2020-2021 TYLA President-elect Candidates
The Texas Young Lawyers Association Board of Directors approved the
nominations of Donald Delgado, of College Station, and Jeanine Novosad
Rispoli, of Waco, as 2020-2021 president-elect candidates. This year,
nominees for president-elect are from nonmetropolitan counties.
Biographies of the candidates are featured here. Interviews with the two
candidates will be included in the April issue. Votes for TYLA
president-elect and district directors can be cast via paper ballot or
by voting online from April 1-30. On April 1, attorneys eligible to vote
will be mailed an election packet, including a paper ballot and campaign
brochures. Attorneys may either submit their paper ballot via mail or
vote online using the information provided. The deadline to cast ballots
is 5 p.m. CDT on April 30.
Donald
Delgado
College Station
Donald Delgado is vice president of
the Texas Young Lawyers Association and, since 2016, has contributed and
led several initiatives to assist young attorneys in the practice of law
and to provide public legal education services to Texans. For his
service to young lawyers and the public, Delgado received TYLA’s
President’s Award of Merit and the Keith L. Krueger Leadership Award.
Some of the most recent TYLA projects that Delgado has led and helped
implement include Proud to Be an American, Junior
Judges, a Job Interview Guide for new attorneys, and the
implementation of attorney wellness initiatives.
Delgado is a Texas Bar Foundation fellow and nominating chair and is
secretary of the Brazos County Bar Association. Outside of his bar
service, he is on the board of OnRamp and volunteers with the Texas
Chapter of the Pediatric Congenital Heart Association.
Delgado is a partner in West, Webb, Allbritton & Gentry where he
represents both plaintiffs and defendants in complex commercial
litigation, construction litigation, and significant personal injury
litigation.
Delgado earned his B.A. from Texas A&M University and his J.D. from
the University of Texas School of Law. He is married to Elizabeth
Delgado and they have three children under 3 years old, Olivia, Elena,
and Lucas.
Jeanine Novosad Rispoli
Waco
Jeanine Novosad Rispoli was inspired
to be a lawyer from an early age after learning of her adoption. Adopted
in San Antonio and raised in Houston and Sugar Land, she graduated from
Baylor University and Baylor Law School before returning to Houston to
practice. Rispoli moved back to Waco to join a large firm. Her passion
for helping families led to opening Rispoli Law Firm in 2018. Rispoli’s
goal is to help families build a better future, paying back the help her
adoptive and biological families received. She enjoys volunteering
through the Baylor Law Veterans Clinic and pro bono adoptions.
Rispoli is the TYLA District 9 director and McLennan County Young
Lawyers Association president-elect. She co-chaired the TYLA project
Texas Courts for Texas Veterans, facilitated partnerships with
the Texas Access to Justice Foundation and Baylor Law School to complete
TCTV’s videos without any budget, and served on the Local
Affiliates and Attorney Wellness committees. She is a State Bar of Texas
Local Bar Services Committee member, Junior League of Waco secretary,
Texas Bar Foundation fellow, LeadershipSBOT graduate, and frequent mock
trial judge. Rispoli speaks regularly on panels to law students and
young lawyers and mentors law and pre-law students.
She and her husband, Stephen, enjoy time outdoors with their Labrador,
Khaleesi.
2020-2021 TYLA Executive Committee Election
At the January meeting of the Texas Young Lawyers Association Board of Directors, the following members were approved to run for the specified offices. A ballot was provided to all TYLA directors, and the winner of each race is listed first in each office below.
CHAIR-ELECT
Sara Giddings
Sara Anne Giddings is a solo
practitioner in San Angelo, where she practices tax, estate planning,
probate, and business law. She joined the TYLA board in 2015 as the
District 15 director and currently serves as TYLA treasurer. Giddings
has spearheaded and contributed to numerous TYLA projects, including
Teach Safe. Learn Safe. Be Safe., I was the first. You can
be a lawyer too!, Breaking the Silence—A Path to Mental
Health, Proud to be an American, Not a Victim,
the Shero podcast, Cyclists Be Careful, the
Guardianship Guide, Permanent Kinship Placement, and
How to Get Involved in Nonprofit Boards. Giddings received the
Legacy of Service Award in 2018, the Joseph M. Pritchard Inn Outstanding
Director Award in 2017, and the Outstanding First Year Director Award in
2016 for her service to TYLA.
