Surviving the Investigation: How to Win When the Government Locks Up Your Evidence

Welcome to Latte with a Lawyer—a leading podcast for attorneys seeking untold stories from the front lines of litigation. This episode features Sandy McCorquodale, a Texas trial lawyer who took on one of the most challenging cases imaginable: the West, Texas fertilizer plant explosion. Sandy details the decade-long fight for 180 clients after a blast 1.5 times the size of the 'mother of all bombs' devastated a town. He reveals how his team built a winning liability case from scratch after the ATF seized the entire explosion site and locked away all the physical evidence as part of an ongoing criminal investigation. Sandy also pulls back the curtain on his unconventional career path, from deciding to become a lawyer while living in France to taking the LSAT in Paris. He explains his strategic shift from a lucrative 15-year career in insurance coverage defense—where he was often the highest-paid lawyer in the room—to the high-stakes world of plaintiff's work. Sandy shares the unique legal theories that defined the West explosion case, including arguing that elderly clients displaced from their nursing home 'failed to thrive,' and discusses how his firm leverages Texas's uncommon workers' compensation system to uncover catastrophic third-party claims involving amputations, blindness, and chemical burns. Linkedin:   / james-mccorquodale-257448   FIRM Website: https://www.smqlaw.com/ Learn more about EmotionTrac and our AI-driven Emotional Intelligence Platform: https://legal.emotiontrac.com/