James H. (“Hamp”) Moody III

I was born in Longview, Texas, in 1953, but moved around a lot as I was growing up. I graduated from high school in 1971 while living in Little Rock, Arkansas. I then came to Dallas to attend college at Southern Methodist University, where I received both my undergraduate and law degrees. After graduating from law school in 1978, I joined Strasburger & Price, where I remained for twenty-five (25) years. In 2003, I, along with other Strasburger lawyers, moved to Quilling, Selander, Lownds, Winslett & Moser, P.C., where I stayed until retiring in 2022.

During my early years at the Strasburger firm, I worked with a lawyer (John Marks) whose practice involved the representation of domestic and foreign primary and excess insurers. John handled coverage litigation for some of his clients, while simultaneously representing the insureds of other clients, most of which were claims seeking bodily injury and property damage. As time passed, my practice became substantially similar to that of John’s.

While in broad terms my practice has always been a combination of both coverage and tort cases, the type of coverage and tort claims that dominated my practice changed over time. For example, at different times, more than 50% of my time was dedicated to handling bad faith claims, environmental insurance coverage claims, reinsurance claims, Stowers claims, and product liability claims. Through handling these matters, I have been lead counsel in over forty (40) trials and three (3) reinsurance arbitrations.

As retirement approached, I completed a 40-hour “Learn From the Masters” mediation course taught by Sid Stahl and John Estes in 2006.  After that, while continuing to handle my docket of coverage and tort cases, I mediated over 115 cases before retiring.

After settling my last case in May of 2022, I really had no intent of doing anything further of a legal nature. In 2023, however, I was (out of the blue) asked to mediate a Stowers claim. During that mediation, the lawyer that reached out to me, complained that mediators with a background in coverage are few and far between, and that those who have the requisite knowledge are booked months in advance (and charge “an arm and a leg”). He encouraged me to start a mediation practice, and so here I am.