Tim
Newman
Tim Newman is a litigation partner in
Haynes and Boone, where he defends clients under government
investigation and co-founded the firm’s cybersecurity group. Before
joining Haynes and Boone, Newman clerked for a federal judge in the
Southern District of Texas. He has served four years on the TYLA board,
leading the development of TYLA’s Young Gunners podcast and
receiving the Outstanding First Year Director Award, Outstanding
Director Award, and President’s Award. He also serves on the Dallas
Association of Young Lawyers Board and the Capital for Kids CONNECT
Board. Newman and his wife, Leslie, live in Dallas with their toddler,
Danny, and dog, Mia.
VICE PRESIDENT
Michael J. Ritter
Michael J. Ritter is a staff attorney
at the court of appeals in San Antonio, where he lives with his husband,
Dilshan, and two puppies, Lolo and Ponchito. Ritter is certified in
civil appellate law and criminal appellate law by the Texas Board of
Legal Specialization. He currently serves as TYLA’s secretary and on
TYLA’s Competitions & Law Focused Education committees. He also
serves as chair of the San Antonio Bar Association LGBT Law Section and
as an at-large councilmember of the State Bar of Texas LGBT Law Section.
Ritter is also a Texas Bar Foundation sustaining life fellow.
Josué Galván
Josué Galván is an attorney in the
trial and appellate litigation group of Jackson Walker’s San Antonio
office. He has a variety of state and federal court experience in a
range of litigation matters, including business and property disputes
and personal injury defense. Galván is a first-year TYLA director and
represents District 18. He is a member of the State Bar of Texas
Diversity in the Profession Committee and a graduate of LeadershipSBOT.
Galván has contributed to various TYLA initiatives, including the
Educator’s Toolkit and the Job Interview Guide. Before
becoming an attorney, he taught seventh grade science. Galván resides in
San Antonio with his wife, Yvette, and their three pets.
SECRETARY
Lauren Renee Sepulveda
Lauren Renee Sepulveda is the
first trial chair prosecutor in the 430th District Court for the Hidalgo
County Criminal District Attorney’s Office. She currently serves as
TYLA’s District 13 director, a member of the State Bar of Texas Criminal
Justice Section Council and the Texas District & County Attorneys
Association Training Committee, and president of the Hidalgo County
Young Lawyers Association. This year, Sepulveda has served as project
lead on the Paper Chase Writing Competition and the Lawyers Passport
for Basic Immigration Law. Sepulveda regularly presents at CLEs to
Texas prosecutors regarding punishment and immigration. Sepulveda was a
member of the LeadershipSBOT Class of 2016-2017 and received the State
Bar of Texas Government Law Section Rising Advocate Award in 2017.
Rebecca Linehan
Rebecca Patterson Linehan is an
assistant district attorney and trial team chief for the Midland County
District Attorney’s Office. She serves as TYLA’s District 17 director,
is currently co-chair of the TYLA Attorney Wellness Committee, and chair
of the Texas Court for Texas Veterans Committee. Linehan has contributed
to numerous TYLA projects, including the Criminal Enhancements CLE
webinar that was ultimately filmed and distributed by the State Bar of
Texas. She was a recipient of the President’s Award of Merit in 2018 and
2019. Before Linehan’s membership on the TYLA board, she served on the
board of the Midland County Young Lawyers Association for four years.
Linehan and her husband, Russell, have one son, Flynn.
TREASURER
Ashley Hymel
Ashley Hymel is a solo practitioner in
Houston, serving small businesses in their formation and other small
business matters. She represents District 6, Place 4 on the TYLA Board
of Directors, where she co-chairs the National Trial Competition and the
Public Service in the Community committees to execute projects such as
The Musicians Guide to Knowing Your Rights and suicide
prevention materials. Before serving TYLA, Hymel served the National
Trial Competition for five years and, since joining the board, has
contributed to projects including The Choice, Proud to be
an American, the State Moot Court Competition, the Paper Chase
Writing Competition, and Your Voice, Now! She received the TYLA
President’s Award of Merit in 2018 and the award for Outstanding First
Year Director in 2019.
Reginald
Wilson
Reginald Wilson is an associate in
Norton Rose Fulbright’s Public Law Practice Group and acts as bond
counsel, disclosure counsel, and underwriter’s counsel in a variety of
transactions involving municipal governments, independent school
districts, health care systems, universities, and nonprofit
organizations. He has been recognized by the Who’s Who in Black Houston
publication, and he received the Millennial Trailblazer award for
community service during the NAACP Houston Branch’s 100th year
fundraising dinner. Wilson is co-founder of A Great Cause, a nonprofit
that awards scholarships to 3L students sitting for the bar. He
currently serves as TYLA’s co-chair for the Law Focused Education
Committee and on the Diversity Committee. Wilson and his wife live in
Houston.
