Rodney Merwin

Very few lawyers still practicing in Houston can say they have stood before a jury as lead counsel more than one hundred times. Rodney Merwin can. Of Counsel at Perdue & Kidd, Merwin has spent forty-two years advocating for injured Texans, and he brings the kind of courtroom mileage that cannot be taught, borrowed, or faked — a genuine trial veteran in a field where many attorneys never try a single case.

Licensed by the Supreme Court of Texas in November 1979 and admitted to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas in 1981, Merwin opened a general practice early in his career, handling personal injury, family, and criminal matters — and started trying cases in front of Texas judges and juries almost immediately. By the late 1990s he had narrowed his focus entirely to injury work, representing victims hurt through others’ negligence. He has been board certified in Personal Injury Trial Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization since 2000, and Texas Lawyer listed him among Texas’ Top Rated Lawyers every year from 2013 through 2022, a designation grounded in his Martindale-Hubbell AV Preeminent rating.

Merwin is a Houston native through and through. He graduated from Memorial High School, where he was student council president in 1972, then attended Northwestern University as a Clarion DeWitt Hardy Debate Scholar, graduating with honors in 1976 with a political science degree. He earned his Doctor of Jurisprudence from the University of Texas School of Law in 1979. The debate background never left him: for the past decade he has volunteered as a high school debate coach in the Houston Independent School District through the Houston Urban Debate League, which named him Mentor of the Year in 2013. He also plays piano and sings in the White Oak Bayou Band, a local country-rock group — music is how he met his wife, Vicki, a financial advisor and singer. They have three daughters and three grandchildren.

What drives his practice, by his own account, is helping injured clients recover their lawful damages and get back as close as possible to the life they had before the injury. That client-centered framing — recovery measured in quality of life, not just dollars — shows up in how he runs cases.

Merwin fits injury victims who want their case in the hands of a proven courtroom lawyer rather than a settlement mill — especially claims where the insurance company is betting the plaintiff’s attorney will never actually try the case. Perdue & Kidd handles matters on contingency with a free consultation: no recovery, no fee.