Byron Alfred’s life was dedicated to sports. He played football throughout college as a starting offensive lineman for the University of Houston and even had NFL aspirations. But when knee and shoulder injuries derailed that dream, Alfred was faced with the daunting question of “what am I going to do now?” Being from the refinery town of Port Arthur, his initial plan was to pursue a career in electrical engineering, but when that did not work out he decided law school was his next step.
“I went to law school without any kind of understanding of what it meant to be an attorney,” Alfred said. “I did not have any lawyers in my family, and I hadn’t been raised up around any attorneys. But my brother and I decided we were going to go to law school together. We took every class together, and we are now both practicing attorneys in Houston.”
Alfred went to South Texas College of Law where he passed the bar exam in December 2012 and completed him law degree in 2013. While attending law school he competed in and won championships in his school’s Moot Court program, while also holding a full-time job. His first job in the field of law was with Judge Alex Smoots-Thomas, a judge in the 164th District Court in Harris County. Here, Alfred was able to get his first taste of a career in the court room. He had the opportunity to watch around 30 to 40 trials from start to finish, and this experience is what helped him decide that litigation was what he wanted to pursue.
After he stopped working for the judge, he went to work for the oldest personal injury law firm in the state of Texas. There Alfred worked with some of the top attorneys in Texas and looked to them for career mentorship.
Upon graduation, Alfred accepted a job at VB Attorneys and has been working there for the past six years. With the help and guidance of some very successful attorneys at this firm, he has established himself as an accomplished and sought-after attorney with a reputation for regularly achieving seven-figure verdicts and settlements for his clients. His largest recovery to date was a total of $44,370,000 for a case regarding a fatality at the ExxonMobil Beaumont Refinery.
“About two and half years of work went into this case. It was a very substantial verdict and outcome for this family,” Alfred said. “I was fortunate to try this case as co-lead attorney with Vuk Vujasinovic. It was a tough fought case with three different defendants. This was our first trial together, and it turned out to be both of our largest verdicts. I’d say we made a great trial team.”
Some of Alfred’s other multi-million-dollar settlements and recoveries include one with another major refinery after several workers were injured in a catastrophic explosion and another that ended up being one of the largest settlements in Texas in2015, which involved a pool drowning incident that happened here in Houston.
Alfred credits a lot of his success to his sports background, saying that all the training he endured instilled in him an untraditional work ethic that allows him to approach his cases with the same intensity and dedication he had while playing football.
“I don’t attribute my success to being this super smart lawyer or a guy that was just destined to have this type of success,” he said. “Really, I just have a relentless work ethic, and I always try to out work my opponents.”
Although attaining such large recoveries for his clients is a great achievement for Alfred, he also has another passion: getting more African Americans to participate in the jury process.
“I usually don’t get a chance to see many people of color in the jury pool, so that amounts to us not having as many people of color on the actual jury,” Alfred said.
Progress is being made, however. In the $44 million case against the ExxonMobil Beaumont Refinery, there were six African American members on the jury, an amount that is almost unheard of.
“It is a passion of mine to involve as many people of color as possible, particularly African American people, in the legal process,” he said. “And to see a half black jury, in a case as difficult as this one, come out with this result, I was just so proud for them.”
Alfred chooses to take a personal approach to all his cases. Refinery cases represent a large portion of his practice, and refineries are something he has been around his entire life. His father is retiring from the same refinery that Alfred’s grandfather retired from.
“For about the last 75 years, there has been an Alfred man working in the refineries down in Port Arthur,” Alfred said. “So, when I’ve taken these refinery cases, I take a little bit of a personal approach to them. I have a lot of experience to draw from after hearing my dad talk about these things throughout my life. Living with a refinery worker and always being concerned with refinery work safety gave me a bit of a head start.”
Alfred also finds that getting to know the family members involved in his cases and, to a certain extent, mourning alongside them motivates him to work as hard as he does. He also has his wife, Talia, and 2-year old daughter, Giselle, to keep him going through all the legal work and time constraints that come in addition to the emotional toll from his cases.
“There is no way possible that I could do anything I’ve done without Talia being as dedicated and supportive as she is to me and our family,” Alfred said.
When Alfred isn’t working on a case, he is back home in Port Arthur helping the community. His main community interest is mentoring high school and college athletes on life after sports and maximizing the things they learned and can apply to their work life.
“I want these athletes to see that they can be successful even after their sports career is over,” Alfred said. “I’ve found that a lot of the guys I played sports with are doing extremely well in their careers, and I think that is a testament to the training we’ve all endured and the good habits we’ve picked up from sports.”
Whether he is in the courtroom or out in the field helping the community, Alfred uses his passion and training from sports as the foundation for how he operates. He uses the same intensity and strength needed to win a championship football game to bring home a $44, 370,000 verdict. He has established a reputation of not only being a hard worker but also a winner, and he is just getting started.
