Breach of Fiduciary Duty
Houston Breach of Fiduciary Duty Lawyers for Owners, Partners & Executives
Berg PC helps Texas business owners, partners, and executives recover damages and restore control when someone in a position of trust puts their own interests first.
If a business partner quietly moves a major client to a side venture, a company officer routes a deal through an entity they secretly control, or a trustee drains assets that were supposed to protect you or your family, the damage is rarely just financial.
A breach-of-fiduciary duty case is about more than a single missing dollar. It’s about control of a company, the value of an ownership stake, the future of a partnership, and whether the person who wronged you walks away with the profits they diverted. Acting quickly gives you the chance to hold the fiduciary personally liable.
What a Fiduciary Duty Breach Means in Texas
A fiduciary duty is a legal obligation to act in someone else’s best interest, not your own. Texas law imposes this duty on people in positions of trust: business partners, corporate directors and officers, trustees, managing members of LLCs (subject to the company agreement — the Texas Business Organizations Code permits operating agreements to modify or eliminate these duties), agents, and certain professional advisors. When they put their own interests ahead of the person they owe a duty to, Texas courts call that a breach of fiduciary duty, and the consequences can include personal liability, removal from the position, and disgorgement of all profits the wrongdoer made from the breach.
To prove a breach of fiduciary duty claim in Texas, you generally have to establish three things: a fiduciary relationship existed, the fiduciary violated a duty owed to you, and that violation caused you damages. Simple in outline, often complex in practice, especially when the fiduciary has been covering their tracks.
Situations We Handle
Every fiduciary duty case is different, but some of the most common situations we see include:
- A business partner is diverting opportunities or clients to a side venture, a family member, or a competing business that they secretly own
- A corporate officer or director is self-dealing by approving contracts with entities they control, taking compensation the board never authorized, or steering company assets for personal benefit
- A majority owner is squeezing out a minority partner by cutting distributions, firing them from management, or using the company’s cash for personal expenses
- A managing member of an LLC is refusing to share financial information or blocking access to books and records you’re legally entitled to see
- A trustee is mismanaging assets, failing to account, or using trust property for personal gain
- A former executive took confidential information or customer relationships to a new venture in violation of the duties they still owed the company
- You’ve been accused of breaching a fiduciary duty and need a trial lawyer who can build a serious defense
Tell us about your case, and we’ll tell you whether it’s worth pursuing.
Our Approach
We prepare every fiduciary duty case as if it’s going to trial because that’s what changes outcomes, even in cases that ultimately settle. Opposing parties who know the other side will actually try the case make different decisions about what to disclose, what to offer, and how quickly to resolve.
That trial-from-day-one posture matters especially in fiduciary duty cases, where the wrongdoer usually has information you don’t. A credible threat of trial forces discovery to move, documents to surface, and depositions to be scheduled quickly.
Geoff Berg has spent more than 30 years trying complex commercial cases in Texas and beyond. Best Lawyers in America® has named him to its Commercial Litigation list for 10 consecutive years, and he has been a Texas Super Lawyer for more than 20. That record affects how opposing counsel values your case from the first filing.
We represent both sides of fiduciary duty disputes. If you’re a partner, officer, director, trustee, or managing member being accused of a breach, you need a trial lawyer who can build a serious defense, not just a settlement negotiator. Our approach doesn’t change: we prepare for trial from day one, whether we’re pursuing the claim or defending against it.
What You Can Recover
Texas law gives fiduciary duty plaintiffs a broad set of remedies. Depending on the facts, a successful claim may recover:
- Actual damages — the money you lost or the profits the business lost because of the breach
- Disgorgement of the fiduciary’s profits — Texas courts can force a wrongdoer to hand over everything they earned from the breach, even if your own losses were smaller
- Constructive trust — a court order treating property or proceeds the fiduciary acquired as if they belonged to you from the start
- Fee forfeiture — the fiduciary may have to return compensation they received during the period of the breach
- Exemplary (punitive) damages — available where the breach involved fraud, malice, or gross negligence under Chapter 41 of the Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code
- Injunctive relief — court orders forcing the fiduciary to stop ongoing conduct, turn over records, or preserve assets
No case carries a guaranteed outcome. However, Berg PC has won or saved clients well over $100 million across the firm’s history.
Texas Deadlines
Texas imposes a four-year statute of limitations on most breach-of-fiduciary-duty claims. The clock generally starts when the breach occurred, but Texas also recognizes a discovery rule for fiduciary breaches, which can delay the start of the clock until you discovered, or reasonably should have discovered, the wrongdoing. Fiduciaries who actively concealed their misconduct may face an even longer exposure window.
Different rules apply to trustees under the Texas Trust Code, and shorter deadlines may apply to specific claim types that often accompany fiduciary duty claims. The only reliable way to know your deadline is to have a lawyer evaluate your specific facts quickly. Waiting limits your options.
Why Berg PC
We’re a boutique Houston trial firm focusing on complex business disputes, with over 130 years of combined experience and the results to match. Clients choose us for fiduciary duty cases because:
- We try cases. Many commercial litigators settle everything. We prepare for trial from day one, and that changes what opposing parties are willing to offer.
- Flat monthly retainers are available. Business litigation is expensive partly because clients have no idea what next month’s bill will look like. For qualifying matters, we offer flat monthly retainer arrangements that make the cost of pursuing your case predictable.
- Boutique attention, national reach. Our matters have taken us to courtrooms and counsel tables in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, Denver, Dallas, Austin, Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Boston, and Miami. You get personal attention from the lawyers actually working your case.
- Nationally renowned. Our cases have been featured in the New York Times, CNN, ABC News, Washington Post, HBO, Today Show, NBC Nightly News, Fox News, Los Angeles Times, CBS News, Wired, Houston Chronicle, Philadelphia Tribune, New York Post, and many other media outlets.
Contact Our Breach of Fiduciary Duty Lawyers in Houston, TX
It’s important to act quickly in fiduciary duty cases. Tell us about your case. A member of our team will review what you send and get back to you to discuss whether your situation is a fit for the firm.
