The Texas Supreme Court’s electronic filing system was up and running as of March 28. It allows attorneys to file briefs, pay fees and serve opposing counsel from their computers. The e-filing system was supposed to start on March 14, but problems were discovered with the fee payment aspect of the system, so the start date was delayed. Texas Supreme Court Clerk Blake Hawthorne says the new system is running well and the court accepted its first e-filed brief the morning of March 28. But don’t throw out the printer just yet; two extra copies of filings must be snail-mailed to the high court when using the e-filing system.
Gordon & Rees Opens in Austin
Gordon & Rees opened a new office in Austin and expanded in Houston with 12 new attorneys who joined the firm March 31 from Austin-based Clark, Thomas & Winters . The new Austin office is the 19th for Gordon & Rees of San Francisco. Kenneth Ferguson is the managing partner of the new Austin office. Other new partners in Austin are Leslie Benitez , Michael Klatt and Andrew Hutton , while the new associates include David Bonnin , Lark Campbell , Elizabeth Cash , Lina Garcia , Shavonne Henderson and Shaun Lyons . In Houston, the new partners are Laura De Santos and Jeffrey Lilly . Ferguson did not return a telephone call seeking comment. In a statement, Ferguson writes that the firm provides him with an opportunity to offer clients a “comprehensive range of legal services.” Most of the new attorneys will practice in Gordon & Rees’ drug and medical device practice. Dion Cominos , managing partner of Gordon & Rees, says his firm moved into Austin because of the opportunity to bring on the Clark, Thomas group. “Austin is an attractive city for a lot of reasons, but this really accelerated to expanding there by finding the right group of people to do it with,” he says. Cominos says lawyers at his firm know many of the new attorneys from working together on drug and medical device litigation. Meade Bauer , president of Clark, Thomas did not return a telephone call seeking comment. Clark, Thomas has lost a number of attorneys recently, including a group of 29 who left to form a new firm in Austin on March 14, Duggins Wren Mann & Romero , and a group that left to open an Austin office for Minneapolis litigation firm Bowman and Brooke on Feb. 1. With the new lawyers, 435-lawyer Gordon & Rees has more than 40 lawyers in Texas offices in Austin, Dallas and Houston.
