First Steps: Baby Lawyers Set Off on Disparate Professional Paths

Josh A. Fogelman
Baylor University School of Law

When he was just 11 years old, Josh Adam Fogelman, now a law clerk with the Texas Supreme Court in Austin, starred in a courtroom drama. Playing the role of the prosecutor in a mock criminal trial at Austin’s Doss Elementary School, Fogelman says he made the student playing the defendant cry.

“Cross-examination is a beautiful thing,” Fogelman says, “because it allows you to go for the jugular in a very, very, civilized way.” He recalls standing at the front of the public school classroom, where his classmates were seated in small, individual desks. “Hands were flailing, words were flying, tears were falling,” he says. “I thought, maybe I have a career in this.”

That idea strengthened while he was an undergraduate at the University of Texas, pursuing a bachelor’s degree in communication studies. Fogelman worked as a runner for the now defunct Austin firm Morris & Florey.

“I had an opportunity to meet so many people: judges, clerks and local attorneys,” he says. “I began to like the legal community a lot.”

Jason R. Nassour was one of the lawyers Fogelman worked with at Morris & Florey and is now a partner in Keel & Nassour in Austin.

“Josh has a phenomenal personality,” Nassour says. “People just like Josh.”

While Fogelman was in law school, Nassour says, he would occasionally ask him to work on special projects or would ask for his suggestions or ideas on how to present a client’s case to a jury.

“This kid is as sharp as they come,” Nassour says. “I think the best litigator is the one that has the ability to tell a story and have it be believed. In my opinion, the side with the greatest chance is the one whose lawyer is liked the most and tells the best story, the facts. I think he has a natural knack for doing just that.”

Fogelman says that Nassour, a Baylor University School of Law graduate, inspired him to apply to Baylor.

“Baylor lawyers have the reputation of just being bulldogs in the courtroom,” Fogelman says. “That’s never a bad reputation to have.”

He sat for and passed the February Texas bar exam and graduated from Baylor law school in May.

Now Fogelman is working as a law clerk for Texas Supreme Court Justice Harriet O’Neill. The position pays an annual salary of $43,000, and Fogelman began working Aug. 19. During the summer of 2007, before beginning his third year at Baylor Law School, Fogelman earned five hours of course credit working an eight-week internship for O’Neill.

“He was an intern here, and he just did a super job,” O’Neill says. As a result, she offered him a one-year position as a law clerk. She describes the job as one that “involves a lot of heavy research.”

Law clerks will do an in-depth analysis and draw up an opinion on cases the court is considering, she says. O’Neill says she allows her law clerks a lot of diverse experience.

O’Neill has two law clerks: Fogelman and Jennifer Ferri, a 2008 graduate of the University of Texas School of Law.

“I will sit down with the clerks, and I will prepare a memo on how the case should be decided and how it should be written,” she says. “They will go do a draft, and I will work with them on the draft. We have a very hands-on chambers where we all heavily edit and are involved in the opinions.”

The law clerks are also allowed to sit it on conference, when the justices are reviewing and deliberating cases, opinions and petitions, she says.

“It’s a tremendous learning tool,” O’Neill says. “They hear all of the judges express opinions on cases. When clerks leave, they always say that was one of the highlights, watching the court deliberate.”

Fogelman agrees. “It’s interesting to take in the discussion and see how your writing struck them,” he says. “It’s great direct feedback.” He adds that the justices occasionally ask the law clerks for more information. “Sometimes, if there is an issue they recognize that you have not fully addressed or they are more curious about, they will ask you in conference,” he says. “They let you know what is on their mind.”

The law clerks also prepare study memos for the court that recommend whether the court should grant petitions for review, says Elizabeth V. “Ginger” Rodd, staff attorney for O’Neill. The clerks review the case arguments and make a recommendation about whether the court should hear the case. “It’s a whole lot of writing and analysis,” she says. Except for an occasionally busy week, the law clerks generally work from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., Rodd says.

Fogelman was busy during the few months following law school graduation and before beginning his job with the court. He helped his then-fiancée emigrate from Germany, moved from Waco to Austin, set up an Austin household, and married Stephanie Kebschull. He met her while in Germany one summer when he was traveling with his brother.

The June wedding was a small, civil ceremony performed by Travis County Court-at-Law Judge Jan Breland on a riverboat on Austin’s Lady Bird Lake. “It was a really small, intimate wedding,” Fogelman says. “It was wonderful.”

The newlyweds are living in a two-bedroom apartment west of downtown Austin. Fogelman would like to buy a house in Austin, but with law school debt exceeding $100,000, he says that purchase may not be feasible for a while. Meanwhile, he says he’ll continue to rely on his 2000 BMW convertible for transportation.

Fogelman and Nassour say they have discussed the possibility of Fogleman joining Austin’s Keel & Nassour after he completes his year with the court. In addition to litigation, Fogelman says, he has developed an interest in immigration law based on his experience obtaining a visa for his wife.

“There are so many hoops to jump through that it really turned me on to what foreigners, certainly non-native English speakers, must go through when they try to immigrate,” he says. In May, Kebschull obtained a K-1 visa, giving her permission to enter the United States for the purpose of getting married, he says. In September, she received a work authorization and has also applied for a green card, which will give her the status of a lawful, permanent resident, he says.

A year from now, Nassour hopes to have succeeded in recruiting Fogelman to join his firm. He says Fogelman already has a wealth of knowledge and strong verbal skills.

“I think the time clerking with the court will enable him to better articulate in writing what he wants to say,” Nassour says. “We would love to have him here. I’m going to steal him.”

Assistant Attorney in Fort Worth