Holly J. Wydra Huart, Esq., Williamsville South High School, Class of 1972
Holly J. W. Huart has been an attorney for over 35 years, devoting most of her career almost exclusively to products liability and toxic tort litigation. As she built a successful law practice and established herself as a highly sought-after medico-legal consultant, she also pursued her numerous artistic interests including dance and photography.
After graduating magna cum laude from the State University of New York at Fredonia with a bachelor’s degree in psychology, Ms. Huart received her law degree from George Washington University Law School. She is a former trial attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice, Environmental and Occupational Disease Litigation Section of the Civil Division, Torts Branch in Washington, D.C. where she represented the United States in complex litigation involving asbestos and hazardous waste. She was twice awarded Outstanding Performance Ratings by the U.S. Attorney General.
Following her time at the DOJ, she worked at major law firms in Atlanta, Houston, and Dallas as a litigator taking on many high-profile, high-stakes cases arising from environmental contamination. Ms. Huart obtained multi-million dollar settlements from asbestos manufacturers and some of the most powerful petro-chemical companies in the world on behalf of her clients, which included individuals, states, municipalities, and school districts. In 2001, she established a niche consulting practice as a specialist in environmental litigation based in Houston and Dallas. Firms across the U.S. and Canada retained her on cases involving all phases of complex products liability, toxic tort, mass tort, and pharmaceutical liability cases. A frequently invited guest speaker at professional conferences, Ms. Huart has a number of monographs, articles, and book chapters listed among her published works.
Despite a demanding legal career, Ms. Huart always managed to maintain a work-life balance in order to pursue her passions outside of work. While working as an attorney in Washington, D.C., she was a professional calligrapher and member of the Tap Quartet, a professional dance company that performed for audiences throughout the D.C. area. When she moved to Texas, Ms. Huart turned her focus to ballroom dance, earning numerous first place awards in both Pro-Am and Amateur Divisions. A lifelong interest in photography became a professional pursuit when she began photographing ballroom dance competitions and had her ballroom dance photos published in national magazines devoted to competitive dance. As a single parent, her self-described “mommy job” and daughter, Margaux Claire, took precedence above all else.
Ms. Huart recalls, with great fondness and pride, her time at South when she was cheerleading at football and basketball games, building homecoming floats, working on the yearbook, performing in the musicals, competing at sectionals with the tennis team, and traveling with the award-winning concert and jazz bands as a pianist and percussionist. She moved back to Williamsville in 2006 to care for her elderly mother and quickly reconnected with her high school alma mater, serving as the volunteer photographer for the Williamsville South Drama Club (2006-08) and coaching South’s first-ever dance team (2008). Ms. Huart is also a certified tennis coach for the Special Olympics.