When valuation, access, and damage models turn on engineering reality, mediation often stalls.

Professional Summary

Tommy D. Overton, Jr. is an attorney, registered professional civil engineer, arbitrator, and mediator with more than twenty years of experience in complex civil litigation and more than thirty years of engineering and construction experience in the energy sector. His practice encompasses construction-related disputes, real property matters, probate and fiduciary litigation, pipeline and infrastructure matters, and commercial disputes involving technical and expert evidence.

Mr. Overton founded The Overton Law Firm, P.C. in 2005 after a distinguished career with Shell companies, where he served in engineering, structured finance, and legal advisory roles involving crude oil, natural gas, refined products, chemicals, and natural gas liquids pipeline systems. This background gives him command of technical evidence, including pipeline design, construction methods, failure analysis, pressure testing, and operations.

Arbitration Experience

Mr. Overton has been appointed as arbitrator in more than 145 binding arbitrations through the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts, addressing statutory compliance, valuation disputes, and procedural issues. His responsibilities include establishing fair and impartial procedures, managing cases efficiently, conducting hearings, ruling on motions and evidentiary matters, evaluating documentary and testimonial evidence including expert testimony, and issuing reasoned written decisions.

Since 2021, Mr. Overton has served as a public arbitrator with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, including service on three-member panels conducting full evidentiary hearings and issuing expungement awards. His FINRA experience includes complex proceedings involving related federal court matters with multiple claimants and respondents, including motions to compel, stays, and discovery disputes.

Mediation Experience

Mr. Overton has served as mediator in civil and commercial disputes for more than ten years through the Dispute Resolution Center of the Houston Bar Association and private matters referred by courts. He brings a structured, technically informed approach to mediation that helps parties identify and resolve the real points of dispute efficiently.

Legal Experience

Since 2005, Mr. Overton’s litigation practice has focused on construction defect claims, real property disputes, probate estate and fiduciary litigation, and commercial disputes requiring evaluation of technical and expert evidence. He has litigated complex cases through multiple appeals, including proceedings that reached the Supreme Court of the United States.

Mr. Overton is licensed to practice before the United States Patent and Trademark Office, with experience in patent prosecution involving mechanical devices and oilfield equipment, as well as patent and copyright infringement matters.

Engineering and Construction Experience

Mr. Overton’s engineering career spans more than thirty years, beginning as a pipe fitter fabricating and commissioning industrial pipeline systems and progressing through engineering-in-training roles to professional engineering responsibilities with Shell companies. His hands-on experience includes design and construction of offshore and onshore oil and gas pipelines and facilities totaling more than $100 million in project value.

He has provided expert analysis and testimony involving engineering, construction practices, damages, and professional standards of care related to pipeline and industrial systems, including construction methods, design and engineering issues, failure analysis including destructive and non-destructive testing, industrial safety, pressure testing, and forensic investigation.