Texas Lawyer Blog

Plaintiff in excessive-force taser case lists defendant as “Taser Joe”

It’s hard to imagine a more evocative name for an excessive-force case than Reynaldo Ramirez v. Jose “Taser Joe” Martinez.

That’s the case style of the decision the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued May 15. The judges ruled that Jim Wells County sheriff’s deputy Jose Martinez was entitled to qualified immunity for arresting landscape business owner Reynaldo Ramirez. But they ruled he was not entitled to qualified immunity on Ramirez’s excessive force claim after Martinez allegedly “tased Ramirez in the chest.” Odd nicknames occasionally make it into the style of federal complaints filed by a plaintiff.

“You know, I did it as a little bit of a joke. This is a taser case, and I thought ‘Taser Joe’ was good name,” says Chris Gale, Ramirez’s lawyer and a partner in Gale, Wilson & Sanchez, explaining why he put the nickname in the complaint his client filed in the Southern District of Texas district court.

He adds that, during a deposition, an employee who worked with Martinez testified that Martinez was referred to as “Taser Joe.” But Brian Miller, of counsel at Corpus Christi’s Royston, Rayzor, Vickery & Williams says “Taser Joe” is not a nickname his client goes by.

“It’s something the plaintiffs slapped on” the case, Miller says. “We never put anything like that in the style that we filed and so have two different styles to the case,” Miller says.

Nevertheless, the “Taser Joe” label stuck on the style of the case, from the complaint’s initial filing in a Southern District of Texas district court up to the 5th Circuit.

“It’s always been a higher priority to defeat this case before trial than worry about the effect that this nickname might have on trained judges who are trained to look beyond that kind of thing,” says Miller, who plans to file a motion for en banc review with the 5th Circuit.

-- John Council

What are the large firms paying their summer associates?

Weekly salaries for summer associates at Texas’ largest firms range from $2,100 to $3,700 with most of the firms paying the high end or the equivalent of a $160,000 annual salary. [See chart, “Summer Associates at Large Texas Firms,” Texas Lawyer, May 20, 2013, p. 18].

 Locke Lord is one of the firms paying its summer associates the equivalent of a $160,000 which is the starting salary for the firm’s entry-level full-time associates.

“When I started in 1981, my starting salary was $19,500,” says Janis Loegering of Dallas, Locke Lord’s hiring partner and a member of the firm’s executive committee. Loegering says she has been at the firm, or one of its predecessor firms, since graduating from the University of Texas School of Law in 1981. Regarding her $19,500 starting pay she says, “I thought I was a millionaire.”

--Jeanne Graham

What law schools are large firms looking to for their summer associates?

The summer associates at Texas’ largest firms hail from 44 law schools nationwide. [See chart “Summer Associates’ Law Schools, Texas Lawyer, May 20, 2013, p. 18].

The 66 summer associates at Baker Botts are students at 20 different schools including four Texas law schools.

“We continue to see Harvard, UT, Duke, UVA and Chicago as central schools for our summer program,” says Van Beckwith of Dallas, the firm’s partner in charge of recruiting. “Those are schools we are investing in.”

The firm also recruits summer associates at schools where it has relationships, such as the schools in or near the cities where the firm has offices. In California, those schools include the University of California Berkeley Boalt Hall School of Law and Stanford Law School. In Texas, those schools include Baylor University School of Law, the University of Houston Law Center, and South Texas College of Law.

 “The schools that are in our backyard are important too,” he says.

-- Jeanne Graham

Newsmakers: Jones Day welcomes new partner in Houston

David L. Burgert, a trial lawyer who focuses on patent disputes, joined Jones Day as a partner in the firm’s Houston office May 8.

Burgert says that in his 30 years as a lawyer he has been lead counsel on more than 50 cases tried to jury verdicts and has argued appeals in Texas appellate courts and in the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals.

“I started out as a general commercial litigator,” Burgert says. “Beginning in the 1990s, I was able to get a couple of patent cases and found them fascinating.”

Depending on the year, between 70 percent and 90 percent of his work now focuses on patent litigation, he says.

Before joining Jones Day, he was a partner in Porter Hedges in Houston, Burgert says. He says he started his legal career at Vinson & Elkins after graduating from the University of Michigan Law School in 1983.

Burgert says he serves on the board of trustees for Good Will Industries of Houston.

— Mary Alice Robbins

Robbins is an Austin-based freelance writer and a former Texas Lawyer senior reporter.

