Texas Lawyer Blog

Newsmakers: Two Dallas attorneys become partners in Dentons

Dentons, formerly known as SNR Denton, has named patent attorney Darin W. Deaver and litigator Matthew T. Nickel as partners in the firm’s Dallas office.

Deaver (pictured) says that before going to law school he was a structural dynamics engineer, working on the Mir and International Space Station programs at Boeing from 1997 to 1999 and was a senior guidance and navigation engineer at Lockheed Martin, where he worked on the PAC-3 missile system from 1999 to 2000. He says he decided to change careers because he “didn’t like working in a room with a locked door and no windows.”

Deaver says he enrolled in Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law, earning his J.D. in 2003.

“I thought law school was a better fit for my personality and my skill set,” he says.

Deaver says he joined SNR Denton in 2008 but left to become a solo practitioner in 2009. He says he returned to the firm in April 2012 and focuses his practice on patent prosecution, assisting clients with their applications at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Nickel (pictured) says he graduated from the University of Texas School of Law in 2005. He says he was an associate with Shook, Hardy & Bacon in Kansas City, Mo. before joining SNR Denton in January 2010. He is in Dentons’ litigation and arbitration practice group.

“I do all types of litigation,” Nickel says. “My focus is on pharmaceutical and product liability litigation.”

Nickel says that before attending law school, he worked in 2002 as a pharmaceutical sales representative for Merck & Co.

— Mary Alice Robbins

Robbins is an Austin-based freelance writer and a former Texas Lawyer senior reporter.

Newsmakers: Transactional attorney joins Winstead as associate in Dallas

Derek J. Taylor (pictured) joined Winstead in Dallas on March 14 as an associate with the real estate development and investment practice group.

Taylor says he previously was an associate at Fulbright & Jaworski in Dallas. He says he joined Fulbright after graduating cum laude from Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law in 2009. In law school, Taylor was articles editor for the SMU Law Review Association, he says.

Taylor says he had a litigation practice at Fulbright but is focusing on transactional work at Winstead.

“We represent a variety of different players in the real estate market,” he says.

That includes property developers with commercial or residential projects and, in the financial context, institutional lenders who provide the financing for real estate transactions, Taylor says.

Taylor says he also works with Winstead’s sports business and public venues practice group. That involves working on transactions to build or develop sports arenas, stadiums or ballparks, he says.

— Mary Alice Robbins

Robbins is an Austin-based freelance writer and a former Texas Lawyer senior reporter.

Newsmakers: Judge Tom Lowe receives award in Tarrant County

The Tarrant County Trial Lawyers Association presented the Charles J. Murray Award to 236th District Court Judge Tom Lowe (pictured) at TCTLA’s annual judicial dinner March 23 in Fort Worth.

The award is presented in memory of Murray, who, according to Lowe, served on the 17th District Court in Tarrant County from 1963 to 1988.

“Just to be mentioned in the same sentence with Judge Murray is honor enough to me,” Lowe says.

He adds, “Judge Murray, to me, had an aura of wisdom and decency and experience.”

Lowe says he is a May 1977 graduate of the University of Texas School of Law and has been licensed to practice law since February 1978. He says that since 1992, he has been board certified in civil trial law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization.

After he was licensed, he spent a number of years as a solo practitioner, first in Austin and then in Fort Worth, Lowe says. “I did more family law than anything else,” he says.

Lowe says that practicing family law was “fantastic training” for being a judge on a civil court. “I had to deal with everything but admiralty law,” he says.

When he was elected president of the Tarrant County Family Law Bar Association in 1985, the organization was practically defunct, Lowe says. He says that during the two years he was president, he helped build it from nothing into a respected association.

Lowe says he has served on the 236th District Court bench since Jan. 1, 1995, and has tried to be the kind of judge he had always wanted to appear before when he was in private practice.

“I hate ‘judge-itis’,” Lowe says. “I told my friends if they ever saw any symptoms, they should urge me to seek treatment.”

