Inadmissible

Partnership comes with many benefits — firm ownership, prestige, higher billing rates. But at Houston-based Susman Godfrey , partnership also comes with a new pair of western boots. “You attend your first partners’ meeting, and, after that, some of the partners retire for drinks,” says Daniel H. Charest of Dallas, who attended his first Susman partners’ meeting in Houston on Jan. 15. “Then a partner in Houston, Neal Manne , gathers the new partners together and brings you over to the boot store and tells the manager to ‘hook them up.’ Charest says there are five new Susman partners this year including himself. Charest’s brown leather Lucchese boots arrived recently. “It’s really cool, because it’s a Texas firm at heart but also draws people from all over,” Charest says of Susman Godfrey. Charest — who grew up in West Buxton, a small town in Maine — says the new boots are not his first pair, but they are his “best ones for sure.” Manne does not remember when he first started buying boots for new partners. “I just thought it would be fun,” he says. “The key thing is we have offices in Dallas, Houston, New York, Seattle and L.A. and it seems like, especially the new partners in California, Seattle and New York, when they come in for partners’ meetings, they always wear the boots they got the year before or eight years before.” Manne says after their first partnership meeting, he takes the new partners to different stores in Houston so that each lawyer can find the boots they prefer in the right size. Manne notes that Charest called him when his boots arrived. “He was feeling mighty good with his boots on,” Manne says.

Hello, San Antonio

Naman Howell Smith & Lee of Waco has expanded its reach in Texas with a new office in San Antonio staffed by five lawyers who left Ball & Weed . Roy Barrett , president of 62-lawyer Naman Howell, says his firm’s growth strategy has been along the I-35 corridor, and an office in San Antonio supports the plan. “San Antonio was a good opportunity to further that strategy and have a footprint in not only another major metropolitan area, but also a gateway to South Texas,” Barrett says. On Jan. 11, Larry Warren , J.K. Leonard and Darrell Smith joined Naman Howell as members, and Mark Cooper joined as an associate. On Jan. 24, another former Ball & Weed lawyer, Michael Myers , joined Naman Howell as a member, Barrett says. Barrett says the new attorneys, who do civil litigation, are well-known to some lawyers at his firm and their practices “mesh well.” The transition from Ball & Weed to Naman Howell may have been easier than most firm moves, since the new Naman Howell lawyers are practicing out of the same offices they were in at Ball & Weed. That’s a temporary arrangement, Barrett says. “We currently have a transition agreement with Ball & Weed under which we are subleasing not only office space, but also furniture and equipment, and we continue to work on options regarding those matters as time goes by,” he says. Calls to Ball & Weed were referred to shareholder Cynthia Grimes , who could not be reached for comment. According to the Ball & Weed website, six lawyers currently work at the firm.

Striking Gold in Big D