Newsmakers: Cantey Hanger partner named to Texas Board of Physical Therapy Examiners

Gov. Rick Perry recently appointed Philip A. Vickers (pictured), a partner in Cantey Hanger in Fort Worth, to the Texas Board of Physical Therapy Examiners.

Vickers says that on May 8, the Texas Senate confirmed his appointment, which is for a public member’s spot on the board. The appointment is for a term that expires Jan. 31, 2019.

“I’m excited to serve and do what I can to help the board,” he says.

Vickers says that he had signaled to the governor his willingness to serve on a board. He says he also is chairman-elect of the Tarrant County Bar Foundation Volunteer Attorney Services Committee and serves on the board of Texas Review of Law and Politics and on the pro bono advisory board for Legal Aid of Northwest Texas.

Vickers says he received his J.D. from the University of Texas School of Law in 2005 and served as a clerk for U.S. District Judge Michael Schneider of the Eastern District of Texas in Tyler. He joined Cantey Hanger after the clerkship and is in the firm’s commercial litigation section.

— Mary Alice Robbins

Robbins is an Austin-based freelance writer and a former Texas Lawyer senior reporter.

Newsmakers: Greenberg Traurig attorney elected to HBA Securities Litigation and Arbitration Section Council

Greenberg Traurig shareholder Jennifer Tomsen won election April 29 to the council for the Houston Bar Association’s (HBA) Securities Litigation and Arbitration Section.

Tomsen (pictured) says she was elected for a three-year term on the council and will take office in the fall. The section holds monthly meetings to discuss topics of interest to securities law practitioners, she says.

Tomsen says she also is a board member of the HBA’s Animal Law Section and is co-coordinator for her firm’s pro bono program in the Houston office.

She focuses her practice on commercial and securities litigation and arbitration.

— Mary Alice Robbins

Robbins is an Austin-based freelance writer and a former Texas Lawyer senior reporter.

Newsmakers: Justice Gregory Perkes receives award

The Corpus Christi Bar Association presented the 2013 Judge Paul W. Nye Professionalism Award to 13th Court of Appeals Justice Gregory T. Perkes (pictured) as part of Law Day ceremonies at a May 9 reception.

Perkes says the award, named for former 13th Court Chief Justice Paul W. Nye, is the highest, most prestigious award that the Corpus Christ Bar Association presents.

“I was totally surprised, very humbled,” Perkes says of the honor.

Perkes won election to the 13th Court in 2010 and took office on Jan. 1, 2011. Before being elected to the bench, he was the owner of the Perkes Law Firm, which Perkes describes as a statewide appellate boutique. He says he is board certified in civil appellate law, and his practice focused on appeals, litigation and commercial transactions.

After receiving his J.D. from St. Mary’s University School of Law in 1987, he spent two years working as a briefing attorney for then-13th Court Justice Norman Utter Sr., Perkes says. He says that while working at the court, he got to know Nye, who was the 13th Court’s chief justice at the time.

“I have a lot to live up to,” Perkes says.

— Mary Alice Robbins

Robbins is an Austin-based freelance writer and a former Texas Lawyer senior reporter.

Newsmakers: Melanie Plowman joins Alexander Dubose & Townsend

Alexander Dubose & Townsend announced May 10 that Melanie Plowman (pictured) has joined the firm as an attorney in the Dallas office.

Plowman says she previously was a pro se staff attorney for the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas.

After graduating from the University of Michigan Law School, she clerked from 1996 to 1997 for then-5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Robert Parker, Plowman says. She says she then clerked for 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge R. Guy Cole Jr. from 1997 to 1998.

Plowman says she was an assistant Texas solicitor general from 2001 until early 2004, when she became an attorney in the Austin office of Weil, Gotshal & Manges.

In addition to her appellate practice, she handles briefing and motions in the trial courts, Plowman says.

— Mary Alice Robbins

Robbins is an Austin-based freelance writer and a former Texas Lawyer senior reporter.

Newsmakers: Jenkins & Kamin add three attorneys

The family law firm of Jenkins & Kamin in Houston announced May 1 the addition of three attorneys.

Maisie A. Barringer (pictured) has joined the firm as a partner. Barringer says that before joining Jenkins & Kamin, she had her own firm, Law Office of Masie A. Barringer, in Houston.

“I practice exclusively in the area of family law,” Barringer says, noting that she has experience in litigation, mediation, arbitration and collaborative law.

Barringer says she received her J.D. from South Texas College of Law in 2005 and has been board certified in family law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization since 2010.

