Jim Perdue, Sr. '63.
March 2, 2021 – Jim Perdue, Sr., a trailblazer in plaintiff litigation and expert in personal injury and medical malpractice, recently received the 2020 Texas Trial Lawyers Association Lifetime Achievement Award, recognizing his 57 years of dedication and exemplary performance in the legal field.
“I approach trial advocacy a little different than some people do, because I believe that trial advocacy is not a debate but a competition of story,” Perdue, a 1963 graduate of the University of Houston Law Center said. “You have to have a good story to tell, tell it well, and the best story will win.”
Forbes magazine named Perdue the “King of the Malpractice Lawyers” in 1989, and over the span of his career, he has tried over 200 jury trials, lectured around the country and delivered more than 400 presentations on varied topics such as the psychology of jury persuasion, special issue submission, substantive law of malpractice and product liability, and trial strategy and technique.
“I tell my students about our core values,” Perdue said. “The most important thing we have to accomplish is to preserve our jury system, a jury system that has brought about so many changes in our nation.”
Graduating at the top of his law school class, Perdue has been awarded the Lifetime Excellence in Advocacy Award by the Texas Association of Civil Trial and Appellate Specialists, the Gene Cavin Award for excellence in continuing legal education by the State Bar of Texas and selected as one of the “Best Lawyers in America” since 1983.
“Professor Perdue is an outstanding professor with absolutely incredible writing skills,” Nicole Dellario, Blakely Advocacy Institute Program Manager said. “His Storytelling class is composed of stories about the countless cases he’s been involved with and is coveted by students every semester, with a waiting list to get into his class.”
An author of multiple books and articles focused on trial advocacy and countless texts and treatises on the substantive law of medical malpractice and product liability, Perdue currently serves as an adjunct professor at the Law Center, teaching new concepts of jury persuasion.
“I’m very proud of our law school and all we’ve done, and we’ve graduated some really outstanding people,” Perdue said. “Everything I am, everything I have done, everything I will ever do, I owe to the University of Houston.”
Working alongside his son, Jim M. Perdue, Jr., ’93 at Perdue & Kidd, he is a dedicated supporter of the Blakely Advocacy Institute and member of the Inner Circle of Advocates, as well as a diplomate of both the American Board of Trial Advocacy and the American Board of Professional Liability Attorneys.
