Class Notes

The San Antonio Bar Foundation (SABF) is pleased to announce the appointment of Jay Dewald to the SABF Fellows Program newly-elected 2020 class.

University of Texas School of Law alumnus Ross Angus Williams has been named to Dallas Business Journal’s “40 under 40” list.

Wright Close & Barger welcomes the University of Texas School of Law alumnus Michael Hurta, who will bolster the firm’s trial and appellate practice.

On January 1, 2020, Tom Selby was elected as one of the six members of Williams & Connolly’s Executive Committee.

After nearly 10 years in public service with both the SEC and the Department of Justice, Barry Kamar joined litigation funding advisory firm Westfleet Advisors.

Josh Ling recently joined the Houston office of Chamberlain Hrdlicka as an associate in the tax practice. He is an associate in the Tax Planning & Business Transactions group. Prior to joining Chamberlain Hrdlicka, Josh worked in Grant Thornton’s M&A Tax practice, where he focused on tax planning for businesses throughout various stages of the transaction life cycle.

I recently left the partnership at Morris, Manning & Martin LLP to start my own law practice, The Lockett Law Firm, a boutique firm based in Atlanta, Georgia specializing in business litigation.

Stephanie DeBrow has been promoted to partner at Norton Rose Fulbright in Houston. She is an accomplished litigator in the firm’s Austin office whose practice focuses on patent litigation and appeals. She represents clients in a variety of fields, including mechanical, telecommunications, computer, semiconductor, e-commerce and Internet technologies.

Jared Levinthal has joined Lightfoot, Franklin & White LLC as a partner in the firm’s Houston office. Jared represents plaintiffs and defendants in all types of litigation. He handles disputes involving commercial and business issues, product liability, professional malpractice, intellectual property, insurance coverage and bad faith, serious personal injury and wrongful death.

Robert A. Wilkins has joined Lightfoot, Franklin & White LLC as a partner in the firm’s Houston office. Wilkins represents both plaintiffs and defendants in state and federal courts as well as before arbitral tribunals. He has a particular focus on commercial litigation involving the oil and gas industry, including business divorce cases, fiduciary duty issues, breach of contract claims, securities disputes and related matters.

Vinson & Elkins LLP has promoted Christie Alcalá to counsel effective Jan. 1, 2020. Alcalá advises and represents employers on all aspects of employment and labor law in business transactions, day-to-day operations, administrative proceedings and litigation, including issues relating to wage and hour laws, restrictive covenants, employment and severance agreements, reductions-in-force, employee privacy rights, internal investigations, anti-discrimination, leaves, unions and drug testing.

Vinson & Elkins LLP promoted Emery Choi to counsel effective Jan. 1, 2020. Choi represents clients in domestic and international mergers and acquisitions, private equity investments, joint ventures and a variety of energy matters. Among his notable experience, Choi advised Devon Energy in the $2 billion sale of certain non-core upstream assets to multiple buyers.

Vinson & Elkins LLP promoted Matthew Falcone to counsel effective Jan. 1, 2020. Falcone focuses his practice on representing private equity funds, financial sponsors and public and private companies in mergers and acquisitions, equity financings, joint ventures and other strategic transactions, particularly in the energy infrastructure sector.

Vinson & Elkins LLP promoted Taylor Holcomb to counsel effective Jan. 1, 2020. Holcomb helps clients develop and permit domestic projects, operate in compliance with federal and state laws and defend against claims brought by the government and other groups. He primarily practices before the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, the Texas Railroad Commission, the Public Utility Commission of Texas and the Environmental Protection Agency.

Stephanie Rzepka has been promoted to Counsel at Tucker Ellis LLP. Stephanie represents clients in class action and complex commercial litigation matters across a variety of areas, including price premium, securities fraud, wage and hour, resale price maintenance, and
pay for delay.

Promoted to partnership effective January 1, 2020, Sivinski is a member of the intellectual property litigation practice group in Haynes and Boone’s Dallas office. She has obtained trial victories in technologically complex cases ranging from patent-infringement to breach-of-contract matters. Her practice has touched on technology as varied as pharmaceuticals, thermodynamics, computer software, and semiconductor manufacturing.

Promoted to the Vinson & Elkins LLP partnership effective Jan. 1, 2020, Watts represents entrepreneurial enterprises and venture capital investors in the creation, financing and operation of technology and growth companies. He also advises emerging companies with respect to mergers and acquisitions and other strategic transactions, in addition to general corporate and governance matters.

Promoted to the Vinson & Elkins LLP partnership effective Jan. 1, 2020, Longhofer focuses on syndicated, acquisition and structured/mezzanine financings and debt restructurings, including debtor-in-possession facilities and complex intercreditor arrangements and preferred equity investments, primarily in the energy space. His industry experience includes oil and gas exploration and production; midstream; oilfield services; refining, distribution, storage and transportation; and retail.

Dallas, Dec. 20, 2019 – International law firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP has added a new associate in its Dallas office: Chris Perkins, Corporate.

Dallas, Dec. 20, 2019 – International law firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP has a new associate in its Dallas office: Niko Lane, Corporate.

