John Anderson Gilliam passed away on March 4, 2023. Gilliam was head of the trial section at Jenkens & Gilchrist. While at Texas Law, he was on the Board of Editors of the Texas Law Review, and a member of both the Order of the Coif and Phi Delta Phi Legal Fraternity.
Charles Renfro Slone passed away on March 13, 2023. Slone practiced law in Richmond, Texas, until his retirement in 2017, with an emphasis on real estate, wills, trusts, and probate.
Heather J. Kliebenstein has been named managing director of national the technology and innovation law firm Merchant & Gould’s seven offices. Kliebenstein comes from a technical background with experience as an IP and technology litigator.
David Robert Sorrell passed away on Feb. 19, 2023. Sorrell started his legal career as a trial lawyer before co-founding the firm Sorrell & Moak, where he remained until 1994. He went on to serve as an assistant district attorney for three different counties, with a stint as the patient’s attorney at Rusk State Hospital.
Richard G. Shook passed away on Feb. 11, 2023. Shook was an attorney for Prudential Insurance Company of America until he retired after 30 years of service.
William Rayford Price passed away on Feb. 21, 2023. He served as Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives, before moving on to specialize in municipal law and found Rayford Price & Associates.
Timothy Lynn Brown passed away on Dec. 30, 2022. Brown served as head of the Environmental Division of the Texas Attorney General’s Office before entering private practice in 1982, where he remained active in the practice of water law until 2019.
John B. Selman passed away on Feb. 18, 2023. Selman practiced law for 32 years with Sneed, Vine, Wilkerson, Selman and Perry and was actively involved in counseling for the following 15 years.
Aron Potash ’07 has been elected as partner at Latham & Watkins LLP. Potash focuses on environmental law with an emphasis on air quality and climate change issues.
Jim Hill has been recognized by San Diego Magazine as a 2023 Top Lawyer in San Diego in the field of bankruptcy. A founding member of Sullivan Hill, he is chair of the firm’s Insolvency and Commercial Bankruptcy practice group and a member of its Executive Committee.
Scherry Ann Perkins Braziel passed away on Feb. 20, 2023. At the time Braziel was enrolled at Texas Law, she was one of just four women at the school. She went on to become the first female attorney in Titus County after founding Perkins & Perkins Law Firm with her father.
Scott A. Marks has joined Duane Morris LLP as a partner in the firm’s Real Estate Practice Group in its Austin office.
Ken Wall has joined the Houston trial law firm Alavi Anaipakos as of counsel, focusing his practice on complex business disputes. He also serves as a constitutional law instructor at the University of Houston Law Center.
Robert Hilton has been added as a partner at Barnes & Thornburg’s Dallas office and Intellectual Property Department. He will focus his practice on building and managing large and high-stakes patent portfolios for business from small startups to Fortune 500 companies.
Jim Sales passed away on Feb. 11, 2023. A double Longhorn and a Marine veteran, Sales served as of counsel at Norton Rose Fulbright for 22 years.
Brian J. Willey has been promoted to chief financial officer of Matador Resources Company. Willey, who has a background in accounting and law, joined Matador in 2014 and has been primarily building the company’s legal department and midstream business.
On Feb. 15, 2023, the U.S. Senate confirmed the nomination of Adrienne C. Nelson, an associate justice on the Oregon Supreme Court, to serve as a federal district court judge. Nelson is the first Black woman jurist in Oregon to become a federal judge.
Sara Harris has been promoted to partner at Jackson Walker LLP. Harris specializes in healthcare and employment law and has been recognized among the Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch for Labor and Employment Law since 2022.
John C. Meinrath passed away in February of 2023. Meinrath spent his career as an attorney, practicing in Austin and Dallas.
Sam Roberts has joined McAfee & Taft as a transactional attorney. Roberts, who specializes in corporate law, will be joining the firm’s Business Transactions and Finance and Securities practice groups.
Anthony McGettrick passed away on Feb. 8, 2023. McGettrick worked for the City of Laredo – as assistant city attorney then city attorney – before his retirement in 2009.
John Gillett Sheppard, Sr. passed away on Feb. 4, 2023. Sheppard established his own firm Adams and Sheppard, where he practiced for more than 50 years.
Jim Ormiston has been named chair of the Controversies Department at Gray Reed & McGraw LLP. Ormiston has been with Gray Reed for 35 years and has been included in the “Best Lawyers in America” publication since 2013.
Michael B. Overstreet has been promoted to shareholder at Chamberlain Hrdlicka. A member of the firm’s Tax Planning & Business Transactions Group, he has significant experience forming, structuring, negotiating and implementing business acquisitions and dispositions, corporate reorganizations, mergers, conversions, and recapitalizations.
Hollis Drake Leddy passed away in January 2023. Leddy was a partner at Arthur Anderson, president of USAA Real Estate, and founder and CEO of the Leddy Company and Presidian.
Chris Dodson has joined White & Case LLP as a partner. Dodson has a diversity of experiences in business disputes and environmental matters, and is an experienced first-chair litigator.
Andrew Zeve has joined White & Case’s global commercial practice and energy group as a partner. Zeve was previously at Bracewell LLP for more than 19 years as co-chair of Bracewell’s energy litigation group.
David Woodcock has joined Gibson Dunn as a partner and co-chair of Gibson Dunn’s securities enforcement practice group. Woodcock joins with both government and in-house counsel experience as former Assistant General Counsel at ExxonMobil.
