145 F.3d 691 (5th Cir. 1998), cert. denied 119 S.Ct. 873 (1999) Pratt v. City of Houston, Tex., 247 F.3d 601 (5th Cir. 2001) Siler-Khodr v. University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio, 261 F.3d 542 (5th Cir. 2001) Mota v. University of Texas Houston Health Science Center, 261 F.3d 512 (5th Cir. 2001)

Practice Areas

Education

• University of Michigan, J.D., graduated 1987
• Lawrence University, B.A., graduated 1984

Bar Admissions

• Michigan, State Bar of Michigan
• Texas, State Bar of Texas

Languages