Andres Pereira, Esq. is a native of Houston, Texas. He received his BA in Spanish/Economics and Ibero-American Studies from the University Wisconsin-Madison and his JD from the South Texas College of Law in 1995. In law school, he received the Order of the Lytae and American Jurisprudence Award for the highest grade in legal research and writing. He was honored to serve as an intern for Texas Supreme Court Justice Lloyd Doggett during law school.
Andres has represented injured individuals throughout his career and has also represented numerous Latin American countries and states. During the late 1990’s, Andres represented the nation of Guatemala, the nation of Kyrgyzstan, the states of Espirito Santo and Tocantins, Brazil, as well as the Navajo Nation and US Union Health Care Funds against the U.S. and British tobacco industry to recover health care costs associated with cigarette smoking.
He has concentrated his practice in the area of litigation and has worked in mass tort, pharmaceutical, product liability, consumer, aviation accident and FELA railroad litigation. He represented workers belonging to the United Transportation Union, Brotherhood of Railroad Signalmen and Brotherhood of Maintenance of Ways Unions as well as other AFL/CIO workers.
He is licensed to practice law in Texas, 1995, Florida, 1996, the US District Courts for Southern, Eastern, Western and Northern Districts of Texas, Northern District of Illinois, Central District of California and the Southern District of Florida as well as the US Court of Appeals for the Third and Fifth Circuits. During his career he has participated in the following MDL Cases: IN RE: Prudential-Bache Energy Income Partnerships Securities Litigation, MDL 888; IN RE: Diet Drugs, MDL 1203; IN RE: Sulzer Orthopedics Inc. Hip Prosthesis and Knee Prosthesis Products Liability Litigation, MDL 1401; IN RE: Enron Corp. Sec., Derivative, and “ERISA” Litig., MDL 1446; IN RE: American Airlines 587 Crash, Belle Harbor (Queens), New York, MDL 1448; IN RE: Prempro Products Liability Litigation, MDL 1507; IN RE: Aredia and Zometa Products Liability Litigation, MDL 1760; IN RE: Fosamax Products Liability Litigation, MDL 1789; IN RE: Yasmin and Yaz, MDL 2100; and, In Re Tobacco/Governmental Health Care Costs Litigation, MDL 1279.
An instrument rated single engine fixed wing and helicopter pilot; Andres has worked on aviation matters since he began his law studies. He represented five of the families of the 260 passengers killed when American Airlines flight 587 crashed in the Queens, NY neighborhood of Belle Harbor. The American Airlines Airbus A300-600 jet left John F. Kennedy airport bound for Santo Domingo, and crashed at 9:17 a.m. EST. All 260 people on board were killed, including five infants sitting on their parents’ laps. Five people on the ground were also killed, making it one of the deadliest crashes to ever take place on American soil. Andres has also represented families of civil aviation crashes as well as families who lost loved ones in US Air flight 427, the crash of a Boeing 737 outside Pittsburgh and Tan-Sasha flight 414 which crashed upon landing in Tegucigalpa. Andres has extensive knowledge of the international treaties and protocols that apply to international air crashes.
In addition to aviation accident clients, Andres represented thousands of victims of Wyeth’s diet drug combination in both round one and round two of the diet drug litigation. This includes being trial counsel in cases against Wyeth in St. Louis and Atlanta. During the near decade of litigation involving, he deposed hundreds of physicians throughout the United States. The litigation required management of thousands of individual cases as well as MDL proceedings and resulted in a multi-billion dollar recovery for users who suffered from primary pulmonary hypertension and heart valve defects.
He was lead counsel and argued for the plaintiff in Southwest Refinery v. Bernal, 22 S.W.3d 425 (2000) before the Texas Supreme Court. The Bernal case redefined Texas class action procedure.