State Bar of Texas

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 1, 2018
Contact: Amy Starnes
Public Information Director, State Bar of Texas
(800) 204-2222, ext. 1706, or (512) 427-1706
astarnes@texasbar.com

AUSTIN — Texas attorneys have elected Randy Sorrels of Houston as the next president-elect of the State Bar of Texas.

Sorrels received 58 percent of the 32,445 votes cast during the month-long voting period that ended May 1. His opponent Lisa Blue of Dallas received 41 percent of the votes. Write-in candidates accounted for less than 1 percent of the votes cast.

The 32,445 votes set a record for the highest total of votes ever cast in a State Bar election. With 31.8 percent of the bar membership voting, it was also the highest turnout percentage since 2000.

Sorrels will be sworn in as president-elect during the State Bar’s Annual Meeting on June 22, 2018, in Houston and will serve as president of the State Bar of Texas from June 2019 to June 2020.

Sorrels is board certified in personal injury trial law and civil trial law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. He is the managing partner in Abraham, Watkins, Nichols, Sorrels, Agosto & Aziz, a 67-year-old personal injury firm.

While he is regularly recognized by Texas Monthly and Texas Super Lawyers as one of their Top 100 Lawyers in Texas for his client representation, he also is passionate about pro bono work. He financially supports the legal clinics at South Texas College of Law Houston, where law students are mentored while helping the community. Sorrels has served as president of the Houston Bar Association, the Houston Trial Lawyers Association, and the Texas Association of Civil Trial and Appellate Specialists. He has served on the State Bar of Texas Board of Directors and currently serves on the South Texas College of Law Houston Board of Directors, as well as the board of the Texas Trial Lawyers Association. He is a past chair of the Texas Bar Foundation. Sorrels is a magna cum laude graduate of both Houston Baptist University and South Texas College of Law Houston. He is married to a lawyer and has four children and two dogs. Two of his children want to become lawyers.

In other results, the following individuals were elected to the State Bar of Texas Board of Directors:

John Charles “Charlie” Ginn, McKinney, District 1; Alistair Dawson, Houston, District 4, Place 3; Shari Goldsberry, Texas City, District 5; Robert D. Crain, Dallas, District 6, Place 2; Stephen J. Naylor, Fort Worth, District 7, Place 1; Amy Welborn, Austin, District 9, Place 3; Thomas G. Keyser, San Antonio, District 10, Place 1; James Wester, Amarillo, District 13; Derek Cook, Midland, District 16.

There will be a run-off election for District Director 4, Place 5 as none of the three candidates received a majority of the vote. Courtney T. Carlson received 41 percent of the 6,704 votes cast in the race while Carmen Roe followed with 34 percent. Robert W. Von Dohlen received 24 percent of the vote. Write-in candidates accounted for 1 percent. All three are from Houston.

The run-off election will be held May 10 through 5 p.m. CT May 24.

Texas Young Lawyers Association election

In the Texas Young Lawyers Association election, Victor Flores of Denton was elected president-elect and will serve as TYLA president from June 2019 to June 2020. Flores received 55 percent of the 5,353 votes cast; his opponent, Raymond Baeza of El Paso, received 44 percent. Write-in candidates accounted for 1 percent of the votes cast.

Flores served in the Marine Corps and is an Iraq War veteran. He practices government law in Denton and serves on the Texas Bar Journal Board of Editors, the council of the State Bar of Texas Government Law Section, the Texas Young Lawyers Association, and the American Bar Association Young Lawyer Division Council.

Flores has led many TYLA projects, including Vote America!, inspiring civic engagement among youth; Strength in Unity, aimed at improving police-community relations; and Breaking the Silence, addressing attorneys’ mental health. His favorite project was implementing Vote America! in McAllen, where the Vote America! Rally Week mobilized approximately 1,500 area high school seniors to register to vote for the first time.

Flores is also a fellow of the Texas Bar Foundation, a frequent speaker at Texas Bar CLEs, a mentor with Communities In Schools of North Texas, and legal counsel to his church.

For his service to the public and the bar, Flores has received the LeadershipSBOT Pedro “Pete” Serrano Leadership Award, a resolution from 2016-2017 State Bar President Frank Stevenson, TYLA’s annual President’s Award, and the Hidalgo County Bar Association’s Rookie of the Year Award.

Flores’ favorite breaks from work are date nights with his wife, Kristal, and reading bedtime stories with his son, Brennan.

The following individuals were elected to the TYLA Board of Directors: 

Nicholas D. Mosser, Plano, District 4; Timothy Newman, Dallas, District 5, Place 2; Lindsey Vanden Eykel, Dallas, District 5, Place 4; M. Kaylan Dunn, Houston, District 6, Place 2; John Busch, Houston, District 6, Place 6; Katherine “Katie” Fillmore, Austin, District 8, Place 2; Travis Heller, Fort Worth, District 10, Place 2; Louis Williams, Corpus Christi, District 12; Kirk Cooper, El Paso, District 14; Tim Williams, Amarillo, District 16; Ryan V. Cox, San Antonio, District 18, Place 2.

Detailed election results are available at texasbar.com/election.

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The State Bar of Texas 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, follow us on Twitter and Instagram @statebaroftexas, like us on Facebook at facebook.com/statebaroftexas, or visit 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 tyla.org.