Up-and-Comers on the Texas Legal Scene

TEXAS LAWYER
BRENDA SAPINO JEFFREYS and ANGELA WARD

January 31, 2000

Lawyers with large reputations and the skills and work to back it up were once young, ambitious lawyers striving to get ahead of the pack. Somewhere along the way, those famous-lawyers-to-be get a boost that puts them at the top. It might be a big verdict or a defense win in a high-profile suit. Maybe it’s a creative deal that captures the attention of business executives. It could be the status that comes from representing a famous client.

Probably more frequently, lawyers become superstars because they are smart and work hard.

Some Texas lawyers under the age of 40 have already made a big impact on the legal scene, like Houston litigator Mark Lanier, the 39-year-old partner in Lanier, Parker & Sullivan, and Andy Taylor, 38, first assistant to Attorney General John Cornyn.

But there are others who are riding just below the radar screen. These rising stars have a good chance to become some of Texas’ leading lawyers in a decade or two or three. Texas Lawyer polled attorneys across the state to get their opinions on just who these rising stars are. Here’s a look at the lawyers they nominated.

Gregory S. Coleman, 36 Solicitor General Office of the Texas Attorney General, Austin University of Texas School of Law (1992)
Gregory S. Coleman is using more brain than the rest of us — at least that’s what colleagues say of the solicitor general of Texas. "When you get any group of lawyers together and you ask them who’s the smartest lawyer they know — Greg Coleman," says Steven Zager, a partner in the Austin office of San Francisco’s Brobeck Phleger & Harrison. Sure, the clerkships for 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Edith Hollan Jones and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas are impressive, as is being named to head the attorney general’s appellate section at the tender age of 35 in 1999, but what’s so special about Coleman’s legal skills?

His record — such as obtaining judgment reversals of $15 million in General Motors v. Castaneda, and $6.5 million in GTE Mobilnet v. Telecell Cellular — is strong, enabling him to co-found an appellate section at New York-based Weil, Gotshal & Manges when he was just an associate in the Houston office. And it got the attention of First Assistant Attorney General Andy Taylor and Attorney General John Cornyn, who had not previously worked with Coleman.

Taylor says Coleman is easygoing, conversational and easy to listen to at oral arguments, and seems to calm down more as the stakes and stress of a case rise.

"He is one of the people that we show off; he’s a magnet for others," to the agency, says Taylor.

Coleman demurs at the praise, but says he loves his new job and the opportunities it gives him to research and write briefs, his passion, on a wide variety of cases. "I really love the hunt, getting into a case, stripping it out to its bare bones and coming up with some new angle, some new perspective," he says.

Added bonus: He’s arguing an amici brief for the first time before the U.S. Supreme Court on March 1.

S. Michael Dunn, 37

Partner Brobeck Phleger & Harrison, Austin University of Southern California (1987)

S. Michael Dunn is a transplanted Californian who’s become one of Austin’s go-to lawyers for entrepreneurs seeking venture-capital money and for start-up companies looking to go public. Since he moved to Austin in 1994 to help Carmelo Gordian get Brobeck Phleger & Harrison’s Austin office up and running, Dunn says he’s represented companies or underwriters in 20 initial public offerings. But that’s just the tip of his work since only about a third of venture capital companies go public.

Some of Dunn’s IPOs involve companies that have become significant, such as Tivoli Systems, an Austin-based software company that went public in a $40.6 million offering. Other clients are just large. In 1999, Dunn represented Crossroads Systems, a manufacturer of storage routers in Austin, in its $77.6 million IPO, which set a record in Austin for a one-day gain in value.

Other IPO clients with names known outside the insular technology community include i2 Technologies, a software company in Dallas, and FlashNet Communications, a Fort Worth-based Internet company. Dunn, head of Brobeck’s 20-lawyer business and technology practice, says Austin has been good to him: "The work is as interesting and dynamic as anything I’ve seen in California. The Texas people don’t — at least in Austin — need to be as showy or pretentious as people in Southern California."

Alejandro Garcia, 29

Associate Vinson & Elkins, Houston South Texas College of Law (1996) Alejandro Garcia was starting to really shine at Vinson & Elkins after three years as a trial lawyer when he moved to the firm’s public-finance section in 1999.

