Michael Slack
About Michael Slack
Michael L. (Mike) Slack is the Managing Partner and Co-Founder of Slack Davis, where he focuses on the most complex and demanding areas of civil litigation, including aviation accidents and product liability cases against major corporations. A licensed pilot and former NASA senior aerospace engineer, Mike brings technical depth to catastrophic-injury litigation that few trial lawyers can match. His legal career spans more than 36 years and hundreds of lawsuits arising from catastrophic injuries and deaths caused by unsafe products or practices. For most of that time he has concentrated on aviation crashes, handling cases across every segment of the industry from major airline disasters to small general-aviation aircraft, in state and federal courts in 36 states. Before entering law, Mike worked on the Apollo-Soyuz and Space Shuttle programs at NASA and received special agency recognition for his contributions. He is certified by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization in both Aviation Law and Personal Injury Trial Law, and by the National Board of Trial Advocacy as a Civil Trial Advocate. In 2002, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics named him an Associate Fellow, a rare distinction for an attorney. He has also been honored with the Distinguished Aerospace Engineer Alumni Award by Texas A&M University.
Notable case results
Roughly 700,000 Texas auto insurance policyholders shared a $52 million class settlement after a federal lawsuit showed Farmers Group charged long-term customers higher premiums than new customers for coverage that was functionally identical.
A Harris County probate jury found Raymond James and Associates liable for a 2019 fuel-starvation crash near Kerrville that killed six people, awarding $12.1 million to the families of three passengers after five hours of deliberation.
The estates of two men killed when a Superior Air Parts XP-400 crankshaft failed during a 2016 Florida flight settled for $5 million, prompting the company to buy back all XP-400 and XP-382 engines it had sold.
A mother and her two toddler daughters, each diagnosed with PTSD after surviving the American Airlines Flight 1420 runway crash in Little Rock, won a $3.35 million jury verdict that the Eighth Circuit affirmed in full.
Michael Slack and Ladd Sanger of Slack and Davis secured a confidential settlement in March 2014 for the family of Stuart Robertson, one of five people killed when a Blue Hawaiian Helicopters tour flight crashed into a mountain ridge on Molokai, Hawaii, on November 10, 2011.
Michael Slack secured a confidential settlement against Robinson Helicopter after defective aluminum fuel tanks on an R-44 ruptured in a 2006 Fredericksburg, Texas crash and fire that killed the pilot and two passengers, with the deal requiring Robinson to retrofit its entire fleet with crash-resistant bladder tanks.
After two jury trials and years of appeals, the family of a New Mexico State Police officer killed in a 2001 air-ambulance helicopter crash won a wrongful-death verdict against the hospital that hired the operator without adequately vetting its fitness.
Represented clients in crash of Gulfstream IV at Dominican Republic airport (December 2021)
Represented family of Cessna P210N crash victims near Detroit (June 2018)
Represented victims of Beech BE-300 King Air 350i crash at Addison Airport, Texas (June 2019)
Represented crash victims in November 2001 Queens, New York disaster (260 aboard died)
Secured recovery for cotton-gin laborer who lost his leg due to unsafe worksite practices
Represented family of driver killed by 18-wheeler hauling a Clayton manufactured home
Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Each case is unique and depends on its own facts.