Kevin S. Little has joined FordHarrison LLP as counsel at the firm’s recently opened Houston office. Little was a former staff attorney under Justice Charles A. Spain in the Texas Court of Appeals for the Fourteenth District and previously was an associate at Littler Mendelson.
Harry Whittington passed away on Feb. 4, 2023. Whittington was an attorney and served on several government committees and commissions, such as the Texas Corrections Board, where he was instrumental in bringing reforms to the treatment of prisoners.
Alexander Bell passed away on Feb. 2, 2023. Bell was a professor at the University of Virginia Law School for eight years and a civil trial lawyer at Bell and Schneider for nearly 50 years.
Lauren Fitte has been promoted to partner at Giordani Baker Grossman & Ripp LLP, a boutique estate planning firm in Austin. Lauren specializes in domestic and international estate, trust, and business planning and the associated federal income, estate, and gift tax implications applicable to multi-jurisdictional clients.
Michael Slack has been named one of the Best Personal Injury Lawyers in San Antonio by Forbes Advisor. A former NASA aerospace engineer, Slack focuses on aviation accidents and is recognized as a national expert and advocate for improved aviation safety. He is managing partner and a co-founder of Slack Davis Senger.
Fidel Rodriguez Jr. has been named one of the Best Personal Injury Lawyers in San Antonio by Forbes Advisor. Rodriguez has been serving victims of personal injury and wrongful death for more than 30 years, with his firm Rodriguez Trial Law.
Carl H. Green has been named one of the Best Personal Injury Lawyers in San Antonio by Forbes Advisor. Green, whose legal career spans more than four decades, has experience in multiple areas of legal practice at Mounce, Green, Myers, Safi, Paxson & Galatzan, P.C.
Jeffrey S. Edwards has been named one of the Best Personal Injury Lawyers in San Antonio by Forbes Advisor. Edwards, who is the founder of Edwards Law, is well known for his work in medical malpractice, civil rights and securities fraud, among other areas.
Eugene “Chip” Brees has been named one of the Best Personal Injury Lawyers in San Antonio by Forbes Advisor. After a successful career as a defense attorney, Brees transferred to the plaintiffs’ side in 2002, focusing on medical malpractice and representing injured persons and their families with the firm National Trial Law.
Robert Alden has been named one of the Best Personal Injury Lawyers in San Antonio by Forbes Advisor. A double Longhorn, Alden focuses his practice at Byrd Davis Alden & Henrichson, LLP on motor vehicle, premise liability and medical malpractice.
Todd Chen passed away Feb. 2, 2023. Chen served as of counsel at Vanguard Legal in Houston, where he worked on mergers and acquisitions, private equity, corporate finance, securities, regulation, asset securitization, and investment management across a variety of industries.
Chris Paliare will be honored with the Award of Distinction by the Toronto Lawyers Association on March 2, 2023. Paliare has appeared before every level of trial and appellate court in the Province of Ontario and the Supreme Court of Canada, earning him recognition as one of the top litigators in the country.
The Honorable Robert Dale Jones passed away on Jan. 7, 2023. Jones, a double Longhorn, led a successful judicial career that included serving as a judge advocate general in the Marine Reserves and a senior district judge.
James Perkins and his wife Margaret have been awarded the 2023 Texas Higher Education Distinguished Service Award. They were nominated for their establishment of the James I Perkins Family Foundation, which embodies the Perkins’ ongoing support for higher education. He has been president of Citizens 1st Bank since 1971.
Nicole LeFave, an attorney in the Austin office of Littler, has been elevated to shareholder. LeFave concentrates her practice on the Fair Labor Standards Act, as well as wage and hour class and collective action defense. She advises and defends employers on wage and hour, discrimination, retaliation, harassment, and corporate whistleblower matters.
Brittany Dadon has become a partner at Stahl, Davies, Sewell, Chavarria & Friend. She specializes in real estate, regulatory, and permitting aspects of utility scale wind, solar, and battery storage projects in Texas. While at the firm, Dadon has worked on wind, solar, battery storage, and natural gas energy projects at various stages.
Michelle Gomez has been promoted to partner at Baker Hostetler LLP in Denver. A double Longhorn, Gomez specializes in privacy and data security class action defense and complex business disputes.
Anjana Patel has been appointed to the Board of Trustees for Springpoint senior living communities. Patel is an attorney at Epstein Becker Green with two decades of experience advising individuals and businesses on healthcare transactions and health regulatory compliance issues.
Boone Slusher passed away on Jan. 13, 2023. Slusher had a lengthy legal career, as a partner in the firm Wilkins & Slusher for 20 years, then practicing with his son Chan in the firm Slusher & Associates for 24 years.
George P. Bush has joined Michael Best & Friedrich LLP as a partner and Michael Best Strategies LLC as a principal. The former Texas Land Commissioner, Bush will lead efforts to bolster Michael Best’s corporate, litigation and consulting practices.
Martin Luff has joined Wilson Sonsini as a partner in the London office. Luff was previously of counsel at Vinson & Elkins for the past seven years, where he specialized in dealing with the employment aspects of business transactions.
Toni Brown has joined Greenberg Taurig LLP as of counsel. Brown comes as a former senior director of supply chain at Inspire Brands, owner of several national restaurant chains.