Stephen Fernelius has joined Bradley Arant Boult Cummings in Houston as a partner in the energy practice group, a move the trial lawyer calls his “third act,” after 13 years at a trial boutique he founded and 19 years before that at a global firm.

“I really want to go try cases, represent clients,” said Fernelius, who started his career at Fulbright & Jaworski in Houston, now Norton Rose Fulbright, until he founded a trial boutique, most recently known as Fernelius Mace, in 2010.