Christie Alcalá was promoted to counsel effective Jan. 1, 2020, at Vinson & Elkins. Alcalá advises and represents employers on all aspects of employment and labor law in business transactions, day-to-day operations, administrative proceedings and litigation, including issues relating to wage and hour laws, restrictive covenants, employment and severance agreements, reductions-in-force, employee privacy rights, internal investigations, anti-discrimination, leaves, unions and drug testing.

The international law firm Milbank LLP has promoted Jeffrey Leider to partner effective January 1, 2020. He is a member of the Global Project, Energy and Infrastructure Finance Group, based in New York. Mr. Leider’s experience includes the representation of financial institutions and project sponsors in domestic and international project and structured financings.

Texas Law graduate Lisa Fitzpatrick recently joined Phelps Dunbar as an associate. Fitzpatrick is a 2002 alumna of the University of Texas School of Law, where she graduated with honors. She earned her bachelor’s degree in English language and literature from the University of Virginia in 1997. Fitzpatrick works in the New Orleans office in Phelps’ insurance practice.

Harris County Attorney Vince Ryan announces the appointment of Michael Fritz ’12, to serve as an Assistant County Attorney with the Hospital District Practice Group. Fritz holds a B.A. in Economics and Philosophy from The University of Texas at Austin, as well as a Juris Doctorate from The University of Texas School of Law. He joins the office from Diamond McCarthy, LLP where he practiced complex commercial litigation and bankruptcy law in various areas.

Beck Redden LLP is pleased to announce that David J. Beck has been appointed by Governor Greg Abbott to chair the newly formed Texas Commission on Judicial Selection. The 15-member Commission is comprised of four State Senators, four members of the Texas House of Representatives, two former Chief Justices of the Texas Supreme Court, and others. It is charged with evaluating the merits of alternative methods of judicial selection, and to produce findings and recommendations for reform to the Legislature by December 31, 2020.

Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP is pleased to announce that the firm has elected Russell H. Falconer to partnership, effective January 1, 2020. Falconer has extensive experience representing clients who operate in heavily regulated industries, including broker-dealers, airlines, electric utilities, investment firms, and pharmaceutical companies. He has played a substantial role in a wide range of high-stakes appeals, trials, and litigation. Falconer graduated in 2009 with highest honors from The University of Texas at Austin School of Law, where he was the Grand Chancellor of his class and served as a member of the Texas Law Review.

Lauren Corbeil was promoted to partner in the Houston office of Locke Lord. Lauren focuses her practice on mergers and acquisitions, divestitures, corporate restructurings, joint ventures, private equity and venture capital transactions, corporate governance and other general corporate and commercial matters.

Starnes Davis Florie LLP welcomes Catherine (“Cat”) Kirkland as a partner to the firm’s Mobile office. Cat joins the firm’s transactional and regulatory healthcare practice. Cat’s nationwide practice focuses on advising healthcare providers on a variety of reimbursement, regulatory, compliance, and operational matters. She brings considerable experience with supplemental Medicaid programs, physician contracting, hospital collaborations, complex financial modeling, and compliance planning.

Having served a general counsel role to a variety of businesses (including a Class 1 Railway company, a forest-products/real-estate conglomerate in TempleInland, and a family co.) as well as having worked in large law firms, I am excited to return to small private practice with my former H&K colleague and Christian brother John T. Wright. Together, I believe our nimble boutique firm is offering partner-level experience at a predictable price point that is below many big-law associates.

Phyllis Young ’01, an accomplished transactional lawyer who advises public and private companies, commercial banks and investment funds in financing transactions and has extensive energy industry experience, has joined McGuireWoods’ debt finance practice as a partner in the firm’s Dallas and Houston offices. Young advises lenders and borrowers in debt financings and counsels clients on mergers and acquisitions, restructurings and other corporate matters. She has served as outside general counsel to clients in the oil refining and drilling sectors and the steel distribution industry. She joins McGuireWoods from Akin Gump.

Ross Sutherland joined litigation firm Scott Douglass & McConnico. Sutherland began his career as an entrepreneur servicing South Texas oil-field companies and brings that experience to his legal practice focused in the oil and gas industry.

Alex Berger is now General Counsel for the Motorcycle Industry Council, the national trade association for the motorcycle industry, the Specialty Vehicle Institute of America (trade association for all-terrain vehicles), the Recreational Off-Highway Vehicle Association (trade association for ROVs), and the Motorcycle Safety Foundation.

Adi Sirkes has joined Houston litigation firm Reynolds Frizzell LLP as an associate. As a trial attorney, his practice focuses on advising clients across a wide array of industries to protect their legal rights and provide strategic remedies.

Warigia M. Bowman, a 1994 honors graduate of the University of Texas School of Law, is currently an Assistant Professor at the University of Tulsa College of Law. She teaches water law, natural resources law, energy regulation, and administrative law at the University of Tulsa College of Law. Her article “Dustbowl Waters: Doctrinal and Legislative Solutions to Save the Ogallala Aquifer before both Time and Water Run Out,” will appear in 91 U. Colorado Law Review, 4 (2019)

The law firm of Thompson & Knight LLP is pleased to announce that Dallas attorney and State Senator Nathan M. Johnson has joined the firm as Counsel in the Trial Practice Group in Dallas. Mr. Johnson is a commercial and bankruptcy litigator and currently represents District 16 in the Texas State Senate.

