Fibich Hampton

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At Will Employees may have protection from retaliatory dismissal

(Jennifer Scott v Merck)

Merck’s anti-retaliation policy was specific enough to prevent an employee from being fired in retaliation for telling the ethics committee about a supervisor’s bad business practices.

Fibich Hampton Websites:

DepakoteLawyers.com

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Joe Melugin

Contact Joe Melugin

(713) 751-0025
(888) 751-7050 (Toll Free)
(713) 751-0030 (Fax)

Fifth generation Texan

Joe Melugin is the son of two career educators and a fifth generation native Texan. He graduated with a B.S. in Business Administration from the College of Business at the University of Tennessee.

After graduation, Joe worked in Houston’s energy and chemical industry for three years before attending law school. He attended the University of Houston Law Center where he excelled in the classroom and in moot court competitions. In recognition of his accomplishments, Joe was inducted into the Order of the Barristers during his third year and awarded the Judge Shearn Smith Scholarship.

Plaintiff's Attorney

Following his parents’ work ethic, a strong sense of social justice, and a firm belief in the American legal system, Joe sought to become a plaintiff’s lawyer. His work began by clerking for a prominent Houston trial lawyer during his last two years at UHLC. As a third year student, Joe had the unique opportunity of making court appearances, arguing motions and taking depositions as a third-year member of the State Bar of Texas. After graduating from UHLC in 2007, he began working as an associate for a small law firm in The Woodlands.

In late 2008, Joe joined Fibich, Hampton & Leebron to represent plaintiffs in all areas of personal injury litigation, including contractors injured in Iraq and Afghanistan, industrial disasters, products liability, trucking crashes, and premises liability cases, as well as employment and deceptive trade practices claims.

Standing up to big business

Since joining the firm Joe has represented a wide variety of clients in many different types of cases in courts throughout the country. Currently, his clients include plaintiffs in the ongoing Good Friday Massacre cases (Lane v. Halliburton, 529 F. 3d 548 (5th Cir. 2008)), servicemen and women who have been injured by Halliburton/KBR burn pits in Iraq and Afghanistan, Texas-based Gulf Coast fishermen, shrimpers, and oystermen affected by Deepwater Horizon Explosion/BP Oil Spill, workers injured in oilfields, corporate whistleblowers, and employees whose employers failed to pay them according to federal law.

Joe has also stayed active in other important cases as well as writing legal journal articles. Joe follows the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to protect an injured person’s right to sue an unsafe drug’s manufacturer. The Texas Bar Journal published Tommy Fibich and Joe’s co-authored article discussing the case and Texas law. Why Section 82.007, in Light of Wyeth v. Levine, Prevents Texans from Holding Drugmakers to FDA Standards, Texas Bar Journal, Vol. 72, No. 5 at 361 (May 2009).

Dedicated to healthy community

In November 2009, Joe married fellow Houston lawyer Sara Vingiello. The couple lives in the Houston Heights with the two dogs adopted from Houston’s BARC. In addition to his wife, his dogs, and the law, Joe loves sports—particularly the Tennessee Volunteers and the Houston Rockets.

He and his wife enjoy movies, live music, Houston’s many unique restaurants, travelling, and spending time with family. Joe and Sara are active members of the Houston Heights Association and St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church.

Areas of Practice:

Personal Injury
Products Liability
Corporate Whistleblowers
Employee Claims

Bar Admissions:

Texas 2007
Missouri 2009
Illinois 2010
California 2011

Federal Districts for Southern, Eastern, and Northern Districts of Texas
Eastern and Western Districts of Missouri
Northern District of Illinois
Central District of California
Federal Courts of Appeals: U.S. Fifth Circuit

Education:

University of Houston Law Center
Houston, Texas, 2007
J.D.
Honors: Judge Shearn Smith Scholarship 2007
Honors: Inductee, Order of the Barristers 2007
Honors: Champion, John Black Moot Court Competition 2005;
Honors: Moot Court Team 2005-07

University of Tennessee
2000
B.S.
Major: Business Administration