Jason DeSouza

DeSouza first considered law while running a college business selling theatrical lighting in Toronto, where customers negotiated his prices down relentlessly; he figured that never happened to lawyers. Raised in a blue-collar family, the son of a machinist and an administrative assistant who immigrated from India, he liked competition and, as he puts it, wanted to “mix it up a little bit.” Plaintiff work appealed to him because it is merit-based: if a lawyer does not perform, the courtroom shows it.

DeSouza says his San Antonio firm refers nothing out, originating its own cases through advertising, events and outreach to small Texas towns that lack dedicated personal injury lawyers, including a giveaway of 750 backpacks across five cities in a single day. Although about seven other lawyers work with him, he personally vets every case and holds Zoom meetings with five to 10 clients a week. Former clients tell friends to text him rather than call, because he answers within a minute.

DeSouza points to his first trucking client, Rudy, whose 18-wheeler was struck from behind by another 18-wheeler as he slowed to turn into a ranch, leading to multiple surgeries including a 360 fusion. When Rudy needed a vehicle he could get into, DeSouza gave him his own Nissan Maxima. The firm collected the full liability coverage and then a large share of the underinsured motorist policy. “Nobody would do that for me, man,” Rudy told him. The two still text, and DeSouza now represents Rudy's brother.

DeSouza acknowledges that money matters and that he once expected to work on Toronto's Bay Street. What drives him instead is mistreatment: manufacturers cutting corners on safety, oil field companies that pay bonuses for injury-free days, insurers offering $2,000 for a totaled Corolla a mother of three needs to reach work. Big business and insurers, he says, have decided some people's lives are disposable, and he wants to expose that in court. “Their lives matter, and their injuries matter, and the money that they receive matters,” he says.

Born and raised in Toronto, DeSouza attended Thomas M. Cooley Law School in Michigan, which he credits with teaching him academic discipline. He met his wife there and moved to Texas in 2009, asking for just one year in a warmer state. His first job was handling 25 stalled cases for a San Antonio tax lawyer, including a three-day eviction trial he tried before his bar card arrived in the mail. He moved into plaintiff's personal injury work about 16 months later.

DeSouza founded DeSouza Injury Lawyers in San Antonio, Texas, in 2015; the firm's website is jfdlawfirm.com. It represents people injured by others' negligence, including 18-wheeler crashes, and has prevailed against some of the largest insurance companies and corporations in the country. DeSouza's approach is to secure the best possible settlement based on a client's injuries or take the case to a jury, and he says he has no interest in withdrawing from a case on the eve of trial.