Stephanie Franco is the judge-elect of the 187th District Court in Bexar County and will be sworn in Jan. 1, 2027. She has worked as a prosecutor at the Bexar County District Attorney’s Office and previously served as a juvenile public defender in Travis County.
T.L. Cubbage, who won the Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions as a first-year law student in 1989, returned to the popular quiz show in January 2026 as a competitor in the Jeopardy! Invitational Tournament. With this appearance, he became only the second person to compete in tournaments on the show in five different decades. Cubbage is the president of The Center for American and International Law, is a nonprofit institution based in Plano, Texas, dedicated to advancing justice and promoting the rule of law through the professional development of legal and law enforcement practitioners worldwide.
Justice Patricia O’Connell Alvarez (Ret.) was inducted into the National Academy of Distinguished Neutrals, an invitation-only organization of the nation’s most respected and accomplished alternative dispute resolution professionals. Alvarez served 12 years as a judge in the Fourth Court of Appeals and spent 26 years as a trial attorney before launching Alvarez Dispute Resolutions, PLLC.
Taylor Nichols, the principal of IDEA Parmer Park College Prep School in Austin, recently brought a group of his senior students competing in mock trial to visit Texas Law. Nichols has worked in education for 20 years and is in his 11th year as principal.
Jane Beard was selected to receive an honorary Doctor of Laws degree at the winter commencement ceremony at Hardin-Simmons University in recognition of her humanitarian and philanthropic contributions. Beard has served as grants administrator for the Dian Graves Owen Foundation for more than 20 years and previously was a shareholder at McMahon, Smart, Surovik, Suttle, Buhrmann & Cobb in Abilene, where she focused on corporate, nonprofit, and health law.
George M. Jirotka has retired after almost 20 years as a circuit court judge in Florida’s 6th Judicial Circuit. Previously Jirotka practiced law for nearly 20 years as a shareholder at the firm Fowler White Boggs Banker.
Susan Welker Turley retired from L3Harris Technologies in 2024, where she was the corporate director of enterprise contracts and compliance. Previously she worked for U.S. Air Force JAG Corps and Raytheon Technologies.
Jennifer Matis has retired from the federal government following 24 years of public service. Following more than a decade at the National Labor Relations Board, Matis spent 11 years with the U.S. Office of Government Ethics and most recently served as associate counsel in its legal, external affairs, and performance branch.
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.
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.
Ernie Kohnke retired from practicing law on April 1, 2025. He previously was general counsel for the Americas at Vitol, and served on the Market Risk Advisory Committee to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, as well as the board of directors of the Commodity Markets Council.
Laurie Higginbotham celebrated her 25th wedding anniversary with Jamal Alsaffar in May. Higginbotham and her husband are partners at National Trial Law in Austin, representing victims of catastrophic injury, medical malpractice, and gun violence nationwide.
Patricia Rigney, city attorney for the City of Mission and owner of the Rigney Law Firm, has been reappointed by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to the Business Advisory Council within the Texas Division of Emergency Management. Rigney will provide advice and expertise on actions state and local governments can take to assist businesses in recovering from a disaster.
James C. Lawler has since worked as a national security consultant since retiring as a senior CIA Operations officer in 2005. Lawler, who received The Trailblazer Award, the Director’s Award, the HUMINT Collector Award and the Donovan Award while with the CIA, has published two spy novels: “Living Lies” and “In the Twinkling of an Eye.”
Thomas Nguyen competed in Netflix’s “Squid Game: The Challenge,” a reality competition series based on the South Korean drama series. Nguyen works in commercial real estate at Global Commercial Real Estate Services and co-founded the South African Peli Peli restaurants.
Sol Villasana is a 2024 recipient of the Stan Golden Men of Action Award from the Southwest Jewish Congress. He is of counsel to White & Wiggins, LLP in Dallas.
Cameron McBride has joined Davis Hartman Wright LLP as a partner in the firm’s civil litigation, internal investigations, and white-collar criminal defense and government investigations practice groups. McBride is based in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Susan Salch married Ty Sanders on March 23, 2024, in Austin. Texas Law alumna Edythe Payan was a bridesmaid, and many other alumni were in attendance, including Elizabeth Pearsall Lippincott, Cindy Olson Bourland, John Gillard, David McDowell, Jackie Lain Nussbaum, Katie Carmona, Tim Tyler, Bill Hopkins, Leslie Strauch, Greg Shields, Tiffany Roper and Mike Marcin. Salch has been a managing partner at Cantilo & Bennett, LLP since 2018.
The Hon. Jon Burrows recently retired after 20 years as County Judge of Bell County. Burrows served on the boards of directors of the Texas Association of Counties and the National Association of Counties. He was past president of the North & East County Judges and Commissioners Association and served two terms as president of the National Conference of Republican County Officials. He had practiced law in Temple, where he was board certified in Residential and Commercial Real Estate Law.
José Angel Moreno has retired from the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas after more than 32 years of service.
Joe Redden has announced his retirement from Beck Redden and the practice of law. Redden, founding partner emeritus of Beck Redden LLP, enjoyed a 48-year career as a trial lawyer and was elected to fellowship in the American College of Trial Lawyers in 1995.
Judge Bill Henderson, former district judge of Harris County Family Court and later legal advisor to County Judge Ed Emmett, has retired. He also served as an administrator for the Children’s Assessment Center and is currently volunteering for ReVision, a non-profit working with homeless youth.