After graduation, she was an associate at the Law Office of Patricia A. Wicoff in Houston, Barringer says.

She says she recently completed a three-year term on the board of directors for the Houston Bar Association Family Law Section.

Jenkins & Kamin also recently welcomed associates Claire E. Rogers (pictured) and Lynn Stanton (pictured). According to the firm’s website, Stanton has an appellate practice.

— Mary Alice Robbins

Robbins is an Austin-based freelance writer and a former Texas Lawyer senior reporter.

Klemchuk Kubasta managing partner to lead team in ‘Carry the Load’ walkathon

Intellectual property attorney Darin Klemchuk (pictured), managing partner of Klemchuk Kubasta in Dallas, plans to put his best foot forward for veterans over the Memorial Day weekend.

Klemchuk says he will lead one of the approximately 40 teams expected to participate in the Dallas “Carry the Load” 20-hour walkathon. It's aimed at focusing attention on the reason for Memorial Day and raising funds for organizations that serve active duty military personnel, veterans, law enforcement, firefighters and their families.

“I’m a veteran, so I’m pretty passionate about veteran causes,” says Klemchuk, noting that he served in the U.S. Army National Guard from 1991 to 1994.

His team will select a Dallas area veteran in whose name team members will “carry the load” ― in this instance a backpack ― while participating in the walkathon, Klemchuk says. He says he hopes to have about 10 team members walking in the event.

The goal for the Dallas event, Klemchuk says, is to raise about $1 million, of which approximately $570,000 already has been raised. He says his team’s goal is to raise $10,000 and it already has raised more than $5,000.

Klemchuk says the national “Carry the Load” walkathon that began in West Point, N.Y. will end in Dallas. The Dallas walkathon is scheduled to begin at 4 p.m. May 26 at Reverchon Park and will conclude about noon on May 27, he says.

The team will do the walkathon in relay format and probably will participate in shifts, Klemchuk says. He says he will walk for “a significant amount of that time, if not all of it.”

Although he is involved in boxing, weight training, running and other sports, he has not done any training for the walkathon, Klemchuk says.

“I’ll just be sore for a week afterwards,” he says.

Klemchuk says organizations that will benefit from the Dallas walkathon include Assist the Officers, Heroes on the Water, Friends of the Dallas Fire-Rescue, Tip of the Spear Foundation and Sons of the Flag Burn Foundation.

Donations can be made online. Klemchuk says you can also visit his team’s page.

-- Mary Alice Robbins

Mary Alice Robbins is an Austin-based freelance writer and a former Texas Lawyer senior reporter.

Newsmakers: Kelly Hart & Hallman adds attorney

Kelly Hart & Hallman announced May 3 that Craig N. Smetko (pictured) has joined the firm in Fort Worth as of counsel in the corporate and securities practice group.

Smetko says that before joining Kelly Hart, he was of counsel in Houston for Chapman and Cutler, working in that firm’s corporate finance department. Previously, he was employed for more than 25 years by BNSF Railway Co. and its predecessor companies. He says he was an associate general counsel and assistant secretary in BNSF’s law department.

“Currently, I work on a variety of contract matters for BNSF,” Smetko says.

Smetko says he received his J.D. cum laude from the University of Michigan Law School in 1978.

His activities outside Kelly Hart include serving on the board of the Fort Worth chapter of the American Cancer Society.

— Mary Alice Robbins

Robbins is an Austin-based freelance writer and a former Texas Lawyer senior reporter.

Newsmakers: Lawyer with cross-border litigation, arbitration practice joins McKool Smith

McKool Smith announced May 7 that veteran trial attorney Tom Bayko (pictured) has joined the firm as a principal in its Houston and New York City offices.

“The game plan is for me to spend a couple of weeks per month in Houston and a couple of weeks per month in New York,” Bayko says.

Bayko says he joined McKool Smith from the Houston office of Hogan Lovells. His practice focuses on cross-border litigation and arbitration, with an emphasis on disputes in the energy and financial institution sectors, Bayko says.

He says he has tried cases before courts and arbitration panels under the applicable laws of more than 30 countries, including Afghanistan, China, England, France, Germany, Iraq, Kuwait, Nigeria, Pakistan and Russia.

Bayko says that at one time he had the distinction of being one of a few, one or two, American lawyers, who had tried cases under Shari’a, or Islamic law. “Most of their laws are based on the Koran,” he says.

