Today we’d like to introduce you to Paul Cannon
Hi Paul, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
I was born in Temple, Texas. Mother was a high school teacher, and father was an accountant. I was your typical Gen X rebellious teenager. I had two dreams growing up. One was to be a trial lawyer, and the other was to be a drummer in a rock band.
After high school (I graduated in 1989), I went to the University of Texas (graduated from UT in 3 years with a degree in Philosophy). I played drums in bands in high school and college. During my last two years of college, I played in a band called Skellington. I gave it until I graduated to succeed or I was going to law school. When I left for law school, the band broke up, and the lead singer went on to form Spoon—which turned out to be one of the biggest bands to come out of Austin, Texas.
I attended law school at South Texas College of Law in Houston 92-95. In my last year, I started clerking at Simmons and Fletcher, P.C. after answering a blind ad on a job board at the law school. My first job interview was with the senior litigator and founding partner Keith Fletcher. The interview was very short. He gave me a Motion to draft a response as a tryout and told me three others were doing it. He told me that he would pay $10.00 an hour to draft a response. If he liked my work, he would call me. If not, he would mail me a check. I agreed to the tryout terms. As I walked out the door he said: “By the way, you should know that this is just a law clerk position, there is no opportunity here to advance into an associate’s position.” That was 1994.
So, the Motion he gave to me to respond to was one that I had zero chance of winning. He wanted to see if I could argue a case when there was no case to argue. Several of the other people trying out simply came back and told him there was no point to them trying to draft anything, the Texas Supreme Court had decided the issue. I found a way to argue for 13 pages that the law needed to change and cited what other states were doing. It got me the job.
I started my career working as a law clerk for Keith M. Fletcher. He gave me motions, and I drafted responses. My first year I went 27 wins and 1 loss responding to motions. The one I lost was the one from the tryout that got me the job.
Once I got the job, I not only worked for him doing his assignments, I went to his paralegal and asked her how I could help her. She gave me more work. After graduating and passing the bar, I was working so many hours for the firm that it made financial sense for them to make me an associate.
When I first applied at the firm, the ad said nothing about the firm being a Christian law firm. The truth is that I had gotten away from the church at age 14 and probably would not have applied had I known. Immediately after I was made an associate, the senior partner, Robert Simmons, went to work on me. From day one he pushed me to get involved with a local church. When he first asked me about my beliefs—which he was not afraid to do—I told him I was a believer but didn’t believe in corporate worship.
That was not an acceptable answer. He made it his mission to get me to go back to church. You need to try Second Baptist and their big singles program…sure sure. After weeks of pushing, I finally told him I would go one weekend just to get him out of my hair.
The following Monday, he came straight into my office when he got to work and asked how it was.
“Bob, I tried, but I couldn’t find it.”
Paul, Second Baptist takes up an entire city block. If you missed it, it’s because you didn’t try. He didn’t sugarcoat anything when it came to God.
So out of excuses, I went the next weekend and the weekend after that and the one after that…It changed the course of my life. Mr. Simmons was an amazing influence in my life and helped me to see the practice of law as a mission.
I remember one day as a young lawyer, I was in my office, swamped, getting ready for a trial, and Bob walked into my office with a call slip in his hand. He proceeded to tell me about a person who was calling on a type of case we don’t even handle, and he said, “Can you call this person back?”
I knew I’d be stuck on the phone for an hour. I snapped at him. Did he really think I had time for that? It’s obvious we don’t want that case. “Bob I’m busy, we don’t want that case, it’s a waste of my time.”
Bob reminded me, “As Christian counselors, we have a higher duty to help people even if there is nothing to gain from it for ourselves.”
I called the lady back, and after she explained her issue for an hour, I was able to point her in the right direction, and she was very grateful.
I have been with the firm my entire career. During that time, I became board-certified in Personal Injury Trial Law in 2025, and I have managed to be selected for a number of awards and organizations for my legal work. But one of the awards that means the most to me is an award I received from the Houston Young Lawyer’s Association in 2020 as the Outstanding Mentor which I received because I was mentoring a young lady in college and she reached out to tell them about it.
My awards can be found on my firm bio: https://www.simmonsandfletcher.com/attorneys/paul-h-cannon/
In 2019, Keith Fletcher was unexpectedly diagnosed with stage 4 lymphoma. Four weeks later, he passed away. In 2020 Robert Simmons passed away at his home. He literally got up from doing a Bible study at his table, walked into the kitchen and his heart stopped. So in 2020, at the height of COVID-19, causing businesses to fail left and right, I became the managing partner of Simmons and Fletcher, P.C.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
See previous answer – proving my worth so that the firm kept me was the biggest. I am the only attorney at the firm who is not a Simmons or a Fletcher. It was a family law firm and I was not family.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Simmons and Fletcher, P.C.?
Simmons and Fletcher, P.C. is a Christian personal injury law firm. Before I joined the firm, they advertised under the slogan “Christian Trial Lawyers.” Robert Simmons wanted a short way to convey to people what the firm stood for. His faith was the answer. The purpose of the slogan is to let people know that our goal is to serve our clients as if we were providing service to our Lord Himself. There are people in every profession with ethics and people without them. Your lawyer’s behavior in the Courtroom or behind a desk is a reflection of the client who chooses him. Can you imagine how hard you would try to make sure that in every interaction you were honest, trustworthy, and compassionate if you were serving your Lord? That is the idea.
Another thing about our firm is that we feel like being involved in the community is important. Our firm has been involved in sponsoring a lot of charities and organizations. WalkLikeMadd is our big one every year, but then we sponsor several others throughout the year. We like to get our employees involved in walks and events where they can get out and be a part of something bigger with us.
In 2021, I started a vlog called Meet Houston Missions: https://www.simmonsandfletcher.com/meet-houston-missions/
Around 2023, I expanded it to be a podcast called The Simmons and Fletcher, P.C., Local Missions Podcast. The purpose of these programs is to spread the word about local missions around Houston that people can be a part of. I do about a 30-minute interview with the leaders of the missions and then edit it down to give people a place to hear what they do, where they are, and how people can get involved.
The firm also gives out 3 scholarships each year as a fun writing competition: https://www.simmonsandfletcher.com/scholarships/
Is there a quality that you most attribute to your success?
I love a challenge. When Keith Fletcher told me it was just a law clerk job with no opportunity to advance, I took it as a challenge. I had confidence I could write well because philosophy is a writing degree. I knew I could beat out other writers. I also wanted to see if I could turn a low level opportunity into something bigger.
Pricing:
- contingency fee
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.simmonsandfletcher.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/simmonsandfletcherpc/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SimmonsandFletcher/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/simmons-and-fletcher
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/simmonsandfletcher
- Other: https://www.simmonsandfletcher.com/attorneys/paul-h-cannon/
Image Credits
None are professionally done – most were by my wife.
