Greg Coleman, a former solicitor general of Texas and a partner in YetterColeman in Austin, died in a plane crash Nov. 23 near Destin, Fla. Michele Nicholson, public information officer for the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office, says that the body of the private plane’s pilot has been identified as Coleman, 47. Nicholson says that air traffic control at Eglin Air Force Base notified the sheriff’s department around 7:40 p.m. Nov. 23 that it had lost radio contact with a small plane. Nicholson says the small plane crashed in Choctawhatchee Bay, landing in about five feet of water about 200 yards from shore near the Destin Airport. The sheriff’s department marine unit responded, she says. Nicholson says the two passengers killed in the crash have been identified as Charlene Black Miller of College Station, Coleman’s mother-in-law, and James Patrick Black. The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the crash, she says. According to the YetterColeman website, Coleman received his law degree from the University of Texas School of Law in 1992, served as a law clerk for 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Edith Jones in 1992-1993 and clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas from 1995 to 1996. Jeff Boyd, a partner in Thompson & Knight in Austin and formerly Texas’ deputy attorney general over civil litigation, says Coleman became the state’s first solicitor general in 1999, when then-Attorney General John Cornyn, now a U.S. senator, created the position. Coleman served as the solicitor general until 2001. Boyd says he and Coleman worked at the Office of the Attorney General at the same time. “He is one of the finest lawyers and people I’ve ever had the privilege to work with,” Boyd says. Jim Ho, the state’s current solicitor general, says he has known Coleman for about 10 years. “He was a mentor to me,” Ho says. “I don’t use the term mentor lightly.” Ho writes in an e-mail, “Greg was a devoted husband and father, dear friend, loyal mentor and exceptional lawyer. This is a deeply sad day.” John B. Strasburger, managing partner of the Houston office of Weil, Gotshal & Manges, says Coleman joined Weil in 1993 as a young associate after clerking for Jones, returned again after his Supreme Court clerkship and joined as a partner after his service as solicitor general. South Texas College of Law professor James Paulsen says Coleman also was an adjunct faculty member at STCL before he clerked at the Supreme Court. “He was an incredibly, incredibly, incredibly nice guy and one of the smartest people I’ve ever met,” Paulsen says. Former Texas Supreme Court Justice Scott Brister, a partner in Andrews Kurth in Austin, says Coleman was one of the best lawyers he ever encountered. “I don’t know of anybody in Texas who had more recent appearances before the U.S. Supreme Court,” Brister says. “He was one of the most humble, soft-spoken litigators you’ll ever meet. I don’t know of anybody who was brighter or worked harder than he did.” Coleman, who headed YetterColeman’s appellate litigation practice, appeared before the nation’s highest court last month. On Oct. 13, Coleman argued on behalf of Lynn Switzer, district attorney of the 31st Judicial District in Skinner v. Switzer, a case in which a Texas death-row inmate sued the district attorney to obtain release of DNA evidence for testing. Texas Supreme Court Justice Don Willett clerked with Coleman at the 5th Circuit and had Coleman over to meet his own law clerks a few weeks ago. “They were so thrilled to meet the heralded Greg Coleman, and he was delighted to mentor two idealistic young lawyers. The chief lesson he imparted was to safeguard your reputation, and Greg’s reputation — both personal and professional — was sterling,” Willett says. “Greg was one of my dearest friends, and I’ve met few people in life so fully admirable: superb personal character, deep family devotion and matchless legal talent.”
From Messenger to Client
Jeffrey Allen Bishop served as a messenger for the firm of Charles Septowski , an Austin tax solo; Septowski is now representing Bishop in a suit against a bank, at which the messenger allegedly tried to deposit a check for the firm. According to an amended complaint filed on Nov. 22 in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas in Austin in Jeffrey Allen Bishop v. Regions Bank NA, Bishop made deposits as a messenger for Septowski’s firm at a branch of Regions Bank. Bishop is a disabled individual, according to Septowski and the complaint. Regions Bank is a Birmingham, Ala.-based institution with branches in Texas. According to the complaint, during one instance when Bishop attempted to make a deposit for Septowski’s firm, “questions arose” about the deposit, and a Regions’ assistant branch manager called Septowski. In response, the complaint continues, Septowski told the assistant branch manager in “explicit terms” to process the deposit. In an interview, Septowski says he forcefully told the assistant branch manager, using an expletive for emphasis, to deposit the two-party check. In response, the bank rejected the deposit, froze the firm’s account and sought to terminate Bishop’s accounts, according to the complaint. The bank then went further and rejected Bishop’s personal deposits and closed his account before giving notice, according to the complaint. The bank had been cashing Bishop’s Social Security disability checks for some time and was aware through its personnel that Bishop was a disabled individual, according to the complaint. Bishop alleges in the complaint that the bank’s actions triggered a “crisis with his physicians and requiring emergency intervention to control anxiety, severe depression, a suicide attempt, and the loss of personal capacities to function independently resulting in hospitalization.” The bank’s actions had a “direct impact” on Bishop’s “capacity to even buy medicines and food,” according to the complaint. Bishop asserts a claim of intentional infliction of emotional distress and seeks $1 million in compensatory damages and attorneys’ fees. Barbara Ellis , a partner in the Austin office of Locke Lord Bissell & Liddell , represents Regions Bank. A call to her led to a response from Evelyn Mitchell, a bank spokeswoman, who said the bank and its lawyers would not comment on pending litigation. The bank’s answer to the complaint is due Jan. 21, 2011, according to the docket sheet on PACER, the federal courts’ online filing system. On Oct. 20, Regions Bank removed the case to the federal court from the 126th District Court in Travis County, where Bishop initially filed suit on Sept. 18.
