BRIEFS NEW MEMBERS The Austin Bar welcomes the following new members: Reaves Ashley Chase Barker Aravind, Baldwin, Barrett, Earley, Gasink, Koplin, Price, Robinson, and Scheick
William Bryant Jase Burner Brian Carroll Erin DeBooy Kimberly Grinnan Jasmine M. Harding Preston Heckathorn Monte James Brittany Johnson Jerry Lee Alexander McSwain Adela Meraz Travis Parks Stephen Pasta Anne-Marie Rabago Neal Rackleff Elisabeth Smith Andrew Ware Kevin Weber Ashley Wheelock Marlene Wyatt Trey Zamorano
AWARDS George C. Baldwin of Peckar & Abramson’s Austin office received his Texas Board Certification. Baldwin focuses on the resolution of commercial disputes through litigation, mediation, and arbitration. Amanda K. Jester was named to the Ambulatory M&A Advisor annual Leading Lawyer List. Jester represents private equity funds, hospitals, free-standing emergency centers, and others in mergers, acquisitions, and joint ventures. Eric Galton received the 2017 Frank Evans Award from the State Bar of Texas Section of Alternative Dispute Resolution Excellence and Contributions to the Field of Alternative Dispute Resolution. Andrew S. Cates was elected to membership in the Fellows of the Texas Bar Foundation. Election is a mark of distinction and recognition of Cates’s contributions to the legal profession. NEW TO THE OFFICE Marilyn Poole recently joined the Fowler Law Firm. Poole has served on the Board of Directors for the Austin Bar Foundation since 2016. Dickson Wright announced the hiring of Mark Scott. His focus is in the areas of intellectual property, including patents, copyrights, and trademarks. Norton Rose Fulbright hired Joshua Bernstein as a partner. Bernstein advises clients in both development-related real-estate transactions and real-estate fi-
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nance and private-equity matters. In addition, Emily Jung and Katie Van Dyk have been hired as associates at the firm. J. Terry Weeks and Nathan L. Kennedy joined Gray & Becker as partners. They joined the family law section of the firm specializing in complex divorces and family law appeals as well as continuing their wills and probate, real-estate, and business-law practice. Scott Douglass & McConnico announced the naming of Santosh Aravind and John Gasink as partners to the firm. Aravind focuses on civil litigation and white-collar criminal defense. Gasink focuses on commercial litigation with an emphasis on fraud, breach-of-contract, breach-of-fiduciary-duty, and negligent-misrepresentation cases involving complicated financial instruments. Wittliff Cutter Austin announced the hire of Katherine Chiarello, Ryan Botkin, and John Saba. Chiarello focuses on cases involving business contracts, business torts, fraud, securities fraud, trademarks, and trade secrets. Botkin focuses on business disputes within a broad assortment of subjects, including technology and IP licensing, financial services, and healthcare. Saba focuses on a variety of technical areas, including patents, trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets, and licensing. Shafeeqa Watkins Giarratani joined the Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart as a co-managing shareholder of the
Austin office. Giarratani focuses on employment-law counseling, including pay equity, whistleblower claims, and federal contractor/ affirmative-action compliance. MOVING ON UP Locke Lord Partners elected Michelle Earley to the executive committee. She handles a wide range of corporate and securities work for public and private companies, including master limited partnerships. McGinnis Lochridge named Jo Ann Merica as partner. She focuses on real-estate, construction, commercial, consumer, family, and administrative-law disputes. Norton Rose Fulbright promoted Tamsen Barrett, Eagle Robinson, and Benjamin Koplin to partner. Barrett concentrates on intellectual-property matters, which include domestic and foreign patent prosecution and strategic development of patent portfolios. Robinson focuses on patent litigation and transactional matters. Koplin concentrates on life sciences and healthcareregulatory and anticorruption compliance and defense. Jacob Scheick was named partner of Alman, Blackburn, Dickie & Mitchell. He specializes in securities litigation, construction and real-estate litigation, and general commercial disputes. Stone Loughlin & Swanson announced Dan Price as a partner for the firm. He focuses on general civil litigation, insurance law, and corporate law.