"He said he wanted to build things," says Barbara Radnofsky, a tort litigator at V&E who says Garcia has wonderful, mature instincts for litigation. But public-finance partner Joe B. Allen, says Garcia’s skills and temperament will help him shine in the public arena as well. "Alex is extremely bright. He is very tenacious, very inquisitive. Every time he addresses an issue, he takes nothing for granted. He’s great with people, which is very important in our business," Allen says. Radnofsky says Garcia showed a level of judgment she doesn’t often see in a young lawyer. He is particularly persuasive in court, she says, because he doesn’t stretch the truth or make stupid arguments, and he knows when to be quiet.

A lawyer who has worked on cases against Garcia, plaintiffs attorney Michael Sydow, a partner in Verner, Liipfert, Bernhard, McPherson and Hand in Houston, says Garcia is thorough and understands complex cases. Garcia says he enjoys litigation — he did both defense and plaintiffs work at V&E — but came to realize he would be happier doing public finance, which allows him to work on projects like stadiums and toll roads, and assist developers and municipal utility districts. Although some public-finance lawyers, like Allen, develop political influence on the local level, Garcia says he has no political aspirations.

Brian P. Heinrich, 33

Partner Templeton, Smithee, Hayes, Fields, Young & Heinrich, Amarillo Texas Tech University School of Law (1991) Brian P. Heinrich began making a name for himself in Amarillo doing defense work. He switched to the plaintiffs’ side after six years and has already started making waves in his new firm. "Brian’s going to be a great plaintiffs lawyer. He represents the professionalism that I think everyone wants to see in lawyers," says Kelly Utsinger, a defense lawyer and partner in Amarillo’s Underwood, Wilson, Berry, Stein & Johnson.

Now a partner in Templeton, Smithee, Hayes, Fields, Young & Heinrich, one of Amarillo’s top plaintiffs’ firms, Heinrich says he decided to switch sides because he became frustrated with the heavy-handedness of his insurance clients.

"Primarily, I became disenchanted with the direction that I felt like insurance defense work was proceeding," he says. And the timing was good: Templeton, Smithee made him an offer, which looked a lot better than hanging out his shingle in the conservative Panhandle. Heinrich has already made headlines for his work on two nonsubscriber workers’ compensation cases that he and a partner recently lost at the 7th Court of Appeals in Amarillo, Lambert v. Affiliated Foods and Lawrence v. CDB Services Inc. Heinrich, representing employees who signed agreements to accept their company’s private workers’ compensation and then decided to sue instead, says he already has his petition for review filed and is hoping to take the cases to the Texas Supreme Court.

His opponent in the Lawrence case, Tom Morris, of Amarillo’s Gibson, Ochsner & Adkins, says Heinrich shows real promise. Notes Morris, "Brian is a fine young man; he does a nice job. [He’s] very diligent, quite scholarly. He’s just on the wrong side."

Allison A. Jacobsen, 33

Partner Carrington, Coleman, Sloman & Blumenthal, Dallas University of Texas School of Law (1992)

Allison A. Jacobsen is following in the footsteps of greatness at Dallas’ Carrington, Coleman, Sloman & Blumenthal. She is handling professional liability cases with the likes of partner James Coleman, who has founded and helmed one of the top trial firms in Dallas for almost 30 years.

"To the extent that I’m a rising star it’s because of where I work," Jacobsen says.

Elected partner in December after seven years with the firm, she handles mostly commercial litigation, and a heavy load of professional liability defense combined with antitrust and employment litigation. She is praised for her trial skills by none other than Dallas medical-malpractice titan Steve Malouf, of Waggoner, Malouf & Aldous. And she is labeled as a highly skilled case strategist and clarity specialist by Todd Hixon, of Dallas’ Bellinger & DeWolf, a plaintiffs’ malpractice firm, who opposes her in a convoluted case that has traveled between the bankruptcy and federal district court for the last two years.

"One of her unique skills is assembling very complicated transactions and business entities. She’s very detailed, organized and always well-prepared and very careful," Hixon says. He says Jacobsen is also to be praised for her staying power as a woman who has persevered to attain partnership in litigation at a large firm, despite a few uniquely feminine obstacles. He mentions a Fort Worth trial that Jacobsen handled largely by herself — pregnant. "I was in my first trimester so I was deathly ill, but the jury and opposing counsel didn’t know it," she says proudly. She won a directed verdict and attorneys’ fees from the jury.

