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Sharla J. Frost
Sharla Frost is the Managing Partner of Powers & Frost, LLP. A founding partner of the firm, she serves as national coordinating counsel, national and regional trial team counsel and national strategic counsel for corporations with multiple plaintiff products liability litigation. In her 19 years of trial experience, she has developed a particular expertise in defending difficult cases in wide ranging jurisdictions. A native of Frogville, Oklahoma, she received a B.A. degree with honors in English and Speech Communication from Southeastern Oklahoma State University in 1984. She received her law degree in 1987 from Baylor University School of Law, where she was a recipient of the Jaworski scholarship and a winner of both the Best Oral Advocacy Award and the Dawson Sodd Moot Court Award.
Law Practice
Ms. Frost is licensed to practice in Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado, West Virginia and Mississippi. Additionally, she is admitted to practice in all of the United States Federal District Courts in Texas, as well as the United States District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia, the United States District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma and the United States Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. She has been admitted as trial counsel by pro hac vice in California, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, New York and Washington. Ms. Frost is AV Peer Review rated, Martindale Hubbell’s highest peer review recognition for ethical standards and legal ability.
During the past twenty-three years, Ms. Frost has been involved in several mass trials, including the largest all-issues asbestos trial ever tried in state court, which was tried in Houston, Texas in 1990. Ms. Frost was selected as an arbitration counsel for the Fibreboard Corporation during the early stages of its bankruptcy and presented its position in numerous arbitrations from Georgia to California. She serves as Pfizer Inc’s National Trial Counsel for asbestos and silica litigation. She represents a variety of other Fortune 500 companies in products liability, commercial litigation and toxic tort cases throughout the country. She has successfully defended a succession of manufacturers of asbestos containing products in numerous cases since 1989, including having obtained nine defense verdicts in asbestos personal injury cases in Kentucky, Texas and California between 2001 and 2007. Most recently, Ms. Frost served as lead trial counsel for the parent company in a contested 524(g) bankruptcy proceeding in the Southern District of New York. Ms. Frost has been named a Texas Super Lawyer for each year since 2005 by Texas Lawyer Magazine. She is an elected member of the American Board of Trial Advocates and was inducted as a Fellow of the Litigation Counsel of America, an invitation-only trial lawyer honorary society that includes less than one-half of one percent of American lawyers, in 2009. She currently serves as President Elect of LCA and will become President of the Organization in January 2011. Also active in DRI, Ms. Frost serves as Vice-Chair of the Liaison Committee with DRI Europe and a member of the Women in the Courtroom Committee.
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Experience
Contested Bankruptcy Litigation
Asbestos Personal Injury
First Party Insurance Fraud
Construction Defect Allegations
Industrial Exposure Allegations
Pharmaceutical Products Liability
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Professional Activities
State Bar of Texas, Member
State Bar of Mississippi, Member
Oklahoma Bar Association, Member
Colorado Bar Association, Member
West Virginia Bar Association, Member
American Bar Association, Member
Houston Bar Association
Houston Bar Foundation, Fellow
Litigation Counsel of America, President Elect and Barrister in the Order of Veritas
Member of the Garland Walker Inns of Court
International Association of Defense Counsel, elected to membership in 2003
Defense Research Institute, Member of the Women in the Courtroom Committee and Vice-Chair of the DRI Europe Liaison Committee
Texas Association of Women Lawyers, Member
Women’s Rainmaker’s Roundtable, Member
National Association of Women Lawyers (Member, Committee for the Evaluation of Supreme Court Nominees)
Southeastern Oklahoma State University Alumni Association, Member, Board of Directors
American Board of Trial Advocates, Member
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Publications
"He Had Clients, I Had Credit", a chapter in A Cup of Cappuccino for the Entrepreneur's Spirit by Jeretta Nord [Entrepreneur Enterprises, LLC] 2009
Diversity from the Women-Owned Law Firm Perspective, DRI Magazine, February 2009, Sharla J. Frost and Alma Aguirre
Marketing and Business Development, NAWL Journal, June 2007
Finding Friday: The Search for the Perfect Support Staff, NAWL Journal, Winter 2007
It's Just Dinner: How to handle the marketing dilemma of the decade., NAWL Journal, June 2006
Surviving the First Visit to the Bank, NAWL Journal, Spring 2006 edition.
Defendant’s Opening Statement: Controlling Pandora’s Box, presented at DRI Preeminent Trial Lawyer Seminar, September 30-October 2, 2005
Issues to Explore in Plaintiff and Co-worker Deposition, presented March 15, 2005 at the Mealy’s Welding Rod Litigation Conference.
2004 ABA TOXICOLOGY MONOGRAPH – Chapter on Mississippi State Law.
30 Minute Juries: How to Pick a Jury in a Ridiculously Short Period of Time, presented at the Andrews Litigation Seminar, New Orleans, April 2004.
Rainmaking: Ending the Drought written for Texas Women Lawyers Association, El Paso, February 2004.
Jury Selection: Contemporary Issues and Techniques, presented at the Defense Research Institute, Asbestos Medicine Seminar, Miami, November 2003.
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Speaking Engagements
Ms. Frost frequently speaks and publishes on litigation related topics. Her speaking engagements include return appearances as a participant in the DRI preeminent Trial Lawyer series and as a participatant in the IADC Regional Trial Seminar in Houston, Texas in January 2009. She also speaks and writes on issues of particular interest to women lawyers, including career strategy and business development. She has contributed a series of articles on legal practice and management for the WLJ (Women’s Law Journal).
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