Craig M. Warner, P.C.

Craig Warner is a trial lawyer whose practice centers on high-stakes commercial and constitutional litigation in federal and Texas state courts. He has particular experience in complex class action defense, administrative and regulatory challenges, trade secrets and non-compete enforcement, securities class actions, and disputes at the intersection of government power and private rights. He works side-by-side with clients, their executives, officers, directors, and in-house counsel to develop litigation strategies that align with overall business objectives—resolving cases efficiently when appropriate and leading trial teams through verdict when the case demands a fight.

Craig has represented Fortune 500 corporations, major privately held businesses, state agencies, and middle-market companies across the energy, financial services, defense, insurance, and consumer sectors. He is admitted in state and federal courts across Texas and North Carolina and before the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth, Fifth, and Ninth Circuits.

Military Service & Government Background

Craig served as a Navy Judge Advocate, including a deployment to Camp Fallujah, Iraq with Regimental Combat Team 6, where he served as Deputy Regimental Judge Advocate during some of the most demanding operational conditions of the Iraq War, and earned the Fleet Marine Force (FMF) Officer Warfare Qualification. He received the Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal for his service as Trial Counsel at Region Legal Service Office Southwest, where he prosecuted 36 courts-martial. He subsequently served in the Texas Army National Guard Judge Advocate General’s Corps, completing his service at the rank of Major. He earned the Army Airborne (Paratrooper) qualification and graduated with honors from the Judge Advocate Officer Advanced Course.

Before entering private practice, Craig also served as an Assistant United States Attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice.  There, he was lead counsel in multiple federal jury trials resulting in life sentences and significant prison terms for leaders of major narcotics trafficking and international money laundering conspiracies, including an eleven-defendant OCDETF prosecution in which all defendants were convicted. He also prosecuted Iraq War procurement fraud in coordination with the Department of Justice Criminal Division’s Fraud Section, and was one of three AUSAs investigating and prosecuting serial killer Israel Keyes.

Craig’s combined military and federal prosecution background gives him deep credibility with defense contractors, military-affiliated businesses, government agencies, and executives navigating the intersection of commercial disputes and government oversight.

Class Action Defense

Craig is part of Duane Morris’s nationally recognized Class Action Practice Group, which comprises more than 100 lawyers and publishes the annual Duane Morris Class Action Review—the most comprehensive annual survey of class action litigation in the United States. He works with clients to develop proactive class action prevention strategies and, when class actions are filed, to defeat certification, secure dismissal, or negotiate favorable resolutions.

In a significant securities class action filed in the Western District of Texas against a publicly traded oilfield services company and its officers, Craig represented the company’s Chief Accounting Officer and obtained multiple Rule 12(b)(6) dismissals—defeating claims alleging the defendant failed to disclose an alleged related-party transaction (which the Court found immaterial as a matter of law) and claims alleging failure to disclose alleged undisclosed compensation arrangements (which the Court found lacked the required loss causation and any actionable duty to disclose). Craig also successfully moved to strike, under Rule 12(f), substantial portions of the plaintiffs’ Third Amended Complaint—including entire sections of the pleading—as redundant, immaterial, and impertinent.

Trade Secrets, Non-Compete & Emergency Injunctive Relief

Craig has deep experience in the urgent, high-stakes intersection of trade secret misappropriation, non-compete enforcement, and emergency injunctive relief—cases that can determine a company’s competitive future in weeks rather than years.

Craig served as lead counsel in a high-visibility emergency injunctive relief action on behalf of a national home services company, resulting in a successful Temporary Injunction hearing before a Florida business court—recognized by The Legal 500 as a matter of significant complexity with high C-suite visibility. The case involved trade secrets, non-compete and non-solicitation enforcement, and fiduciary breach claims spanning multiple jurisdictions.  The Florida business court ruled that the trade secrets belonging to Craig’s client included “data analytics used to

collect, manipulate, and/or assess elements of its business, for example its labor margins, technician performance, profit margins, call center performance and conversion rates, and the like,” and entered an injunction barring the defendants from continuing to employ or affiliate with a key executive who had “switched teams.”

Craig has served as litigation counsel to a Texas-based financial services company since 2021, obtaining an emergency temporary restraining order in Texas state court against a departing registered representative to prevent raiding, protect confidential client information, and enforce restrictive covenants—relief that was critical to preserving the company’s business—and subsequently obtaining confirmation of FINRA arbitration awards for the same client in courts across Texas, Louisiana, New York, and Washington State.

Trademark & Intellectual Property Litigation

Craig has represented clients in complex trademark and unfair competition matters in federal courts. In 2025, he obtained a complete dismissal under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6) of trademark and related claims in the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey, where the court granted dismissal with prejudice and denied leave to amend as futile—a decisive early victory that ended the litigation entirely.