FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Jan. 16, 2015
Contact: Lowell Brown
Communications Division Director, State Bar of Texas
(800) 204-2222, ext. 1713, or (512) 427-1713
lbrown@texasbar.com
State Bar of Texas, TYLA announce president-elect
candidates
WACO — Texas attorneys will choose between Randy Howry of Austin and Frank Stevenson of Dallas in the race for the next president-elect of the State Bar of Texas. The State Bar Board of Directors today approved the nomination of Howry and Stevenson as president-elect candidates during its quarterly meeting in Waco.
Also, the Texas Young Lawyers Association recently nominated Sam Houston of San Antonio and John Shaw of Fort Worth as the next candidates for TYLA president-elect.
State Bar of Texas and TYLA members will cast ballots April 1-30, and
election results will be announced April 30. The winner of each race
will serve as president from June 2016 until June 2017.
State Bar of Texas candidates
Randy Howry is a partner in Howry, Breen & Herman LLP, where he handles commercial litigation, general litigation, and personal injury cases. He is board certified in personal injury trial law and civil trial law and has extensive experience in cases involving business torts, catastrophic injury and wrongful death, employment litigation, insurance litigation, real estate litigation, and wills/trusts litigation.
Howry is a former member of the State Bar Board of Directors and a former president of the Austin Bar Association, the Austin Bar Foundation, and the American Board of Trial Advocates, Austin Chapter, for which he currently serves as national board representative. Howry is a Fellow in the American College of Trial Lawyers and an Advocate in the American Board of Trial Advocates. He has also served on the TEX-ABOTA Board of Directors and as panel chair of the State Bar of Texas District 9A Grievance Committee, among other professional activities. Howry serves currently as an adjunct faculty member in advocacy with the University of Texas School of Law.
Howry received a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Texas in 1980 and a J.D. from South Texas College of Law in 1985.
Frank Stevenson is a partner in Locke Lord Edwards and practices in the areas of real estate/finance and public law. Throughout his 34-year career he has represented financial institutions, owners, tenants, and others in the acquisition, development, leasing, financing, and sale of significant properties. In recent years he has increasingly focused on the representation of governmental entities in their project advancement and legislative activities.
Stevenson is a former chair of the State Bar of Texas Board of Directors and a former president of the Dallas Bar Association. He serves on the State Bar’s Pro Bono Workgroup, the board of trustees of the Dallas Bar Foundation, and as a division chair for the Campaign for Equal Access to Justice. He has been honored by legal aid providers and received presidential citations from the State and Dallas bars. Stevenson was the founding chair of award-winning programs to mentor beginning lawyers and to diversify the profession. He holds numerous leadership positions with civic, charitable, arts, and educational organizations. He and his wife, Helen, have three grown children.
Stevenson received a bachelor’s degree from Amherst College in 1977 and a J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law in 1980.
TYLA candidates
Sam Houston is a shareholder in Houston Dunn PLLC, where he practices civil appellate law. After starting his career as a briefing attorney for the 14th Court of Appeals in Houston, he has worked in the appellate sections of prominent San Antonio law firms. He is board certified in civil appellate law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization.
Houston has been a member of the TYLA Board of Directors since 2010 and currently serves as vice president. He is a council member of the State Bar of Texas Appellate Section, a past president of the San Antonio Young Lawyers Association, and a past chair of the San Antonio Bar Association Appellate Practice Section.
Houston graduated from St. Mary’s University School of Law in 2003 and received BBA and BA degrees from New Mexico State University in 2000.
Houston is married to Lori Houston, and they have a 4-month-old daughter.
John Shaw is an associate at Whitaker Chalk Swindle & Schwartz PLLC, where he practices primarily in commercial litigation, employment, and intellectual property law, including matters concerning copyrights, trademarks, patents, and trade secrets. Prior to joining Whitaker Chalk in 2012, he practiced public interest law at Legal Aid of NorthWest Texas for more than five years.
Shaw has been a member of the TYLA Board of Directors since 2012, serving most recently as treasurer of the executive committee. Before joining TYLA, he was elected as the president of the Fort Worth-Tarrant County Young Lawyers Association, and is currently vice chair of Texas Legal Services Center, a nonprofit law office in Austin that provides assistance and training to poverty law advocates and their clients in the areas of litigation support, education, and communication.
Shaw earned his J.D. from St. Mary’s University School of Law and a B.S. from Wayland Baptist University.
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The State Bar of Texas, created in 1939, is an administrative agency of the Supreme Court of Texas that provides educational programs for the legal profession and the public, administers the minimum continuing legal education program for attorneys, and manages the attorney discipline system. For more information, visit www.texasbar.com.
The Texas Young Lawyers Association, organized in 1930, is commonly referred to as the “public service arm” of the State Bar of Texas. TYLA’s primary purposes are to facilitate the administration of justice, foster respect for the law, and advance the role of the legal profession in serving the public. All licensed Texas lawyers 36 years old or younger or in their first five years of practice, regardless of age, are automatically members of TYLA. For more information, visit www.tyla.org.
