It may seem odd that Gov. Rick Perry would appoint a lawyer — one that served in the governor’s own general counsel’s office — as interim director of the Texas Film Commission. Yet in appointing Evan Fitzmaurice to that post on Dec. 16, Perry picked a guy that has more hands-on experience on what goes in to making a film than most Texas lawyers. A former attorney in the Dallas office of Locke Lord Bissell & Liddell, Fitzmaurice moved to Los Angeles several years ago to become an entertainment law associate with Jackoway Tyerman Wertheimer Austen Mandelbaum Morris & Klein. While in Los Angeles, Fitzmaurice co-produced the 2007 independent documentary “A Lawyer Walks Into a Bar,” which premiered at the 2007 South By Southwest Film Conference and Festival in Austin and won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2007 AFI Dallas International Film Festival. The movie is a funny and engaging film about six law school graduates attempting to pass the California bar exam but it has a distinctive Texas flavor to it and got plenty of laughs at film festivals. [See “The Silver Screen,” Texas Lawyer, April 2, 2007, page 3.] Fitzmaurice says, "I'm looking forward to it. It's a great opportunity and it's got a storied history that everyone respects highly."
-- John Council
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