About Raina Newsome

Raina Spielman Newsome is a partner at Sorrels Law with over 25 years of litigation experience. Her primary focus is medical malpractice litigation, especially birth injury cases, built on a broad background in complex commercial litigation, products liability, and personal injury. She earned her B.B.A. in Finance and Marketing with honors from the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin, and her J.D. with honors from the University of Texas School of Law, where she earned the highest overall first-year GPA, served as an Associate Editor of the Texas Law Review, and was elected to the Order of the Coif.

She began her career as a litigation associate at Fulbright and Jaworski (now Norton Rose Fulbright), later worked for Hunton Andrews Kurth and its predecessor firms specializing in medical malpractice and medical product litigation, and has tried jury trials, bench trials, and arbitrations and argued appeals. She left Big Law to represent victims of negligence and medical malpractice and has recovered over $40 million for her clients and their families, earning membership in the Multi-Million Dollar Advocates Forum. She is a member of the State Bar of Texas and the Arizona Bar and has been admitted pro hac vice in multiple other states.

Proven verdicts and settlements at Sorrels Law

These results are credited to Sorrels Law. A result appears under an attorney's own name only when a published source names them as counsel on the case.

$352.77 millionVerdict

On September 7, 2019, Ulysses Cruz, a 48-year-old United Airlines ramp worker serving as a wing walker at George Bush Intercontinental Airport, was struck from behind by an Allied Aviation Fueling Company of Houston van whose driver said the morning sun was in his eyes. Cruz was paralyzed from the chest down and suffered a stroke two days later that cost him the use of his dominant right arm. After a two-week trial before Judge Ravi Sandill, a Harris County jury on October 25, 2021 found Allied 70 percent and driver Reginald Willis 30 percent at fault and awarded Cruz, his wife and their two children $352.7 million in compensatory damages. Judge Sandill conditioned denial of a new trial on a $117.5 million remittitur of noneconomic damages, which the family accepted, and an amended judgment of about $235.3 million was signed February 7, 2022. Allied appealed, the parties reached a confidential mediated settlement, and on July 18, 2023 the First Court of Appeals vacated the judgment and dismissed the case at the parties' joint request.

127th District Court, Harris County, Texas (Houston) · 2021Workplace InjuryRead the full story →
$2.28 millionVerdict

In the first hours of January 1, 2019, at the Concrete Cowboy bar on Washington Avenue in Houston, a bouncer put 21-year-old minor league outfielder Conner Capel in a chokehold after telling him to move away from a waitress station, and as staff carried him out he was struck on the head with a flashlight, fracturing his skull above the left eye. Capel and his friend Kacy Clemens, who was choked and beaten when he tried to intervene, sued the bar's owner, 34th S&S LLC, and its principal Daniel J. Wierck for negligence, vicarious liability and gross negligence. On February 5, 2021, after nearly five hours of deliberation, a Harris County jury found the bar and Wierck 100 percent responsible, cleared both young men of any fault, and awarded $3.24 million: $2.28 million to Capel and $960,000 to Clemens. The defendants appealed and then voluntarily dismissed the appeal in December 2022, leaving the judgment final. The bar's insurer paid out only its $1 million policy limit, and a suit over the unpaid excess is still being litigated.

113th District Court, Harris County, Texas (Houston) · 2021Premises LiabilityRead the full story →
$960,000Verdict

Kacy Clemens, a 24-year-old minor league first baseman and the son of pitcher Roger Clemens, was put in a chokehold, punched repeatedly in the ribs and thrown to the pavement outside Houston's Concrete Cowboy bar in the early hours of January 1, 2019 when he tried to help his friend Conner Capel, whom a bouncer had choked and whom the bar's owner allegedly struck with a flashlight. Clemens landed on his right elbow, his throwing arm, and the swelling limited his training. He and Capel sued the bar's operator, 34th S&S LLC, and owner Daniel J. Wierck for negligence, vicarious liability and gross negligence. On February 5, 2021 a Harris County jury found the bar and Wierck 100 percent responsible, cleared both men, and awarded $3.24 million, of which $960,000 went to Clemens. The defendants' appeal was voluntarily dismissed in December 2022, making the judgment final, but the insurer paid only its $1 million limit and litigation over the unpaid excess continues.

113th District Court, Harris County, Texas (Houston) · 2021Premises LiabilityRead the full story →

Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Each case is unique and depends on its own facts.

Practice areas

Education

University of Texas School of Law
J.D.
University of Texas at Austin
Undergraduate

Bar admissions & credentials

State Bar of Texas
State Bar of Arizona

Other attorneys at Sorrels Law

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The Lanier Law Firm
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$4.85 Billion Vioxx MDL Settlement for Heart-Attack and Stroke Victims
The Buzbee Law Firm
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$1.1 Billion Verdict for Child Left Brain-Damaged by Oil-Fortune Heir
Arnold & Itkin
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$2.07 billion · Cobb County Jury Awards John Barnes $2.065 Billion in Roundup Cancer Trial
Williams Hart & Boundas
Williams Hart & Boundas
$15.3 billion · Texas Recovers $15.3 Billion From Tobacco Industry in Landmark 1998 Settlement
The Ammons Law Firm LLP
The Ammons Law Firm LLP
$812 Million Verdict for Family of Worker Killed in Pecos Chemical Plant Explosion, Part of $1.6 Billion

Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Each case is unique and depends on its own facts.