Melanie Goins Cowart focuses her practice primarily on the areas of complex commercial and intellectual property litigation, including patent infringement, trade secret misappropriation, shareholder derivative, breach of contract, fraud and class action matters.
Practice & Background

Ms. Cowart has more than 30 years of litigation experience, including case preparation, electronic and paper discovery, trial preparation, and courtroom and jury trial appearances. Ms. Cowart has taken and defended numerous depositions and has organized and managed individual litigation teams ranging from four to 60 attorneys, paralegals and other support staff. Ms. Cowart’s work at Akin Gump has included a diverse group of clients, including clients in the aviation completion, billboard advertising, cloud hosting, communications, database software, direct mail, housing, insurance, medical device, offshore drilling, seafood and telecommunications industries. Ms. Cowart also successfully represented the local affiliate of an international nonprofit in a dispute between the affiliate and the parent organization.

In addition to her practice, Ms. Cowart is currently a member of the San Antonio office’s diversity committee. She is also a member of the Federal Bar Association, the San Antonio Bar Association and the Bexar County Women’s Bar Association.

Prior to joining Akin Gump in 1996, Ms. Cowart worked at the Bexar County District Attorney’s Office; the Legal Aid Society for the District of Columbia; and other trial-focused law firms in D.C., Alabama and Texas.
Community Involvement

Ms. Cowart’s numerous community, civic and charitable activities include being:

president of the board of directors of the Carver Development Board
a member of the St. Paul United Methodist Church Trustee Board
immediate past president of Alpha Tau Omega Chapter, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.
an alumni member of Alpha Sigma Nu Jesuit Honor Society.