Education

  • B.A., Texas A & M University, 1975
    College Station, Texas

  • J. D., South Texas College of Law, 1978
    Houston, Texas

Active Roles

  • Member, Philosophical Society of Texas

  • Advisory Council Member, Wittliff Collections

Experience

  • Reared on a sheep and goat ranch in Uvalde County, Texas. Graduated Nueces Canyon High School, Barksdale, Texas 1971; Southwest Texas Junior College, Uvalde, 1973.

  • Assistant City Attorney, El Paso, 1979-80; Assistant U.S. Attorney, Western District of Texas, El Paso, 1980-81; Associate, Peticolas, Luscombe & Stephens, El Paso, 1981-83; Assistant Federal Public Defender, Western District of Texas, El Paso and Pecos Divisions, 1984 to 2013 (Supervisory Assistant since 1987); Retired from Federal Public Defender, 2013.

  • Former President, El Paso Young Lawyers Association; former director, El Paso Bar Association; former member, El Paso City Plan Commission.

  • Outstanding Assistant Federal Defender (2000), National Association of Federal Defenders.

  • Rated AV Preeminent, Martindale Hubbell, Highest possible rating in both legal ability and ethical standards.

  • Foreign advisor, International Senior Lawyers Project/Mongolian Foundation for Open Society Institute, June 2004.

  • Director, State Bar of Texas, 2005-2008.

  • Former Member, Director's Advisory Council, Museum of the Big Bend.

  • Lifetime Member, Center for Big Bend Studies.

  • Former Member, Board of Directors, Marfa Public Radio.

  • Former Member, Board of Trustees, Texas Nature Conservancy, 2009-2018.

  • Trial counsel in Holguin-Hernandez v. United States, 589 U.S. _____ (2020).