and explosion that killed and injured many workers at an old refinery. That was how I got started in energy litigation, which is what I do today. I have also been greatly influenced by Gerald Hines. I started representing Hines Interest Limited Partnership in the mid-1990s and Marley Lott, who oversaw their work, put me on an important lawsuit. I have been their lawyer now for 25 years. I’ve worked with John Mooz and others at Hines on many of their projects in Houston, on matters arising from the great storms, accidents, commercial issues, and now COVID-19. Gerald Hines understood Houston would never fulfill its promise to be a great city if it was all billboards and strip malls, so he fought against that. He knew the importance of good design, open spaces, and bright lighting. Since I have worked with his company for so many years, that carried over to my thinking about the responsibilities of lawyers to get out and improve their communities. The founders of Baker Botts understood that too– if you want to build a firm, you have to build a great city.
20th Century. Partner Charles Szalkowski taught me about our firm’s history, and then I took over from him when he retired. Baker Botts has been collecting materials in our files for 180 years. We have hundreds of banker boxes of materials stored in a warehouse, and most of it hadn’t been looked at for decades. I decided to start requesting boxes and going through them. I have reviewed so many interesting documents— ledgers dating to 1874, Captain Baker’s real Elizabeth, C ar estate maps, and case files Starbuck an oline, Rebecca and Bill d Gandalf. , holding fa relating to Texas railroads mily pets A rwen, from the 1870s and the foreclosure of the Shamrock Hotel in the 1950s. The VID-19 infected city in America. It’s a history of Texas is in those files. unique moment in history. I feel like my education This has been a lifetime of work for me. It has and experiences that I’ve described here have led given me a huge reservoir of knowledge and exup to this moment, where I get to apply what I’ve perience. Most of the history of the City of Houslearned to help lead us through this. Fortunately, What are some significant matters that you ton is in our files, and I have spent 20 years trying I’m not alone—we have never had more strong have handled? to understand that. It gives me a special perspecleaders at all levels at the HBA, and more support Kroger: Between roughly 1995 and 2005, I tive on our City and times like the present. and enthusiasm among our members. worked with lawyers like Scott Rozzell, Daryl Bristow, Jim Barkley and others on the deregulaYou then got involved in preserving court Is a volunteer bar association like the HBA tion of the electric utility industry in Texas. After records across the State of Texas? important during times like this? that, Barkley and I worked on many of the early Kroger: That project evolved out of the preserKroger: It is critical. This is the 150th Anniversary matters involving the development of the early vation work at the firm. The history of Texas is of the Houston Bar Association. Peter Gray formed wind farms in Texas. Since 2009, my practice has about conflict, and that spilled out into the Texas the HBA in 1870 because he understood the imalso focused on the oil and gas shale plays and courts. Texas has the largest collection of historic portance of lawyers working together to solve the the legal issues arising out of horizontal drilling. court records in the United States, and most of varied problems of the City. Those were troubled My clients have included EOG, Murphy Oil, TxOGA, them are not preserved and haven’t been studied. days—Texas was still under federal occupation, Shell, Marathon, Courson Oil and Gas, and others. People talk about saving history in the context of struggling with the legacy of slavery, and the monuments. If you want to save history, save our Texas economy was still trying to recover from Are you also the historian for Baker Botts? historic buildings and our court records. the war. There was even a yellow fever outbreak Kroger: Yes. Peter Gray, one of the firm’s foundI spent a year driving around Texas, finding that year. ers, paid for the first history of Texas to be written old court records to save. You would be amazed Today, the HBA is diverse in every way. And we in the 1870s. Partner Clarence Wharton was by the history I discovered. I was particularly are committed to building a diverse Houston. If we one of the top Texas historians at the moved by the hundreds of records pertaining want the 21st century to be a good one for this beginning of the to enslaved Americans from before the Civil City, we need to fight for it—together. Diversity is War. Many African Americans don’t realize the calling card of Houston; it is where our future that information on their family histories is lies. We have an opportunity to show the country locked up in the courthouses throughout that a diverse, integrated city can be a source of Texas. It needs to be preserved, studied, strength and pride. That will only happen if we and made accessible. This is my greatest have education and justice systems that work for unfinished project. I hope to focus on that all, and make our democratic and free society later in my career. thrive. And the HBA can play an important role in all of that. What are your goals for this bar This is the year to remind us of the importance year? of a volunteer bar association in the city. It is part Kroger: To work with our lawyers and of the social infrastructure that makes the City law firms to help get the City of Houston work. through our greatest challenge since World War II. We have layers of probWhat can lawyers do? lems being thrown at us: COVID-19, Kroger: First, join and pay your bar dues. We a collapse of oil prices, civil unrest can’t do our work if we don’t have the necessary caused by many problems that have financial and member resources. Second, get not been addressed for decades, and involved. Join a committee or section. Write an maybe a depression. At the time I’m ool. h c article. Take a pro bono case. Do a LegalLine sesanswering these questions, HousS l a ic d Me uthwestern sion. This is a year for engagement. ton may become the most COdent at So en, a stu
Bill and B
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