Wallace B. Jefferson, 36

Partner Crofts, Callaway & Jefferson, San Antonio University of Texas (1988)

Wallace B. Jefferson has won both of his U.S. Supreme Court cases by the slightest possible margin, 5-4, but he’s not letting that get him down. After all, a win’s a win, especially at every appellate lawyer’s dream venue. (And then there was the interview with CNN in the Green Room.)

When Jefferson isn’t addressing the highest court in the land, he’s researching briefs at San Antonio’s Crofts, Callaway & Jefferson, an appellate boutique that he helped establish as a partner only three years out of law school.

Already, says Phil Hardberger, chief justice of the 4th Court of Appeals in San Antonio, Jefferson is "a fully matured lawyer of a very high caliber."

Jefferson says his unique learning environment, under the tutelage of Thomas H. Crofts Jr. and Sharon E. Callaway, is the key to his success. Jefferson made headlines following his 1998 Supreme Court victory in Gebser v. Lago Vista Independent School District, a case that kept school districts from being held liable for teacher-student harassment when school authorities don’t know of the alleged incident.

Of course, he had the hang of the Supreme Court by then, having cut his teeth on Bryan County v. Jill Brown, in which he successfully argued that the county was not responsible for the alleged violent conduct of a deputy just because it did not adequately check his record. Jefferson won a reversal from the high court in that case in 1997. Ricardo Cedillo, who refers cases to Jefferson, says Jefferson’s training and dedication have brought him this far so quickly. "He’s got a very strong work ethic, will work relentlessly and is easily one of the most intelligent, from a legal scholarly perspective, that I’ve come across in 20 years," says Cedillo, of San Antonio’s Davis, Cedillo & Mendoza.

An appellate lawyer from the get-go, Jefferson says he’ll stick with the bookish practice because "I like the intellectual side of it. I like the fact that a case I might handle might have an effect beyond that case."

David P. Oelman, 35

Partner Andrews & Kurth, Houston University of Texas School of Law (1990)

David P. Oelman recently moved into a key role at Andrews & Kurth as co-head of the firm’s business development committee. A sixth-generation lawyer, he’s a rarity who likes the rainmaking aspects of the practice. Oelman has a broad-based corporate practice — he does initial public offerings, corporate securities work, mergers and acquisitions, and puts together roll ups. His client base is broad as well, including companies in the energy, health care, biotechnology and e-commerce areas. In 1999, his work for major clients included a $147 million offering for Alliance Resource Partners and a $46.8 million offering for Plains All American Pipeline. He also represents underwriters Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette Securities Corp.; Merrill Lynch & Co.; and Prudential Securities Inc. and does work for the private Physicians Surgical Care. With that workload, Oelman wouldn’t have to take a lead business-development role at the firm, but he enjoys it. Physicians Surgical Care is one client he brought to the firm; he says he also helped attract Pennaco Energy Inc. and Plains All American Pipeline. Mike Rosenwasser, a corporate partner in New York, says Oelman clearly has what it takes to be a strong rainmaker at A&K — where business development is a cooperative effort — because he’s a leader. "It’s just a kind of natural development in his career. It’s that good personality and that good person," Rosenwasser says.

Eric Pinker, 34

Partner Lynn Stodghill Melsheimer & Tillotson, Dallas University of Texas (1990)

Eric Pinker made a decision five years ago to leave the security of Dallas’ Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld to join a few mavericks whom he had not worked with previously but who seemed to be making a go of their spin-off litigation boutique. That firm was Lynn Stodghill Melsheimer & Tillotson. Now a partner there, Pinker says his move has made a world of difference in his practice.

"A chance to have an opportunity to really get into the thick of things, to have a more hands-on role," he says of joining the boutique. After all, how many nine-year lawyers in large full-service firms have argued — not just held the bag — before the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the Texas Supreme Court, and the Dallas and Texarkana state appellate courts?