— Mary Alice Robbins

Robbins is an Austin-based freelance writer and a former Texas Lawyer senior reporter.

Editor's note: This blog has been corrected to accurately reflect the year in which Lowe began his service on the bench. 

Bill increases discipline for prosecutors failing to disclose exculpatory evidence to defense

On March 26, the Texas Senate unanimously passed a bill that would make prosecutors face stiffer penalties in the attorney disciplinary system if they fail to disclose exculpatory evidence to criminal-defense lawyers.

The upper chamber sent Senate Bill 825 to the House, where a companion bill is waiting before the House Judiciary & Civil Jurisprudence Committee.

SB 825 prohibits an attorney grievance panel from issuing a private reprimand for a violation of rules in the Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct (TDRPC) requiring prosecutors to disclose evidence “that tends to negate the guilt of the accused or mitigates the offense.” It requires the Texas Supreme Court to ensure the four-year statute of limitations for such violations begins when “a wrongfully imprisoned person is released from a penal institution.”

For more on the bill, see “Inadmissible,” Texas Lawyer, March 18, 2013, page 3.

― Angela Morris

Newsmakers: Kelley Kronenberg hires attorney in Houston office

Kelley Kronenberg announced March 26 that Victor J. Burnette (pictured) has joined the firm as an attorney in its Houston office.

Before joining Kelley Kronenberg, he was an associate at Tribble, Ross & Wagner in Houston, Burnette says.

Burnette, a 2011 honors graduate of South Texas College of Law, says he received the Computer Assisted Legal Instruction Award for Excellence in Family Law while in law school. He says he clerked at the Texas Office of the Attorney General in the summer of 2011.

His practice focuses on the defense of claims arising under the Jones Act, the Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act and the Defense Base Act, Burnette says. He says he also has experience in family law.

His activities outside his firm include teaching students strategies for taking college entrance exams, Burnette says.

— Mary Alice Robbins

Robbins is an Austin-based freelance writer and a former Texas Lawyer senior reporter.

Newsmakers: Appellate attorney joins McKool Smith

Daniel L. Geyser, formerly an attorney in the Office of the Solicitor General of Texas, has joined McKool Smith as a principal in the firm’s Dallas office.

“I’m very excited to be here,” Geyser says. “These are just really exceptional lawyers handling fascinating cases for really great clients.”

Geyser (pictured) says that immediately before joining McKool Smith on March 15, he was of counsel in the appellate and constitutional law practice group at Gibson Dunn & Crutcher in Dallas.

He began his legal career as a judicial law clerk. After graduating with honors from Harvard Law School in 2002, he clerked for 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Alex Kozinski for one term, Geyser says.

Geyser says that beginning in April 2007, he served four years in the Texas solicitor general’s office, where he worked on and supervised appellate litigation for the state. He says he has argued six times before the Texas Supreme Court, including four arguments in the court’s 2009-2010 term, and also argued numerous times in the 5th and 9th U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeals.

Geyser says that he was a three-time winner of the National Association of Attorneys General Best Brief award for excellence in brief-writing before the U.S. Supreme Court, winning the award in the terms that began in October 2007, October 2008 and October 2010.

— Mary Alice Robbins

Robbins is an Austin-based freelance writer and a former Texas Lawyer senior reporter.

Newsmakers: Lawyer returns to practicing law after more than 25-year break

Jim Addams (pictured) says it was always his intention to go back to practicing law. But it took the 64-year-old Addams more than a quarter of a century to do it.

On March 5, Addams joined the business and entertainment firm Shackelford, Melton & McKinley in Dallas as of counsel.

John Shackelford, a founding partner of the firm, says Addams is primarily a transactional attorney. Because of his business experience, Addams will be able to help clients put together deals, Shackelford says.

The business experience to which Shackelford refers is the result of the more than 25 years that Addams spent working as an executive in the construction materials business. Addams says that until April 2011, he was the chief operating officer for Holcim (US) Inc., the second largest cement producer in the United States. After retiring, he decided to return to practicing law.

