Former U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison joined Bracewell & Giuliani on Feb. 6, where she will counsel clients in the energy, banking, transportation and telecommunications industries. Hutchison, who served in the U.S. Senate from 1993 through earlier this year, will be a senior counsel in Bracewell’s Dallas office, where her husband, Ray Hutchison, is a public finance senior counsel. Hutchison, who did not seek re-election, says she will not lobby. She says she is excited to help Bracewell expand its international practice. "I also will be of course giving the benefits of my experience on how things are done in Washington. It will be a counselor role," she says. Hutchison notes that she also will devote time to boards: She is a member of the Bank of America Global Advisory Council and an advisory board member for the Center for Strategic and International Studies, which she describes as a think tank for national security. Hutchison says she also will be doing public speaking, and she already had a sit-down with New York City name partner Rudy Giuliani, who is also active on the lecture circuit. Hutchison says Bracewell is the right firm for her post-Senate career. "It fit was what I was looking for certainly a Texas-based firm that had a strong Washington-based presence, because my experience will be in Washington, both on the regulatory side and the congressional side," she says. Also, Hutchison says, Houston partner Patrick Oxford, chairman and former managing partner of the firm, is a friend from the University of Texas School of Law. Mark Evans, the firm’s Houston-based managing partner, says energy and finance are two top practice areas for the firm and Hutchison will be particularly helpful in both areas. "She brings an incredible experience, enthusiasm, energy. She again knows many of the top people in our client base. She’s going to be very helpful in a senior role," he says. Hutchison says the last time she and her husband worked in the same office was at his public finance firm before she ran for Texas treasurer. She served as Texas treasurer from 1991 to 1993.
Guilty of Threats
On Jan. 31, Larry Boyd Wren II pleaded guilty to writing a letter that could lead to him serving up to 10 years in prison and paying a fine of up to $250,000. Wren, an inmate in the Brown County jail, pleaded guilty to one count of mailing threatening communications. His addressee: U.S. District Judge Sam R. Cummings of the Northern District of Texas. According to a factual résumé that Wren and his lawyer, federal public defender Michael King in Lubbock, signed and filed on the same day of Wren’s guilty plea Wren wrote the letter to Cummings in June 2012 when Wren was incarcerated in Brown County, accused of committing several state offenses. According to the factual résumé, Wren previously had been convicted in the Western District of Texas for a firearms offense, then his case was moved to the Northern District of Texas. The factual résumé states that Wren wanted to make sure that the time he served for the state offenses also kept the clock going for his federal sentence of 41 months, to be followed by three years of supervised release. According to the factual résumé, Wren expressed his frustration with his incarceration and lack of legal resources, writing in the letter to Cummings: "[Y]ou can either review my fed & state situation or I’ll cut your fucking head off and earn a real charge!" King says his client was seeking to be taken into federal custody to ask for a resolution on his revocation of supervised release. Due to the letter, King says, Wren’s case was transferred from Cummings to U.S. District Judge Mary Lou Robinson in the Northern District of Texas.
