Brian Haley has been inducted into the University of Texas at Austin Recreational Sports Hall of Honor for 2025.The co-founder of CB Capital, he served as the student government president during the 2003–04 academic year, and was appointed the first student on The University of Texas System Board of Regents in 2006.
Milam Newby has been inducted into the University of Texas at Austin Recreational Sports Hall of Honor for 2025. He served on the ad hoc committee that developed the initial design concepts for the Gregory Gym Aquatic Complex, and he currently works as a partner at Vinson & Elkins in Austin and heads the firm’s technology practice.
Dean Greenwood has been inducted into the University of Texas at Austin Recreational Sports Hall of Honor for 2025. One of four individuals to earn All-Intramural Team honors in four sports within a single academic year, he served in the U.S. Army for four years before law school, where he continued his intramural career playing flag football with the Legal Eagles.
Thomas Nguyen, a practice leader at CBRE Restaurant Real Estate, competed with his family on the TV show “Family Feud” that will air Nov. 25.
Alyse Munrose has joined Bollier Ciccone Stinson LLP as an attorney. She focuses her practice on family law, combining her legal experience with a strong foundation in social work and public service.
Adam Goodrum has joined the Austin law firm Botkin Chiarello Calaf as a litigation associate. Goodrum joins the firm after serving as assistant U.S. attorney in the Northern District of Oklahoma, where he was the 2024 Gaye L. Tenoso Indian Country Fellow, part of the Attorney General’s Honors Program. He also worked as a term clerk for U.S. Magistrate Judge Mark Lane of the Western District of Texas.
Ben Bireley has joined the firm Abraham, Watkins, Nichols, Agosto, Aziz & Stogner in Houston as of counsel. Bireley—who has 15 years of valuable personal injury and commercial litigation experience—focuses on a wide range of personal injury matters, including wrongful death, catastrophic injury, plant explosions, workplace injuries, product liability, and truck accidents.
Samuel G. Encarnacion has been chosen to receive the A. Leon Higginbotham Jr. Lifetime Achievement Award from the Pennsylvania Bar Association’s Minority Bar Committee, recognizing his outstanding contributions to justice, leadership, and service throughout his career. Encarnacion is senior trial counsel at Haggerty Silverman & Justice in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
Donald Rorschach Sr. passed away on Oct. 9, 2025. He served as the assistant city attorney for Waco before becoming the city attorney for Irving, a position he held for over two decades.
Donna Gooden Payne has announced her plans to retire as senior vice president and general counsel at the University of Rochester. She previously served as university counsel and vice chancellor for legal affairs at East Carolina University before joining URochester in 2019.
Ronald Eugene Holub passed away on Oct. 10, 2023. Holub began his career at the former law firm Newman Shook & Newman and remained there until 1984 when he opened a solo practice.
Keith Clark Carter passed away on Sept. 16, 2025, at the age of 100. A POW and Purple Heart recipient for his service in World War II, Carter was a contracts supervisor for the Continental Oil Company in Houston before moving to the UT Austin Graduate School of Business, where he taught Business Law and Oil and Gas Law as well as while coordinating the Petroleum Land Management Program.
Carlos Martinez has been promoted to chief of staff for the Office of the President at the University of Texas at San Antonio. Previously Martinez served as a senior vice president at the institution, overseeing strategic planning, compliance risk management and office operations.
Robert P. Parker has written the book “Derecognition,” which recounts how his testimony to Congress in 1979 helped shape the Taiwan Relations Act and the federal legislation at the heart of U.S. relations with Taiwan and China today. Throughout his career, he served as an international lawyer, pilot, and venture capitalist, the former president of Taiwan’s American Chamber of Commerce.
Laurier Bernard McDonald Jr. passed away on Oct. 10, 2025. McDonald served as a special agent with the FBI and as the United States Commissioner before the office was abolished.
Louis Dayne Miller passed away on Oct. 6, 2025. After spending many years in General Dynamics Corporation’s legal department, Miller started his own law practice in Graham, Texas, then served as the Young County attorney until his retirement.
Nancy Carlson, trustee emeritus for The University of Texas Law School Foundation, has been named a 2026 TACA Silver Cup Award honoree. She serves as a partner at the investment firm Carlson Capital, LP and is heavily involved in the Dallas art community.
David Hayden, retired U.S. Army colonel, has been appointed by Governor Josh Stein to serve a two-year term as chair of the North Carolina Military Affairs Commission. He’s currently an attorney at Smith Anderson and was previously general counsel and board secretary for USfalcon, Inc.
Maine Goodfellow has joined Hilcorp in Houston as assistant general counsel. He previously served as m
Thomas Cooke has joined McFarland PLLC as a condemnation attorney in the firm’s Houston office. He was previously an associate attorney at a complex commercial litigation firm.
Theodore Thomas Hollen III passed away on Oct. 13, 2025. He began his career at Pearson & Pearson in El Paso, Texas, before launching his independent law practice in Austin, Ted Hollen Attorney at Law. He retired in May of 2025.
James “Jim” Bertrand passed away on Sept. 29, 2025. Bertrand, who served in the Navy for two years before coming to Texas Law, eventually became a partner at Vinson & Elkins, where he worked for over 30 years.
Veronica Gonzales has been named the 2025 Woman of the Year by the Edinburg Chamber of Commerce. Gonzales, who is the senior vice president for governmental and community relations at The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, also serves on Texas Law’s Alumni Association Executive Committee.
A downtown plaza in Austin will be named to honor the late Pike Powers, former state representative and longtime contributor to Austin’s technology sector. The “Old” Red River Street will become a pedestrian-oriented space named Pike Powers Plaza.
