An experienced first-chair trial lawyer, Denise Scofield guides clients though some of their most serious business challenges. Denise uses her extensive knowledge of her clients’ industries to help them determine the best outcome possible and to execute a plan to deliver it. She is especially skilled at protecting her clients at the earliest stages of a crisis. By understanding what her clients will consider to be a win, Denise crafts courtroom strategies with those results in mind.
Denise represents clients facing commercial, environmental, and mass-tort disputes. Thanks to her deep understanding of the energy and petrochemical industries—including the regulatory and market pressures they face—clients across all facets of those industries seek out Denise as a trusted adviser. She has experience on both sides of the docket and is adept at working with her clients to determine whether aggressive litigation or guided resolution is in their best interest.
Denise’s unique and informed perspective comes from her decades of industry experience. She worked in-house to assist a major oil and gas client take on a significant amount of litigation after a large acquisition. She co-managed an oilfield-services client’s large portfolio of litigation matters for many years, serving as lead counsel on cases involving commercial, environmental, mass and toxic tort, products and premises liability, and trade-secret allegations pending in courts across the country. Denise has also served as national and regional coordinating counsel for clients facing environmental and mass-tort litigation, often leading large teams to accomplish her clients’ goals. Because of these experiences, Denise understands the bottom-line impact of litigation for her clients and keeps those financial implications in mind, developing realistic cost estimates to ensure there are no surprises.
Denise has secured significant wins in critical cases, both through trial and motion practice and on appeal. She successfully tried Phase One of the Deepwater Horizon litigation on behalf of an oilfield-services client, winning her client’s dismissal at the close of the plaintiffs’ case. She recently defeated a mass-tort case involving hexavalent chromium brought to national attention by Erin Brockovich. And she won a take-nothing judgment in a matter involving sophisticated deepwater well equipment that had industry-wide implications. Her creativity and special awareness of indemnity provisions and non-monetary settlement options that can bring a case to a less costly resolution frequently result in favorable outcomes for her clients outside of the courtroom.
Before joining O’Melveny, Denise was a partner at an international law firm, where she served as head of the Houston Litigation Practice.
- Representing an oilfield services company in an indemnity dispute pending in Oklahoma federal court involving over US$100 million
- Representing an American multinational conglomerate in a matter seeking pre-suit discovery in Galveston, Texas against a mass tort plaintiffs’ lawyer for use in investigating potential fraud
- Defeated a US$275 million breach-of-contract action brought by a major oil and gas operator against a global oilfield equipment manufacturer after two-week federal bench trial. The high-stakes case for the client had significant implications for the oil and gas industry. The Fifth Circuit upheld the trial-court win. Denise was twice recognized for her work on this matter by The American Lawyer as a “Litigator of the Week” Runner-Up.
- Defeated a global insurance provider’s petition for pre-suit discovery against a valve manufacturer in connection with an explosion at a plastics plant in south Texas involving US$65 million in insured losses and prevented the client from being sued
- Prevailed in a federal court action to set aside a US$1.4 billion default judgment secured by a privately owned energy company against a prominent foreign national who had not been properly served with process
- Represented an oilfield-services company in a hexavalent-chromium-contamination lawsuit brought by Texas residents after Erin Brockovich made allegations against the client on a national morning news program. Also represented the client in connection with the investigations led by the Environmental Protection Agency and Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. Secured the complete dismissal of the lawsuit when Texas’s Eastland Court of Appeals issued mandamus relief and exonerated the client at the regulatory level.
- Represented the former owner of a sand mine located in rural Wisconsin in the defense of environmental and toxic tort claims
- Negotiated favorable resolution of a mass-tort case involving a 20-day uncontrolled blowout of a gas well in South Texas, from which plaintiffs alleged there was a discharge of toxic hydrocarbons and carcinogenic gases that produced an environmental hazard damaging thousands of acres of property, surrounding waterways, livestock, and the plaintiffs’ health
- In a landmark case that included a four-week federal court trial, two Fifth Circuit rulings, and an eight-page statement from the US Supreme Court, Denise was part of a team that secured the United States’ first permanent injunction requiring a prison to provide robust COVID-19 protections—including testing all inmates on a weekly basis—for a geriatric prisoner in Texas, earning the team a National Law Journal “Trailblazer Award for Crisis Leadership.”
Admissions
Bar Admissions
- Texas
Education
- Southern Methodist University, J.D., 1992
- Vanderbilt University, B.A., 1989
Honors & Awards
- Recognized by Best Lawyers in America for Commercial Litigation, Litigation - Environmental, Mass Tort Litigation / Class Actions - Defendants, Oil and Gas Law, and Personal Injury Litigation - Defendant in Houston, TX (2022-2025)
- The Legal 500 US “Leading Lawyer” in General Commercial Disputes (2021-2024)
- The Legal 500 US “Key Lawyer” in: Product Liability, Mass Tort, and Class Action – Defense: Toxic Tort (2021-2024) and Energy Litigation: Oil and Gas (2021, 2023-2024)
- Lawdragon: “500 Leading Litigators in America” for Commercial Litigation, Mass Tort, and Toxic Torts (2024); “The Green 500: The 2024 Leaders in Environmental Law” (2024); “500 Leading Environmental Lawyers” (2023); “500 Leading Energy Lawyers” (2023-2024); and “500 Leading Environmental and Energy Lawyers” (2021)
- Texas Lawyer’s Texas Legal Awards, “Best Mentor” (2022)
Professional Activities
Affiliations
- Past-President, Houston Bar Association
- Director, Texas Access to Justice Foundation
- Past Chair and Trustee, Houston Bar Foundation
- Director, Houston Urban Debate League
- Past Director, State Bar of Texas
- Life Fellow, Houston Bar Foundation
- Fellow, Texas Bar Foundation
Speaking Engagements
- “Crisis Management and Emergency Response: Best Practices in the Energy Industry,” The Texas Journal of Oil, Gas, and Energy Law Symposium, Feb. 2023
- “The Past, Present and Future of Women in the Law,” Houston Bar Association Seminar, April 2021