Craig D. Cherry
Partner
Craig Cherry is an award-winning trial lawyer. Over the course of his career, Craig’s clients have included individuals and families, small and midsize businesses, local governments, and Fortune 500 companies.
Craig maintains a nationwide trial practice with a focus on complex civil litigation including catastrophic personal injury litigation, wrongful death litigation, business litigation, and intellectual property litigation. Craig has been counsel on cases that have resulted in over $2 billion in verdicts and settlements on behalf of his clients, and was recognized by The National Law Journal as having obtained one of the largest product liability verdicts in the country.
Craig has been repeatedly selected for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America. He has also been recognized by his peers as a Texas Super Lawyer for over 10 years and, prior to that, as a Texas Rising Star. Craig has also been named as one of the Top 100 Trial Lawyers by The National Trial Lawyers and previously as one of the Top 40 Under 40 trial lawyers by The National Trial Lawyers.
Craig is Board Certified in Civil Trial Advocacy by the National Board of Trial Advocacy. He is also board-certified in both Civil Trial Law and Personal Injury Trial Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. Craig has been appointed by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization to serve as a Member of the Personal Injury Trial Law Exam Commission and the Civil Trial Law Advisory Commission. He was honored to receive the Tom Garner Award in 2023 by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization, which recognizes a TBLS attorney “who best epitomizes the best ideals of voluntary service by their knowledge, dedication, hard work and integrity.” Craig has also earned and maintained an AV Preeminent peer-review rating from Martindale-Hubbell.
Outside of the practice of law, Craig enjoys fly fishing, traveling, and spending time with his wife and daughters.
Education
- Baylor University School of Law, J.D., cum laude
- Baylor University, B.B.A. Finance, Hankamer School of Business
Bar & Court Admissions
- Licensed in Texas
- United States District Court for the Northern, Southern, Eastern, and Western District of Texas
- United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
- Commercial Litigation
- Personal Injury
- Intellectual Property
- Local Counsel
- AV Preeminent®, Martindale-Hubbell
- Best Lawyers in America, Best Lawyers, Personal Injury Law, 2021-present
- Super Lawyers, Thomson Reuters, 2013-present
- Super Lawyers Rising Stars, Thomson Reuters, 2005-2006, 2008-2013
- Top 100 Trial Lawyer, National Trial Lawyers Association, 2015-present
- Tom Garner Award, Texas Board of Legal Specialization, 2023
- “Top 40 under 40” Trial Lawyer, National Trial Lawyers Association, 2012-2014
- Outstanding Young Lawyer, Waco-McLennan County Bar Association, 2005
Intellectual Property
- Lead counsel for a Texas company with manufacturing and marketing operations and subsidiaries in the United States and in Europe. Craig’s client sued a distributor for breach of contract, trade secret misappropriation, and trademark infringement, with cases pending simultaneously in France and in federal court in the United States. The case settled favorably for Craig’s client for a confidential sum.
Personal Injury
- Lead counsel for the plaintiff and her parents in a trial against one of the largest trucking companies in the nation. The trucking company argued that its global positioning satellite (GPS) data demonstrated that none of its trucks could have been involved in a wreck that injured the plaintiff and killed her sister. Craig and his co-counsel demonstrated that the company’s GPS data was inaccurate and unreliable. The jury agreed and returned a verdict in favor of Craig’s clients. The case settled favorably for Craig’s clients for a confidential sum.
- Lead counsel for the parents of a minor who suffered a traumatic brain injury. Craig sued multiple defendants involved in the operations of an athletic facility, as well as the design of the facility. After Craig was hired, the case was resolved, and Craig doubled the amount of the recovery his clients originally expected to receive after getting prior legal advice from another attorney.
- Lead counsel for a worker who was blinded when a spring broke on equipment he was using and shot into his eye. Multiple defendants were involved in this product liability case, and Craig developed evidence that a supplier had been submitting false invoices and selling the manufacturer of the equipment the wrong spring design for over 15 years. The case settled favorably for Craig’s client for a confidential sum.
- Co-lead counsel for the plaintiffs in the first case in the United States where a jury returned a verdict that a motor coach bus was unsafe because it did not have seat belts or safety glass to protect passengers. The case settled favorably for Craig’s clients for a confidential sum.
Commercial Litigation
- Co-lead counsel for a Louisiana company that brought breach of contract and fraud claims against one of the largest oil and gas companies in the world. The case involved a complicated supply chain of unique materials from Florida that were used at a refinery in Texas. After two days of evidence before a three-member arbitration panel, the case settled favorably for Craig’s client for a confidential sum.
- Lead counsel for three defendants accused of being involved in a conspiracy to defraud the plaintiffs of several million dollars. After taking the plaintiff’s deposition and developing forensic accounting evidence which defeated plaintiff’s allegations, the case was resolved favorably for Craig’s clients without them ever being deposed.
- Lead counsel and successfully defended one of the largest aerial lift manufacturers in the world in a multi-million-dollar commercial case involving allegations of breach of contract and tortious interference with contract.
- Lead counsel for a city against multiple defendants involved in the design and construction of a city water well that failed to operate properly. Originally, the defendants refused to pay anything to address the operational issues with the water well. After Craig developed evidence of improper drilling procedures and testing utilized by some of the defendants, the case settled favorably for Craig’s client.
- State Bar of Texas, Director
- The Texas Lyceum, Director
- Texas Bar Foundation, Fellow
- Alliance for Judicial Funding, Inc., Board Member of nonprofit, nonpartisan group that assists the legislative efforts of the state judiciary
- Texas Board of Legal Specialization Personal Injury Trial Law Exam Commission, Member
- Texas Board of Legal Specialization Civil Trial Law Advisory Commission, Member
- Editorial Board for The Advocate, quarterly journal publication of the Litigation Section of the State Bar of Texas, Member
- Litigation Counsel of America, Fellow
- Bar Association of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, Member
- Litigation Counsel of America, Trial Lawyer Honorary Society, Fellow
- Million Dollar Advocates Forum
- Contributing Editor to the General Practice Digest, Consumer Law Section, of the State Bar of Texas
- Editorial Board of The Advocate, the quarterly journal publication of the Litigation Section of the State Bar of Texas
- Litigation Section State Bar of Texas, Member
- Texas Trial Lawyers Association, Member
- American Association for Justice, Member
- Abner V. McCall American Inn of Court, Member, President 2014-2016
- Waco-McLennan County Bar Association, Board of Directors 2010-2015
- Waco-McLennan County Young Lawyer’s Association, Board of Directors 2003-2006; Treasurer 2006-2007; Secretary 2007-2008; Vice President 2008-2009; President 2009-2010
- Adjunct Professor of Law at Baylor University School of Law, teaching courses in both Consumer Protection and Remedies
- American Heart Association, Waco Chapter, Director
- Rotary Club of Waco, President 2015-2016, President-Elect 2014-2015, Secretary/Treasurer 2013-2014
- MISD Education Foundation, Director and Executive Committee, President 2015-2016, Vice President 2014
- MISD MAST Committee, Member
- LEAD (Leadership, Education, and Development) Mentor for area high school students through a program established by the Greater Waco Chamber of Commerce and the Waco Independent School District
- First United Methodist Church, Member, Administrative Board and Finance Committee
- Co-author: “The Classification of General and Special Damages for Pleading Purposes in Texas,” 51 Baylor L. Rev. 629, 1999