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Five weeks after Austin Flores’ family hired attorney Mark Braswell to file a wrongful death suit against H-E-B, the family fired Braswell and hired the Gamez Law Firm. Flores, 27, died after suffering injuries in a forklift accident at an H-E-B distribution center on San Antonio’s Northeast Side.<\/p>\n
Andrew J. Whitaker\/San Antonio Express-News<\/p>\n
Jason Massiatte is chief executive of the nonprofit Hope at Heart Foundation.<\/p>\n
Courtesy<\/p>\n
Natalie Gamez, a spokeswoman for the\u00a0Gamez Law Firm, appears in a television commercial with Jason Massiatte, CEO of the Hope at Heart Foundation.<\/p>\n
Court document<\/p>\n
The Gamez Law Firm<\/a> is pushing back against allegations<\/a> that it secured the right to represent a family in a potentially lucrative wrongful\u00a0death case with help from the head of a San Antonio charity that the law firm supports financially.<\/p>\n In a video statement posted on Facebook<\/a>, spokeswoman Natalie\u00a0Gamez denied that the firm’s support for the nonprofit Hope at Heart played any role in a decision by Brenda and Patrick Flores to fire their original lawyer and retain the Gamez firm to represent them in a wrongful death lawsuit against H-E-B.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n The couple’s son, Austin, 27, died\u00a0April 8 after sustaining injuries in a forklift accident at an H-E-B distribution center on the Northeast Side.<\/p>\n \u201cThe decision to retain Gamez Law belongs solely to the Flores family,\u201d Natalie Gamez said in the video. \u201cEvery person has the right to choose the attorney they believe will best represent their interests, and that right should always be respected.\u201d<\/p>\n Hope at Heart, in a separate Facebook post<\/a>, defended its relationship with the law firm as rooted in a shared commitment to community service and said it would not be \u201cdistracted by negativity.\u201d Hope at Heart’s mission is to\u00a0support families dealing with medical crises or other hardships.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n San Antonio Express News Logo<\/p>\n Make us a Preferred Source on Google to see more of us when you search.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Add Preferred Source<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Both statements were in response to a San Antonio Express-News investigation into allegations of client-poaching and barratry \u2014 the improper solicitation of legal clients \u2014 surrounding the Flores family\u2019s lawsuit against H-E-B.<\/p>\n READ MORE: An H-E-B employee died after a workplace accident. Then lawyers began circling.<\/a><\/p>\n Austin\u00a0Flores, a 2016 graduate of East Central High School, was injured April 4 at H-E-B’s Perishable Distribution Center.\u00a0He was operating a piece of equipment called a pallet jack when he was\u00a0broadsided by a forklift, according to the family\u2019s lawsuit. He\u00a0suffered a fractured right ankle and other injuries, the complaint says.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Four days later, he collapsed in the bathroom and died. According to the lawsuit, the\u00a0Bexar County Medical Examiner\u2019s Office determined that he died from blunt-force trauma and a pulmonary embolism<\/a>, a clot that blocks blood flow to the lungs.<\/p>\n The\u00a0Floreses hired San Antonio attorney Mark Braswell<\/a>,\u00a0and he\u00a0filed suit against H-E-B on April 17, seeking more than $100 million in damages. Five weeks later, the family fired Braswell and hired the\u00a0Gamez Law Firm<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Braswell alleges that Jason Massiatte, CEO of Hope at Heart,<\/a>\u00a0helped steer the family to Gamez, an accusation both Massiatte and the law firm deny. Braswell has asked the Texas attorney general to investigate the nonprofit.<\/p>\n The Express-News story, published online on Aug. 6<\/a> and in print three days later, reported that Hope at Heart has longstanding ties to the\u00a0Gamez family. The law firm has sponsored the charity for years; its offices are in a building owned by a company connected to the Gamez family; and Massiatte appears with\u00a0Natalie Gamez, daughter of the firm’s founder and namesake, Joe A.\u00a0Gamez, in a television commercial promoting the nonprofit and the law firm\u2019s community work.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n In an excerpt of a recorded May 1 conversation obtained by the Express-News, Brenda Flores told a\u00a0paralegal in Braswell’s office that\u00a0Massiatte had gone to her home and encouraged her to \u201cgo with us\u201d in terms of legal representation. When she asked who he meant by “us,”\u00a0Flores said Massiatte replied, \u201cThe Gamez Law Firm.\u201d<\/p>\n On the recording, she can also be heard saying\u00a0that Massiatte told her he worked closely with\u00a0former Mayor Juli\u00e1n Castro<\/a>, and that Castro had told him to visit the family to discuss who would handle their lawsuit. Flores later said the excerpt did not reflect the entirety of the conversation and that Massiatte had discussed several lawyers with her, not just Gamez.<\/p>\n Castro, a former U.S. secretary of Housing and Urban Development who ran for president in 2020, has denied any involvement in referring the family to the Gamez Law Firm. He said he did not know\u00a0Massiatte. For his part, Massiatte denied telling\u00a0Flores that Castro had sent him and\u00a0said he does not know Castro personally.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n