David Granvil Nix

Before going to Law School, David Nix was a middle-school teacher and coach. He graduated from Arkansas State University with a degree in History in 1978. He received his J.D. from the University of Arkansas School of Law in 1982, where among other honors he was Managing Editor of the Arkansas Law Review. David then received an LL.M in Environmental Law from The George Washington University in 1993.

David served on active duty as an Air Force Judge Advocate. He prosecuted and defended dozens of felonies, including capital murder cases, in General Courts-Martial and before the Air Force Court of Military Review and the Court of Military Appeals. As an adjunct at the Air Force Judge Advocate General’s School, he lectured on Trial and Appellate Advocacy and Procedure, DNA Evidence (while defending an Airman in the first military case involving the prosecution’s use of DNA) and the Use of Expert and Scientific Evidence in Courts-Martial. Among various assignments, while stationed overseas he was an instructor to combat wings on the Law of Armed Conflict.

After leaving active duty, David was a civil and administrative litigator for the State of Texas, first with the Air Control Board, and later the Texas Natural Resource and Conservation Commission (“TNRCC”). He represented the State in numerous litigation matters before becoming TNRCC’s counsel and representative to the Texas Alternative Fuels Council and Director of the Fuels and Transportation Policy Section of the TNRCC.

Over several iterations of private practice David’s clients included The Dow Chemical Company, Burlington Northern Railroad, Riceland Foods, Marathon Refining, the Galveston Shipbuilding Company, the Sealy and Smith Foundation for The University of Texas Medical Branch, Lloyd’s of London subsidiaries and numerous insurance companies, independent chemical companies, cities, counties, drainage and water districts, school districts, insurance companies, banks, foundations, countless individuals and small businesses and the Texas Supreme Court for the Unauthorized Practice of Law Committee. In his forty-four years of practice, David has served on and represented numerous boards, churches and private schools, non-profits, sports clubs and charitable organizations.

David is one of the longest serving adjunct faculty at UT Law, starting his 17th year. At UT he developed the seminars “Ocean and Coastal Law: Management of Ocean Ecosystems”, “Law, Politics and the Environmental Aspects of Energy Development”, and coached the Environmental Moot Court Team. In addition to UT Law and the Air Force JAG School, he has been adjunct faculty for the Law Schools of the University of Houston and Loyola University (New Orleans), The National Institute for Trial Advocacy, and the University of Maryland (Overseas Division). In those roles he taught Civil and Criminal Procedure, Trial and Appellate Advocacy, Administrative and Environmental Litigation, Evidence, Scientific Evidence and Expert Witnesses, and Business Law.

David has been married for forty-one years to the wonderful and wonderfully accomplished Stacy Jones, M.D.. They have two sons, Davis, an engineer in San Diego and Lynn, a litigation attorney in Austin. David is an avid sailor, scuba diver, guitarist and aging golfer, but his favorite hobby---and title—is “Grandpa Dave.”