Rowlett appellate solo Chad Baruch landed a job that invariably will lead to comparisons to a late-1970s TV drama called “The White Shadow” — a show about a white former NBA player who coaches an inner-city high school basketball team. At least it will for those who are old enough to remember the ’70s. That’s because Baruch, who is also a white guy, is now the head basketball coach of Paul Quinn College, a small historically black university south of downtown Dallas. Baruch says he left a job at a private Jewish school a year ago where he was basketball coach, and mutual attorney acquaintances put him in touch with fellow lawyer and president at Paul Quinn Michael Sorrell. Sorrell has been getting positive press in recent years for improving the once struggling school by raising academic standards, hiring quality professors and even going so far as turning the school’s unused football field into a vibrant vegetable garden. Baruch says he likes what’s going on at Paul Quinn and its president. “The first thing I liked about him [is that] he was a former college basketball player. He played at Oberlin [College], and he understands the small college athletic balance.” Sorrells did not immediately return a call for comment. Baruch says he met his team recently on the last day of class. And all of his players are much too young to immediately get the White Shadow references, he says. “These kids weren’t alive when Clinton was president,” Baruch says. But his assistant coach kind of remembered, he says, asking Baruch: “Wasn’t there a T.V. show . . . ?”
Thompson, Coe in CA
Dallas-based Thompson, Coe, Cousins & Irons has opened an eight-lawyer office in Los Angeles. Frances O’Meara of Los Angeles is the managing partner of the office, which increases Thompson, Coe’s size to 152 lawyers. The new office, which will be called Thompson Coe & O’Meara in California, went live on June 3, says Thompson, Coe managing partner Jack Cleaveland of Dallas. “We have a lot of clients that have asked us to take a bigger role in California,” Cleaveland says. “This is just consistent with our response to our client needs.” Initially, the L.A. office is operating as a subsidiary of Thompson, Coe, but the two firms will merge in the future, he says. “Frances O’Meara has been practicing in similar areas where we practice — professional liability and employment litigation — and we had shared common clients and common practices for a number of years,” he says. Cleaveland declines to name clients. “We found we had a common interest, a common shared interest about the practice of law,” he says. “We’re very compatible people.” O’Meara did not immediately return a telephone call seeking comment. In addition to Dallas and Los Angeles, the BigTex firm has offices in Austin, Houston and St. Paul, Minn. Thompson, Coe’s gross revenue for 2012 was $38.5 million, with a net income of $10 million and profits per partner of $350,000, according to Texas Lawyer’s annual firm finance report published April 29, 2013. Cleaveland says business during the first months of 2013 has been strong. “That helped us make this decision to reach out to California and start a new practice there,” he says.