“I liked practicing law, and I didn’t think I’d like not working,” Addams says.

Addams says he spent the next year or so studying for and taking the Texas and Colorado bar exams. His preparation for the exams included taking a bar review course, he says.

“Of course, I was the grandfather in the classes,” Addams says.

All of his efforts paid off. Addams is licensed to practice in Texas and Colorado as well as in California, where he says he took the bar exam in 1977.

After graduating from Georgetown University Law Center in 1977, he began practicing law as an associate in the former firm of Brobeck Phleger & Harrison in San Francisco, Addams says. He says that in 1982, he became an in-house counsel for Vulcan Materials Co. and accepted a management position in the company in 1986.

Shackelford says Addams’ contacts in the construction materials industry give him an opportunity to develop business for Shackelford, Melton in that area and enables him to provide valuable assistance to clients.

“He’s been on the inside of companies, putting together deals, understanding the business of deals,” Shackelford says.

Addams says he has not encountered problems in reviving his legal career.

“I don’t think you ever stop being a lawyer,” he says. “Once a lawyer, always a lawyer.”

— Mary Alice Robbins

Robbins is an Austin-based freelance writer and a former Texas Lawyer senior reporter.

Newsmakers: Baker Botts adds two partners in Houston

Carlos Solé and Jeremy Kennedy, both former partners in DLA Piper, have joined Baker Botts as partners in the firm’s global projects practice in Houston.

Solé (pictured) says he began working at Baker Botts on March 11. His practice focuses on domestic and international corporate and finance transactions, with a particular emphasis on the energy industry.

“I would say 90 percent of what I touch is energy- related,” Solé says.

Solé says he received his J.D. from the University of Texas School of Law in 1994. He is a native Spanish speaker.

Kennedy (pictured), whose first day at Baker Botts was March 25, says he has a broad-based practice involving project development, finance work and mergers and acquisitions with an energy focus. He says he has represented U.S. companies in dealings abroad for acquisitions involving the exploration and production of oil and gas.

He also says he works in other legal disciplines, including handling maritime law and shipping matters.

Kennedy says he received his J.D. summa cum laude in 2003 from Texas Tech University School of Law, where he was editor-in-chief of the Texas Tech Law Review.

— Mary Alice Robbins

Robbins is an Austin-based freelance writer and a former Texas Lawyer senior reporter.

Newsmakers: Jonathan Harrison becomes a partner

Anderson Riddle & Kuehler announced March 14 that Jonathan “Jon” W. Harrison has been promoted from associate to partner in the firm’s Fort Worth office.

Harrison (pictured) says he joined Anderson Riddle & Kuehler in 2005 after graduating third in his class from Baylor Law School. He was on the executive staff of Baylor Law Review.

His practice focuses on aviation litigation and complex commercial litigation, Harrison says.

— Mary Alice Robbins

Robbins is an Austin-based freelance writer and a former Texas Lawyer senior reporter.

Newsmakers: Patent attorney joins Houston complex commercial litigation boutique

Houston-based Ahmad, Zavitsanos, Anaipakos, Alavi & Mensing (AZA) announced March 12 that seasoned intellectual property attorney Alisa Lipski has joined the firm as an associate.

Lipski (pictured), a 2003 graduate of the University of Houston Law Center, says she has a decade of experience as a patent attorney and a background in science. She obtained a B.S. degree in biochemistry in 2000 from the University of Texas at Austin.

“I went to law school with the plan of becoming a patent attorney,” Lipski says.

Lipski says that in 2003, while she was still in law school, she served an internship for U.S. Magistrate Judge Nancy Johnson of the Southern District of Texas in Houston.

Before joining AZA, she was a partner in Goldstein & Lipski in Houston, Lipski says.

She says she primarily handles litigation in her practice but also is licensed to practice before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for the prosecution of patents.

— Mary Alice Robbins

Robbins is an Austin-based freelance writer and a former Texas Lawyer senior reporter.