Waters Kraus Paul & Siegel is proud to announce that firm attorneys Chris Johnson, Caitlyn Silhan and Camille Hunt have been honored among the nation’s top lawyers under 40 by Thomson Reuters’ 2024 “Super Lawyers – Rising Stars.”
Each year, Super Lawyers conducts a rigorous selection process designed to identify outstanding early and mid-career lawyers in each state. Attorneys practicing in more than 70 practice areas are selected based on peer nominations and a rigorous vetting process designed to recognize the top 2.5 percent of practicing lawyers under age 40 or who have been in practice fewer than 10 years.
Meet Chris Johnson
A partner in the firm’s Dallas office, Johnson devotes his practice to helping individuals injured by dangerous products and toxic substances, including people diagnosed with mesothelioma resulting from asbestos exposure and individuals who have developed non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma following exposure to Monsanto’s glyphosate-based Roundup herbicide. He also represents victims of sexual abuse and a range of other complex disputes.
In 2022, Johnson was part of a litigation team that secured a $5.63 million settlement on behalf of a Hawaii student who was sexually assaulted by a teacher. The settlement ranked among the Top 50 of 2022, according to an analysis of state and federal records by researchers at TopVerdict.com. He was also part of a litigation team that secured a $5.45 million settlement on behalf of a Washington state man who was exposed to cancer-causing asbestos; that case was also recognized among the Top 50 for 2022.
Earlier this year, Johnson was elected to represent trial lawyers in Texas on the Board of Governors of the American Association for Justice (AAJ). He completed the AAJ’s Justice and Leadership Academy in 2018 and previously served as a Minority Caucus Board of Governors representative. Johnson currently serves on the AAJ Minority Caucus Executive Committee as secretary. He is also a member of the Dallas Asian American Bar Association, Dallas Association of Young Lawyers, and the Dallas Bar Association.
Meet Caitlyn Silhan
A partner in the firm’s Dallas office, Silhan focuses her practice on qui tam whistleblower litigation brought under the False Claims Act. With a practice that is national in scope, she has earned record settlements on behalf of individuals exposing fraud, waste and abuse in government contracts and programs, including overbilling and false claims in Medicare, Medicaid, and Tricare contracts.
In 2023, she was part of a legal team that secured a record $85.4 million settlement from Illinois-based medical imaging company Cardiac Imaging, Inc. and its CEO to resolve whistleblower claims that the company paid illegal kickbacks to physicians in a scheme to defraud government programs in violation of the False Claims Act. The agreement was the largest single district civil settlement in the history of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas.
Caitlyn is a member of the Dallas Bar Association, the State Bar of Texas, the State Bar of California, Taxpayers Against Fraud, and the American Association for Justice—Qui Tam Litigation Group. She has been recognized as a Rising Star each year since 2019.
Meet Camille Hunt
Camille Hunt is a trial lawyer based in the firm’s Los Angeles, California office, where she focuses on complex civil litigation, including asbestos exposure and mesothelioma, personal injury, birth injury litigation, and toxic tort disputes.
In 2023, she was part of a Waters Kraus Paul & Siegel team that secured a record $20 million for the wife of a Rhode Island man who died of mesothelioma cancer after exposure to window glazing contaminated with asbestos.
Hunt earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Washington and Lee University and earned her Juris Doctorate from Baylor University Law School, where she was a member of the Order of Barristers and Mock Trial Team from Baylor University.
About Rising Stars Selection
Each year, Super Lawyers invites lawyers in each state to nominate top attorneys they’ve personally observed in action. Each nominee is vetted by the Super Lawyers research department based on a range of criteria, followed by an independent review by a blue-ribbon panel.
Waters Kraus Paul & Siegel congratulates our 2024 Rising Stars.
About Waters Kraus Paul & Siegel
Waters Kraus Paul & Siegel is a national plaintiffs’ law firm devoted to helping families in personal injury and wrongful death cases involving asbestos and mesothelioma, benzene exposure, dangerous pharmaceuticals, medical devices, and birth defects caused by pesticides, toxic chemicals, opioid use, and semiconductor chip manufacturing. The law firm also represents plaintiffs in qui tam whistleblower matters and cases that uncover false claims submitted to the government. Based in Dallas, Texas, with offices in Los Angeles, California, and Moline, Illinois, Waters Kraus Paul & Siegel has represented families from all fifty states and many foreign countries, as well as foreign governments.
