© 2014 The Texas Lawbook.
By Brooks Igo
Staff Writer for The Texas Lawbook
(May 16) – Rey Rodriguez jumped on a “once-in-a-lifetime” opportunity and joined Hankinson LLP, the firm announced earlier this week. The former Norton Rose Fulbright partner becomes the Dallas-based appellate boutique’s seventh lawyer.
Rodriguez said he couldn’t pass up the opportunity to work with former Supreme Court of Texas Justice Deborah Hankinson and former Fifth District Court of Appeals Justice Joseph Morris. He also noted that he was attracted by the boutique model.
“It is the best way to provide deep expertise at an affordable rate, especially with a specialized practice,” he said. “Clients are demanding top value from legal spend.
“This boutique is perfectly suited to address this.”
One trend the 1993 valedictorian of SMU’s Dedman School of Law said he is seeing in his practice is clients are becoming more savvy about combining appellate specialists and litigators at all aspects of the litigation – from pre-trial preparations, through summary judgment and making the jury charge, to post-trial motions.
Appellate experts are able to provide strategy and analysis for the entire case, Rodriguez said.
“We are able to help the client posture for any further review,” he said.
Rodriguez said one of the most interesting cases he handled came in his representation of the city of Texarkana in a 1960 water dispute. He made a novel argument that Texarkana was cloaked with government immunity. His defense argument lost at the trial court but he won at the 6th Court of Appeals of Texarkana.
Another memorable case for Rodriguez was one he argued at the Supreme Court of Texas and prevailed on a limitations defense for his client, a surgical facilities company.
Outside of his private practice, Rodriguez currently serves as the secretary/treasurer of the Dallas Bar Foundation and is the co-chair of the State Bar of Texas Appellate Section Pro Bono Committee, a responsibility he said he will lead for “as long as they will have me.”
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