WILLIAM S. SHEPHERD:
Received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics
from The University of the South in Sewanee,
Tennessee and his law degree (JD) from South
Texas College of Law in Houston. He also earned
a Masters of Law Degree (LLM) in Securities
Regulation from Georgetown University Law
School in Washington, D.C. Prior to founding
our firm, Mr. Shepherd served as vice-president
of several major brokerage firms. His experience
in the brokerage industry spans more than
two decades, including in management as well
as advising individuals, banks and other financial
institutions' with their investment portfolios.
Mr. Shepherd was also formerly employed by
and has served as an advisor to the U. S.
Congress.
KIRK G. SMITH: Received his
Bachelor of Arts degree from Loyola University,
in New Orleans and his law degree (JD) from
South Texas College of Law in Houston. Mr.
Smith's experience in the brokerage industry
is well diversified, from marketing for a
smaller specialized Wall Street firm to working
as an investment advisor for a major brokerage
firm. In his career Mr. Smith has worked on
several hundred arbitration matters in various
capacities. Besides focusing on securities
arbitration, Mr. Smith also devotes his time
to protecting the rights of the investor through
his membership in the Public Investors Arbitration
Bar Association, and is also a member of the
American Trial Lawyers Association. Mr. Smith
has been featured as a guest speaker on the
topic of Securities Arbitration at the ATLA
Annual Convention.
SAMUEL B. EDWARDS: Received
his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University
of Texas at Austin and his law degree (JD)
from the University of Houston, where he was
a honors graduate (cum laude) and a member
of the Phi Alpha Delta international legal
fraternity. Mr. Edwards is an active member
of the Public Investors Arbitration Bar Association
(PIABA) and the American Trial Lawyers Association
(ATLA), working in conjunction with attorneys
across the country to fight for the rights
of individual investors in the marketplace.
Additionally, Mr. Edwards is on the Board
of Editors of the PIABA Bar Journal where
he is also a regular contributing author.
In the last several years, Mr. Edwards has
represented hundreds of investors and recovered
millions of dollars for wronged customers,
including extensive work on the largest broker-fraud
arbitration award in the history of the NYSE.
ROBERT A. KANTAS maintains
a regional securities arbitration and litigation
practice. He has had primary responsibility
for dozens of securities cases. Mr. Kantas
received his Bachelor of Science degree in
Management (cum laude) from Golden Gate University
in San Francisco, California, and a Juris
Doctor degree from the University of Virginia
School of Law. Mr. Kantas has written and
taught on the subject of securities arbitration
and specifically broker/customer disputes.
He is the Co-Author of Arbitrating Claims
Against Stockbrokers, The Journal of the Virginia
Trial Lawyer's Association, pp. 3-13, Winter
2002/2003, and Co-Author and Lecturer of the
Virginia CLE Program, Claims Against Stockbrokers:
How to Advise Your Investor Client, February
2003. Prior to joining Shepherd Smith & Edwards,
he had a busy securities arbitration and commercial
litigation practice with a law firm in central
Virginia. He is a member of the Public Investors
Arbitration Bar Association, the American
Bar Association, and the American Trial Lawyer's
Association. Mr. Kantas maintains a BV Martindale-Hubble
rating. Prior to beginning his law practice,
he served in the United States Air Force for
more than ten years.
RONALD H. THRASH: Received
his Bachelor of Science and Master of Science
degrees from Texas Tech University, and his
law degree (JD) from the University of Houston
Law Center (cum laude, top 10%). Mr. Thrash
is also licensed as a Certified Public Accountant.
He is a former Chief Financial Officer with
corporate experience in domestic and international
banking, treasury functions, securities registration,
merger and acquisitions, accounting and investment
banking activities. Mr. Thrash has over thirty
years of active involvement in various investments,
including stocks and bonds, factoring, real
estate, oil and gas, and venture capital.
ANNETTE HENRY: received her JD from South Texas College of Law in May, 1991. While in law school, Ms. Henry was awarded with membership in the Order of the Lytae and Order of the Barristers. Prior to attending law school, Ms. Henry was an accountant for Lomas & Nettleton in Dallas, Texas. She graduated from the University of Texas at Dallas in 1989 with a B.S. degree in Accounting.
Besides representing investors in their claims against brokerage firms, Ms. Henry has an active trial practice in commercial and civil litigation, and family law. Ms. Henry uses her trial advocacy skills to aggressively and zealously represent her clients, whether in arbitration or in jury trials. Ms. Henry’s clients have recovered millions of dollars in arbitration awards and civil judgments.
Ms. Henry’s professional affiliations include: State Bar of Texas; Houston Bar Association; Texas Women Lawyers (President of the 2005-2006 term); and Public Investors Arbitration Bar Association.
CHRISTOPHER P. PORTER: received his Bachelor’s degree from Texas Tech University (summa cum laude), and his law degree (JD) from the University of Houston Law Center where he was a Lex Award recipient and served for two years on the Board of Editors of the Environmental and Energy Law and Policy Journal. As an associate attorney of Shepherd, Smith, Edwards and Kantas, L.L.P., Mr. Porter maintains an active securities arbitration and litigation practice. Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Porter worked in various capacities for a Fortune 50 company and served as Chief Operations Officer to a regional construction and real estate development firm.
JASON A. RICHARDSON: Mr. Richardson is an associate attorney developing a practice in securities litigation. He received his law degree from the University of Houston Law Center, and his Master of Business Administration degree from the C.T. Bauer College of Business at the University of Houston. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Speech Communication from the University of Utah. Mr. Richardson is admitted to practice law in Texas.
Our Staff
Our team also includes a number of non-lawyers, including consultants, legal secretaries, paralegals and assistants. Many of them have prior experience in the securities industry and were formerly account managers, registered representatives or registered assistants at major brokerage firms. This experience gives our team great advantages in understanding what happened in our clients accounts, familiarity with the documents to be used in their cases and expertise assisting our attorneys in working to recover our clients' losses. If you would like to contact our team, please call 1-800-259-9010 or click here.
Click here to learn why
you should hire an attorney when engaging in
securities arbitration.
LEGAL SPECIALIZATION: Some states offer certification to attorneys in various areas of the law. We are not aware of any state that offers any certification in securities arbitration. Our attorneys have extensive knowledge and experience in the brokerage industry, securities regulation and/or securities arbitration.