John W. Royal is a native Houstonian who, except for a year split between Europe and California, has lived his entire life in Houston.  A 1984 graduate of South Houston High School, John attended the University of Houston where, in 1988, he graduated with a BA in Radio-Television, a minor in English, and membership in the University’s Honors Program (now Honors College). 

After a short stint at KPRC-TV, John entered South Texas College of Law in August 1990.  After graduating in May 1993 and taking the Texas Bar Exam, John attended McGeorge School of Law where he graduated in May, 1994 with a LL.M. in Transnational Business Practice.  For the LL.M., John interned with an international law firm in Copenhagen, Denmark and attended classes in Salzburg, Austria and Sacramento, California.

John’s legal career started at the 125th Texas State District Court as a Briefing Attorney.  In 1995, he joined the litigation firm of Fahl & Takeuchi.  He later worked on a contract basis with multiple Houston firms before joining the Houston office of New York based Kasowitz, Benson, Torres & Friedman as staff attorney in January 2002.  With a concentration in document review and production, John assisted in or led reviews and productions for numerous types of cases including, but not limited to, toxic tort, asbestos, breach of contract, intellectual property, and antitrust.  He has been part of document reviews throughout the United States, including extended reviews based in Corpus Christi, TX, Phoenix, AZ, Wilmington, NC, and Providence, RI.

John’s specialty is the art of the document review.  He not only enjoys the often tedious task of studying aging, damaged documents, but he possesses the ability to look past the filler documents and find just those documents which are the key to every successful litigation.

John is an avid sports fan, and has traveled the U.S. and Canada as part of a quest to visit every Major League Baseball stadium.  He worked as part of the Houston Astros DiamondVision video crew from 1988 through the 2001 season, and he served as the graphics coordinator for the Houston Texans in-house video productions for the first five seasons of the team.

John is also a writer in his spare time.  His sports work appears on-line daily for the Houston Press, and his coverage of the Houston Aeros appears at both the Houston Press and at The Third Intermission, a website he co-founded with writers from the Houston Chronicle and Pro Hockey News Daily.