Katy Zendeh has been elected to member of the firm Caplin & Drysdale in Washington, D.C. effective Oct. 1, 2025. She practices in the Bankruptcy and Complex Litigation practice groups.
Ashley Morgan has been appointed to the Texas Water Development Board by Governor Greg Abbott. She is an attorney at Erben & Yarbrough and previously worked for the Office of the Governor, the Office of the Attorney General, the Railroad Commission of Texas, and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.
Randy Schaffer has written “Tales As Old As Crime” about corruption in the criminal justice system. Schaffer is a defense attorney with Schaffer Law Offices in Houston.
Baron Eliason has been selected as the interim inspector general at the Office of the City Attorney for Dallas. He was previously the city’s chief integrity officer and an assistant attorney. Eliason also was an associate attorney at Hamilton Grant PC.
Gary Truman passed away on July 13, 2025. He worked as an employment lawyer at Bradley Campbell Carney & Madsen before founding his own company, Gary Truman, LLC, and working as a landman for 15 years.
Adam Zerbinopoulos has been promoted to principal deputy assistant secretary at the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration for the U.S. Department of State. He previously served as the acting assistant secretary for the Bureau.
Gilbert Perales has been promoted to general counsel of Siete Foods, a division of PepsiCo, Inc. He previously served as associate general counsel for the food brand.
Chris Stewart of Caldwell Cassady & Curry has earned a spot on the 2025 Texas Rising Stars list as one of the state’s top young lawyers for intellectual property and patent trials. Stewart is a trial lawyer who focuses on patent and general commercial litigation as a principal at the firm.
John Summers has been selected to the 2025 Texas Rising Stars list of the state’s top intellectual property and patent trial lawyers. Summers is a principal at Caldwell Cassady & Curry in Dallas.
Stephen Lawrence Jenks passed away on August 8, 2025. He spent over 31 years with the FBI, working on many high-profile cases from the bureau’s Palo Alto office for the majority of his career.
Jerry Monroe Coleman passed away on Sept. 16, 2025. During his career included he was partner with the Austin office of the firm Long, Coleman, Dugger & Cotton, chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Citizens National Bank of Austin, and a real estate developer.
Brad Caldwell has been named to the 2025 Texas Super Lawyers list for his work in intellectual property and patent trials. Caldwell, who is a principal at the Dallas trial firm Caldwell Cassady & Curry, also was recognized in the 2026 edition of The Best Lawyers in America.
Barrett Robin has earned selection on the 2025 Texas Rising Stars list of the state’s top young attorneys for his successful work in high-stakes personal injury and wrongful death lawsuits. Robin is a partner at Hamilton Wingo in Dallas.
Chris Hamilton of Hamilton Wingo in Dallas has earned selection on the 2025 Texas Super Lawyers list based on his work in high-stakes personal injury and wrongful death lawsuits. Hamilton, the firm’s founding partner and owner, also has been recognized in the 2026 edition of The Best Lawyers in America.
Heather (Fleniken) McFarlane has joined the panel for JAMS—the largest private provider of ADR (alternative dispute resolution) services worldwide—as a mediator and arbitrator. She works out of the Houston Resolution Center.
Lauren Davis has joined Gutt Law, PLLC as an attorney. She previously served as an in-house attorney for Big Machine Label Group and was part of Concord Music Publishing’s legal team.
Ronald Rodriguez has begun to teach an innovative course on personal injury trial practice here at Texas Law. Rodriguez’s book, “Texas Personal Injury Trial Law Handbook,” acts as a trial-practice guide in Texas.
Charles Taylor Gandy passed away Sept. 16, 2025. Gandy, a double Longhorn, served as mayor pro tem in Tarrant County, and was a certified specialist in probate and estate planning, a devoted philanthropist, and a real estate developer.
Thomas Hight Jr. passed away on August 19, 2025. He practiced law at the Dallas-based firm Hight and Hight for over two decades before ending his career as an administrative law judge for the state of Texas.
Judge Hilda Tagle Knebel, the first Hispanic woman in Texas to become a federal judge, will be honored at Texas Woman’s University with the official opening of the Judge Hilda Tagle Collection on Oct. 1, 2025. This archive will include a comprehensive collection of documents and other materials that chronicle her historic judicial career, community engagement, and civic leadership.
Senior U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks passed away on Sept. 17, 2025. His federal judicial career spanned over 30 years, becoming a senior judge in 2017 who presided over many of the most high-profile and consequential federal cases in Central Texas.
The Honorable Amy Martin passed away on Sept. 7, 2025. She served a four-year term on the bench of the 263rd District Court of Harris County before returning to private practice and eventually joining the University of Houston Law Center as the director of student advisement.
Will Paxton “Bill” Ellis passed away on Sept. 13, 2025. He established the law firm Ellis, Koeneke & Ramirez in 1982 and spent his legal career serving his clients in the estate planning and probate legal field in South Texas.
John Jackson (Jack) McClendon Jr. passed away on Sept. 11, 2025. He enjoyed a successful legal career than spanned over five decades and also served his community in Lubbock, Texas, by serving on or leading many boards and committees.
William G. Hagans has been named to the Top 100 Houston Super Lawyers list for 2025 by the Thompson Reuters publication Texas Super Lawyers. He currently serves as an attorney and president of the firm Hagans.
Parks Harding Stearns Jr. passed away on Sept. 11, 2025. He served in the FBI as a legal liaison for over 30 years before joining Unitrin and Kemper Insurance Investigation at the end of his distinguished career.