Our Firm

Ryan M. Schaper

Managing Attorney

Ryan M. Schaper keeps a diverse trial practice at Schaper Law Firm. His areas of practice include personal injury, wrongful death, defective products, industrial accidents, and insurance disputes. He has successfully tried cases involving personal injury, defective products, business disputes, and contracts to verdict.

Mr. Schaper is an honors graduate of Baylor University, where he was named a Presidential Scholar. He served in the renowned Baylor Interdisciplinary Core before attending Baylor Law School.

Schaper concentrates his practice on representing victims of negligence and defective products. He recently brought a high-profile lawsuit against the manufacturer and suppliers of a tire that failed in service, causing the death of a small business owner in Nederland, Texas. Schaper represented the victim's teenage daughter against international corporations. Working with the United States National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), he exposed the suppliers' knowledge of the dangerous chemical composition of the tires. The lawsuit resulted in an international investigation that triggered the recall of over 150,000 defective tires around the world and a historic recovery for his client.

Since then, Mr. Schaper tried a product liability lawsuit on behalf of a family whose daughter suffered a catastrophic brain injury in a collision with the side of an 18-wheeler in East Texas. Schaper alleged that the 18-wheeler was defective without side underride protection that would have prevented the "guillotine effect." He worked with the United States National Automotive Sampling System (NASS) to demonstrate the frequency of side underride events. After three weeks of trial, the trailer manufacturer paid his clients a significant settlement. The manufacturer voluntarily left the trailer business.

Schaper notably obtained a record settlement for the family of a child who was killed after aspirating on a toy dart in Port Arthur, Texas. In the lawsuit against the manufacturer and importer of the toy dart, he was able to demonstrate its defective nature to the extent that it convinced the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) to launch its own parallel investigation. The CPSC found the toy dart to be defective as alleged in the lawsuit and ordered the immediate recall of the product nationwide. The importer eventually agreed to the recall, and Schaper's clients were awarded a substantial recovery.

He founded Schaper Law Firm in 2016 and is an active member of the Texas Trial Lawyers Association and the Jefferson County Bar Association. Ryan's pro bono work includes serving as general counsel for small businesses in Southeast Texas that treat special needs children with physical and mental disabilities.

Honorable Paul Ferguson

Senior District Judge
Of Counsel

From faith-based leadership, to education, to government service, there is not much Judge Paul Ferguson has not done in his career. After completing his military service as a commissioned naval officer, Judge Ferguson served as an intelligence analyst and ultimately a section chief at the National Security Agency. He has worked as a partner in a private law practice, an editor of a newspaper, and the president of a title company. Judge Ferguson, who has taught Sunday School lessons from every book of the Bible, founded a program that established 5,000 churches in Mexico. He has lectured on subject matter ranging from legal ethics to journalism.

Judge Ferguson is best known, however, for presiding over civil and criminal trials as a District Judge, a position he has held for more than 45 years. Over that time, he has served as a board member of the Judicial Section of the State Bar of Texas, as well as a member of the Ethics Committee of the Judicial Section. He is a founder and organizer of the Texas Association of Court Administrators and the chairman of Judicial Dispute Resolution Corporation, where he has mediated hundreds of major civil lawsuits to settlement.

Judge Ferguson resides in Beaumont, Texas, and has taken status as a Senior District Judge. A long-time consultant in high-stakes personal injury litigation, Judge Ferguson advises lawyers and staff as Of Counsel to Schaper Law Firm.

Awards & Memberships

BA
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