© 2015 The Texas Lawbook.
By Brooks Igo
(April 24) – Prominent appellate boutique Alexander Dubose Jefferson & Townsend LLP (ADJT) announced recently that it boosted its Dallas office by adding Kirsten Castañeda as a partner.
Castañeda said she was attracted by the opportunity to be a part of a free-standing appellate group.
“I can serve trial lawyers at several firms now,” she said. “I want to respond to the needs of Dallas trial lawyers quickly. If I’m not available, I have a deep bench to draw on.”
Castañeda said she has “deep respect” for her new ADJT colleagues and looks to Justice Wallace Jefferson, Justice Woodie Jones and Roger Townsend to “keep her career and personal compass pointing true north.”
She joins ADJT from Locke Lord, where she practiced for 19 years. She said the trial lawyers she worked with there are “second to none.”
“I have the utmost respect for my former Locke colleagues,” she said. “Without them, I could not be the lawyer I am today.”
The SMU Dedman School of Law graduate has handled several cases of first impression in Texas appellate courts, including Trinity Drywall Systems, Inc. v. TOKA General Contractors, Ltd.; HSBC Bank USA, N.A. v. Watson; and Rivera v. Countrywide Home Loans, Inc.
She recently argued a case on behalf of a federal savings bank at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. The case, Barzelis v. Flagstar Bank, F.S.B., involves an issue from the Home Owners’ Loan Act (HOLA) that Castañeda says hasn’t been addressed yet by many of the circuit courts.
“The appeal presents the first opportunity to observe how the Court will analyze and apply HOLA preemption,” she said.
The Fifth Circuit issued an opinion on the case on Wednesday and both parties have 14 days from the date of the opinion issued to move for panel or en banc rehearing.
Castañeda says she is keeping an eye on mortgage litigation documents that are coming out of the Fifth Circuit because there is a lot of available information on how judges are viewing statutory interpretation and preemption.
Another development Castañeda is observing is a sharp downturn of ultimate reviewability in healthcare liability claims. She says there is not as much of a possibility to get high court review in these cases.
“Unless it meets a higher level of legal issue, the Texas Supreme Court is getting more exclusive in what they are going to grant,” she said.
Castañeda says she is known by her colleagues for “digging in” the more difficult the situation is, recalling all-nighters and times when she had to pull together briefs under time constraints.
“My parents taught me to balance perseverance with creativity and never give up,” she said.
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