"He has got every tool there is," says Mike Lynn, a partner in Lynn Stodghill and one of Pinker’s biggest fans. "[He’s] well-organized, he can write like an angel, he is very focused, he can stand up and talk, he can cross-examine witnesses, prepare witnesses. . . . I almost know of no one else ever that has had that kind of talent," Lynn says.

Just ask client George Brunt, general counsel of Alcatel USA Inc., and San Antonio’s Larry Macon, who opposed Pinker and Alcatel in a multimillion-dollar trade secret case against Samsung Electronics Co. that was recently resolved in Dallas. Pointing out the age and sagacity of himself and Lynn, Macon says Pinker, a relative baby, "was at least the equal of us." Says Brunt: "He’s not afraid to tackle the big issues and to put on a forceful presentation."

"I enjoy the whole process, the intellectual challenge of understanding the fact pattern, and then standing in front of a jury and teaching it to them. . . . If you can explain it best, that is typically the side that’s going to prevail," Pinker says.

Laura Lee Stapleton, 32

Partner Jackson Walker, Austin University of Texas School of Law (1991)

Laura Lee Stapleton, a trial and intellectual property lawyer who represents media companies and does First Amendment law, would be in the limelight at most firms. But she’s a partner in Jackson Walker, where she works in the large shadow of partner Charles "Chip" Babcock, perhaps known most widely for representing talk-show host Oprah Winfrey in her veggie libel law trial in Amarillo.

Stapleton won’t stay in anyone’s shadow for long, says Babcock. "She’s just come on like gangbusters," he says.

Babcock says Stapleton has made a big impact since she joined the firm in 1998 to develop the firm’s media-law practice in central Texas. She does a lot of work for the Fox television network and Channel 4 in Dallas. She helped a coalition of Austin television stations negotiate a deal with the city’s new airport board to eliminate plans to charge stations an access fee to do stories at the airport.

Danny Baker, vice president and general manager of Fox affiliate KTBC, says Stapleton is tenacious, detail-oriented and frank. "I call her my barracuda," he says.

A high-profile client is Austin cyclist Lance Armstrong, who garnered international fame when he won the Tour de France in 1999. Stapleton is handling Armstrong’s right-of-publicity litigation and filed one suit against cycling clothing manufacturer Pearl Izumi. (Stapleton says she landed Armstrong as a client because her husband is his agent.) Since high school, Stapleton says, she has wanted to practice law to protect the First Amendment. She joined Jackson Walker after working for five years at Austin’s George & Donaldson, another Austin firm with a large First Amendment practice.

Mikal Watts, 32

Partner Harris & Watts, Corpus Christi University of Texas School of Law (1989)

Mikal Watts is racking up impressive numbers in crashworthiness suits, with an $80 million verdict in Starr County for the family of a couple who burned to death when the doors on their 1977 Dodge pickup jammed shut after it was sideswiped by a car. That verdict, one of the largest in Texas in 1998, is even more impressive since it includes only actual damages.

But Watts has done even better. In 1997, Watts and his partner, Bryan Harris, worked on the plaintiffs team that won a $262.5 million verdict in South Carolina for the parents of a 6-year-old boy killed when the rear door of a minivan unlatched in a collision.

The Corpus Christi-based Watts on Jan. 27 won a $20 million verdict in Webb County in a wrongful-death case stemming from a truck accident. He’s also doing heavy-truck litigation fueled by an increase in commerce in South Texas with the North American Free Trade Agreement — he’s negotiated about $50 million in settlements so far. He also settled a product-liability suit against the former maker of Winchester shotguns for $3 million in 1998 for the family of a Starr County teen killed in a 1995 hunting accident.

Watts has been on a fast track since he graduated in 1989 from the University of Texas School of Law at age 21. After clerking for Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Thomas Phillips, he worked at Corpus Christi plaintiffs’ firm Perry & Haas, where he trained in vehicle litigation. In 1997, Watts and law-school friend Harris opened Harris & Watts, which has grown to 11 lawyers.

"I think a lot of our success is due to the fact we will try anything, anytime, anywhere," Watts says.

Defense attorney Darrell Barger, a partner in Barger, Hermansen, McKibben & Villarreal, says Watts is an excellent lawyer who is getting good cases. "He spends the money it takes to put into a case," he says. "I’d let Mikal represent me," Barger says.