Chari Kelly ’02 and Adam Schramek ’01 welcomed daughter Chari Adora Schramek on March 13, 2023. Kelly is a justice on the Third Court of Appeals of Texas, an adjunct professor at Texas Law, and incoming vice president of the Alumni Association Executive Committee. Schramek is a commercial litigation partner at Norton Rose Fulbright and immediate past president of the Texas Law Review Association. They met on an interscholastic mock trial team and were engaged beneath the UT Tower.
David Pendarvis, who has been Chief Administrative Officer and Global General Counsel for ResMed Inc., has announced his retirement. Pendarvis has held various positions throughout his two decades with the company.
Mary Nichols, who has been the general counsel of Texas Mutual Insurance for 26 years, has announced her retirement. Throughout her career at Texas Mutual, Nichols vigorously defended the newly reformed workers’ compensation system.
Boyd Herndon, formerly Director of Research Compliance at the University of North Texas, has retired.
Vicky Johnson of the 1st Judicial District of Nebraska announced that she is retiring at the end of January 2022. Johnson has served on the bench for 17 years and as the presiding judge for the Southeast Nebraska Adult Drug Court since 2007.
Terence J. Hart is retired and was an FBI Agent, an ADA for Dallas County, an AUSA for the Northern District of Texas, and later went into private practice. He was a Partner in the Dallas offices of Akin Gump; Munsch Hardt; and Bracewell. During his career, he received the John Marshall Award for being the lead prosecutor on the I-30 Savings and Loan fraud case.
Attached is the link to an article published in UTSW Stamats about his battle with Stage 4 Metastatic Melanoma:
Robert L. Tobey has been elected President of the Dallas Bar Association, a professional, voluntary organization of more than 11,000 Dallas-area attorneys.
David Vineyard, JD, MD, had the pleasure of leading a charity climb up Mount Kilimanjaro last July to benefit Neema Village, an orphanage in Arusha,Tanzania
J. Robert “Rob” Beatty has retired from Locke Lord LLP after forty years of practice. He and his wife Leslie reside in Manchester-By-The-Sea, Massachusetts.
Justice Patricia O’Connell Alvarez was recently re-elected to the Fourth Court of Appeals. She is grateful to her friends and family for their support.
Carolyn Owen, Senior Vice President and General Counsel at Farm Credit Bank of Texas, will retire form the cooperatively owned wholesale funding bank on Dec. 31, after 35 years of Farm Credit Service. Owen joined the legal department of the Federal Intermediate Credit Bank of Texas in 1983. Over the years and through several bank name changes, she has held the positions of attorney, senior attorney, associate general counsel, assistant general counsel and deputy general counsel.
Raymond A. Villareal’s first novel entitled “A People’s History of the Vampire Uprising” will be published on June 5, 2018 by Little, Brown and Company. Film rights were sold to 20th Century Fox in a pre-empt deal in 2017. There is plenty of case law in the novel so Raymond made good use of his law degree!
James P. Hill was elected as the Chair of California Lawyers Association (CLA) by his fellow members of the CLA Board of Representatives. The CLA officially launched on January 1, 2018, shifting oversight of the 16 Sections together with the California Young Lawyers Association from the State Bar of California to a new voluntary bar association. CLA’s mission is focused on providing educational and networking opportunities.
Hill practices primarily in bankruptcy, insolvency and commercial law.
In October, Cameron Byrd and Kelsi Stayart White won a secured lending federal jury verdict in the Southern District of Texas. Cameron Byrd was first chair, and Kelsi White was second chair. They both practice at AZA in Houston, Texas.
Sullivan Hill shareholder Christopher V. Hawkins has been appointed Vice President of the California Bankruptcy Forum for the 2017-2018 term. As Vice President, Hawkins will manage the Pro Bono Project and oversee all pro bono efforts of CBF. CBF is committed to supporting pro bono efforts of the various local Bankruptcy Forums and County Bar Associations throughout the state. Hawkins practices insolvency and commercial bankruptcy, business transactions, and commercial and business litigation.
Andrea Fair welcomed a new baby boy, Everett Thomas Fair, on January 14. Baby Everett weighed in at 9 lbs 4 oz and 21.5 inches long.
In October of 2009, Mary Fuentes Valdez and a colleague, Brenda Lee Knowles (University of Houston School of Law) formed YTIA (Youth Transitioning Into Adulthood), a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, to assist youths leaving State foster care. The organization is doing great work in the community.
J. Scott Sheehan, a shareholder with the international law firm Greenberg Traurig, LLP, was recently elected as president-elect of the Texas Association of Bank Counsel (TABC) at its 39th annual convention in New Orleans.
Megan Sheffield, ’13, welcomed daughter Mila Love Sheffield Motaghedi on Aug. 16, 2015.
Elise Harriger, ’08 and Matt Harriger, ’10, welcomed their twins, Evaline and Wiley, in February 2015.
Beginning this month, Stephanie Potter, a Partner at Naman Howell Smith & Lee PLLC, will lead the Mother Attorney Mentoring Association as its President, taking the reins from Lauren Schoenbaum of the Schoenbaum Firm, PLLC. Potter has been actively involved with MAMAs for over four years.
Superior Energy Services, Inc. announced that Janiece M. Longoria has been elected to its board of directors, effective immediately.
David Kitner was reappointed by the Texas Supreme Court to a second 3 year term on the Board of Disciplinary Appeals and has been elected Board Chair. He is a partner with Strasburger & Price in Dallas.