Joel Daniel recently joined Foran Glennon as a commercial litigation attorney. He will focus his work on civil defense litigation and first-party insurance disputes, including bad faith claims, environmental damage, builder’s risk claims, and construction and design defect claims.

Ephraim “Fry” Wernick, former Assistant Chief of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) Unit and a veteran federal prosecutor, has joined Vinson & Elkins as a partner in the firm’s Government Investigations and White Collar Criminal Defense practice. Wernick is based in V&E’s Washington, D.C. office.

Megan Gray is now General Counsel and VP of Policy for DuckDuckGo, Inc., a private search engine and online privacy company. Recently, I was the counsel of record, on the briefs and seated at counsel’s table, in a case before the US Supreme Court — https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/iancu-v-brunetti/ — the Court is presented with the question of whether the federal government can prohibit trademark registration for FUCT on streetwear clothing as a “scandalous” mark.

Lightfoot, Franklin & White LLC is proud to welcome Charles Stam, who joins the firm’s Houston office as an associate. Stam maintains a general litigation practice focusing on commercial litigation, corporate recoveries, product liability and catastrophic injury. He graduated cum laude from the University of Texas School of Law and joined the firm after completing a one-year clerkship with a federal district judge.

Kirk Tucker has joined the Houston office of Jackson Walker as a partner. His Corporate & Securities practice focuses on oil & gas and infrastructure investment matters.

Kruger Carson, PLLC, has promoted Smita Bhakta to Partner of the law firm, which works with a wide range of business clients from its offices in San Antonio and Austin. Bhakta focuses on complex commercial real estate matters. She joined Kruger Carson in 2016 as Attorney and Counselor.

Bhakta served on the 2016 and 2017 Board of Directors for the San Antonio chapter of Commercial Real Estate Women (CREW). She is active in the Real Estate Council of San Antonio.

Global law firm Norton Rose Fulbright has appointed partner Scarlet McNellie as its head of corporate, M&A and securities in the United States. Based in Dallas, Scarlet leads a team of more than 100 corporate lawyers who advise businesses across a spectrum of matters, including public takeovers, mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, disposals, debt and equity capital markets transactions, and corporate governance, general commercial, corporate advisory and SEC compliance matters.

Minton, Bassett, Flores & Carsey, P.C. (formerly Minton, Burton, Bassett & Collins) is proud to announce that Rick R. Flores has been elected Name Partner. Rick joined the 56-year-old Austin office in 2011 and practices criminal defense and family law.

Taylor English Duma LLP is pleased to announce the expansion of its Atlanta office with the addition of partner Clinton “Tres” Dye. Dye will be a member of the firm’s real estate practice group.

Dye has more than 19 years of experience in transactional law. His practice focuses on commercial real estate transactions, and he has extensive experience representing owners and developers in the acquisition and development of multi-family, office, retail, hospitality, and mixed-use developments.

White collar defense attorney Erica Benites Giese has joined the San Antonio office of Jackson Walker as senior counsel. Erica is a former Chief of the Financial Litigation Unit of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Texas. She has also served as Chief of the San Antonio and Del Rio divisions.

Pillsbury has named Amanda G. Halter managing partner of the firm’s 20-lawyer Houston office. Halter, who joined the firm in 2013, is the first woman to lead the 16-year-old office.

Tracy L. McCreight has joined Duane Morris LLP’s Austin, Texas office as partner in the firm’s Trial Practice Group. McCreight has broad experience in complex litigation and arbitrations, including litigating a variety of commercial, construction, partnership, contract, and real estate disputes, in both state and federal courts in Texas and throughout the country. In her construction practice, she focuses on representing owners in construction defect matters and contract disputes.

Ned Sherman has been appointed Leader of the newly minted Digital & Technology Transactions Unit at Manatt, Phelps & Phillips LLP. Sherman is a partner at the firm as well as director of Manatt Digital & Technology Consulting, the firm’s management consulting division. He is also manager of Manatt Venture Fund, the firm’s venture capital arm. Sherman joined the firm in 2017.

Owners’ Counsel of America (OCA), a nationwide network of leading eminent domain attorneys, is pleased to announce the recent selection of Charles B. McFarland as the new member representative for the State of Texas. Charles is the founding member of McFarland PLLC, a boutique law firm focused exclusively on eminent domain law and condemnation litigation. Although his firm is based in Houston, he is well known throughout Texas for his fierce advocacy on behalf of landowners and his skill and experience in the courtroom.

Former Texas First Court of Appeals Justice Jane Bland has joined Vinson & Elkins as a partner. Bland brings to the firm more than 20 years of experience as a state appellate justice and civil trial judge. She will be based in V&E’s Houston office. As a member of the firm’s Appellate practice, Bland will focus on civil appeals and litigation.