Bayko, who received his J.D. with honors from the University of Illinois College of Law, says he started his legal career at White & Case in New York City.

— Mary Alice Robbins

Robbins is an Austin-based freelance writer and a former Texas Lawyer senior reporter.

Newsmakers: Cantey Hanger’s Lee Wilkins receives Grahovac Award

Lee Wilkins (pictured), partner in charge of Cantey Hanger’s Dallas office, received the 2013 Grahovac Award on April 26 at Meritas’ annual meeting held in Vancouver, British Columbia.

“I was very pleased and honored,” Wilkins says. “The prior recipients of the award are people I hold in high esteem.”

According to a Cantey Hanger press release sent May 6, the award recognizes a Meritas lawyer “who exhibits an exceptional level of commitment and service to the organization.

“Meritas is a worldwide affiliation of quality-assured law firms,” Wilkins says. “We have about 180 law firms in the organization.”

Wilkins, a 1978 graduate of the University of Oklahoma College of Law, says he joined Cantey Hanger in 1991 and is chairman of the firm’s business law section. He practices corporate, real estate and banking law.

— Mary Alice Robbins

Robbins is an Austin-based freelance writer and a former Texas Lawyer senior reporter.

Newsmakers: Shook, Hardy & Bacon adds partner with energy, pipeline expertise

Charlene B. Wright has joined Shook, Hardy & Bacon in Houston as a partner in the firm’s national environmental and toxic tort practice.

Wright, who joins Shook, Hardy from Kansas City, Mo.-based Lathrop & Gage, says, “This move to Houston is a tremendous opportunity for me to be able to practice in the heart of the energy industry.”

She says she has expertise in handling energy and pipeline regulatory and litigation matters.

“Most of my cases basically arise from the construction and operation of pipelines in North America,” Wright says.

Wright says that after earning her J.D. from the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law in 2004, she briefly worked as an arson prosecutor in the district attorney’s office for Jackson County, Mo. She says she next worked in the civil boutique of Schlee, Huber, McMullen & Krause in Kansas City, Mo., leaving that firm to join Lathrop & Gage in about 2008.

— Mary Alice Robbins

Robbins is an Austin-based freelance writer and a former Texas Lawyer senior reporter.

Newsmakers: Brown McCarroll adds partner in Dallas

Marc A. Myrin (pictured) joined Brown McCarroll on May 1 as a partner in the firm’s Dallas office, where he is in the transactional practice group.

“I’m primarily in the area of real estate, commercial leasing, commercial property acquisitions, entitlements,” Myrin says. “I also do financing of acquisitions and leasing of properties and other transactional work.”

Before joining Brown McCarroll, he was a partner in Patton Boggs in Dallas, Myrin says.

Myrin says that after receiving his J.D. from Southern Methodist University School of Law in 1984, he started his legal career at a Dallas firm then known as True & McLain.

— Mary Alice Robbins

Robbins is an Austin-based freelance writer and a former Texas Lawyer senior reporter.

Newsmakers: Christopher, Halbach named top jurists

The Texas Association of Civil Trial and Appellate Specialists will present judge of the year awards for 2012 to 333rd District Judge Joseph “Tad” Halbach and 14th Court of Appeals Justice Tracy Christopher during a dinner May 23 at the Houstonian Hotel.

“I’m honored and humbled to receive the award,” says Halbach (pictured.), who will be recognized as the trial judge of the year.

Halbach says he has served on the 333rd District Court since October 1995 when then-Gov. George W. Bush appointed him to the bench. He has served as the silica multi-district litigation judge for the state since December 2009.

After graduating from the University of Texas School of Law, he began his legal career at the former firm of Bonham, Carrington & Fox in 1982, Halbach says. He says that he and three friends from Bonham, Carrington formed Wilshire, Scott, Halbach & Dyer in 1986, and he remained at that firm until 1990, when he became a solo practitioner.

Halbach, who is board certified in civil trial law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization, says he focused his practice mostly on business and commercial litigation.

Christopher says she is “honored and pleased” to be named recipient of the award as appellate judge of the year.

She says she served on the 295th District Court for 15 years before Gov. Rick Perry appointed her to the 14th Court in December 2009.

“I actually thought in law school that I would like to be a judge,” she says.

Christopher, a 1981 graduate of the UT law school, says she began her career at Vinson & Elkins and left the firm in 1986 to join Susman Godfrey, where she worked until through 1994. She is board certified in personal injury trial law and civil trial law by the TBLS.

