The 19-lawyer Houston firm of Legge, Farrow, Kimmitt, McGrath & Brown not only wins big cases, it also has helped clarify maritime and insurance law.

In Grixi Mendez v. Anadarko Petroleum Corp., Legge, Farrow partner James T. Brown and associate Jeanie Goodwin successfully defended Anadarko against a personal injury suit. The lawyers did it by convincing judges on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and the U.S. Supreme Court that the offshore platform on which the injury occurred was not a vessel.