She serves on the Texas Supreme Court Advisory Committee and is the chairwoman of the Pattern Jury Charge Oversight Committee.

— Mary Alice Robbins

Robbins is an Austin-based freelance writer and a former Texas Lawyer senior reporter.

CLE ethics training for prosecutors is focus of bill

The Senate Jurisprudence Committee on May 14 will hear public testimony on a bill that would require more specific ethics training for prosecutors. On May 8, the House voted 146-1 to pass House Bill 1847.

HB 1847 would require county and district attorneys to complete one hour of continuing legal education annually about “ethics related to the attorney’s duties as a prosecutor, including prosecutorial misconduct.”

Rob Kepple, executive director of the Texas District & County Attorneys Association, says that prosecutors currently must complete 15 hours of CLE per year, with three hours devoted to ethics. He says he thinks the bill would ensure that prosecutors get training about their duties under the 1963 U.S. Supreme Court case Brady v. Maryland, which held that prosecutors must disclose evidence favorable to the accused.

“We have been training the lights out on Brady for a while now,” Kepple says. “The idea of Brady training for prosecutors is actually a good idea, and we already do a bunch of it.”

Kepple adds that he thinks HB 1847 needs an amendment to give authority to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to manage the new CLE requirement.

Bobby Mims, president-elect of the Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers Association, says he doesn’t see anything wrong with HB 1847, and adds, “My experience in the last few years is they [prosecutors] have been fairly well trained in Brady and their ethical considerations.”

-- Angela Morris

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Siblings sue lawyers for $1 million in asbestos death

Four siblings filed a misrepresentation and negligence lawsuit May 2, seeking more than $1 million in damages from some of their former counsel. They allege that four lawyers and their Houston-based law firms — Jonathan David and Brad Cooper of The David Law Firm and Herschel Hobson and Tina Bradley of Hobson & Bradley — failed to preserve testimony from their father prior to his mesothelioma-related death.

The plaintiffs allege that, back in 2001 when they contracted with the defendants to represent them and their father, their father was “nearly” 80 years old, had been diagnosed with mesothelioma and had elected to forgo treatment. He died months later.

Because the lawyers failed to preserve his testimony regarding his history of asbestos exposure before his death, the value of his claims was “greatly compromised,” the plaintiffs allege in their petition in Susan Janice Blair, et al. v. Jonathan David et al. filed in the 11th District Court in Houston.

The plaintiffs allege negligence, negligent misrepresentation, and breach of fiduciary duty causes of action.

The defendants did not return one call each seeking comment.

On the Harris county district clerk’s online docket, no attorneys are yet listed as representing the defendants.

L.A. Dunham, an attorney with Jim L. Culpepper & Associates in Houston, represents the plaintiffs. He says he got the case when one of the plaintiffs, a business contact, was telling him how disappointed the siblings were with the attorneys who had handled their father’s asbestos-related claims.

Dunham says he then discussed the matter with the new attorney for mesothelioma claims the family had hired, and he determined that the David, Cooper, Hobson and Bradley “should have preserved the testimony.”

Dunham says the family’s case against companies that allegedly exposed their father to asbestos is still pending, although some of the companies has settled with some defendants.

-- Miriam Rozen

Speaker Schedule for Law School Spring Hooding Ceremonies

Below is the schedule of speakers for the spring hooding ceremonies at Texas’ nine American Bar Association-accredited law schools. Baylor University School of Law in Waco held its spring-quarter hooding ceremony on May 4 with Baylor Law professor Jeremy Counseller as the keynote speaker.

May 10:

Joe Jamail, partner in Jamail & Kolius in Houston, Texas Southern University Thurgood Marshall School of Law in Houston

May 11:

Dee J. Kelly, partner in Kelly Hart & Hallman in Fort Worth, Texas Wesleyan University School of Law in Fort Worth

Melanie Lawson, news anchor, KTRK-TV in Houston, University of Houston Law Center

May 18:

John M. Vaught, partner in Denver’s Wheeler Trigg O’Donnell, St. Mary’s University School of Law in San Antonio

Angela Braly, former chairwoman, president and chief executive officer of Indianapolis-based WellPoint Inc., Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law in Dallas

Rana Dershowitz, general counsel, U.S. Olympic Committee in Colorado Springs, Colo., Texas Tech University School of Law in Lubbock

Texas Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, University of Texas School of Law in Austin

May 25:

William K. Suter, clerk of the U.S. Supreme Court, South Texas College of Law in Houston

--- Jeanne Graham