© 2015 The Texas Lawbook.
By Natalie Posgate
DALLAS (Dec. 7) – Amy M. Stewart received a call one day from an unfamiliar, older male voice.
“Hey hon,” the man said after she answered the phone.
“Hey?” she said hesitantly.
Stewart had no idea who the caller was. Because the man had a southern accent and she is from North Carolina, she entertained the idea that the man was a distant relative.
They spoke for about 30 seconds until the man said, “This isn’t my Amy, is it?”
“This is an Amy,” Stewart replied. “I think you need the other Amy Stewart.”
The man was the father of Amy Elizabeth Stewart, another attorney in Dallas who also happens to work in business law. Ironically, he did not have his daughter’s number saved, so he took upon to the yellow pages to reach her.
It certainly wasn’t the first time the two Amys were mixed up. Amy M. already had a phone number beside her desk to direct the father to the “other Amy Stewart.”
“From time to time, I’ve gotten [the other Amy’s] deposition transcripts and court orders,” said Amy Elizabeth, adding that she “religiously” uses her middle name since the mix-ups began.
If the shared name doesn’t confuse people enough in the DFW Metroplex, the situation gets even more drastic at American Bar Association events, where three Amy Stewarts are thrown into the mix.
The third, Amy Lee Stewart, is from Little Rock, Ark. and practices complex commercial litigation at the Rose Law Firm. One time, Amy M. arrived at a conference before Arkansas Amy, so the hotel cancelled her room, thinking they had double-booked on accident.
There’s also a fourth Amy Stewart with Texas roots, albeit in California, who is a New York Times bestselling author on plant-based cocktails, poisonous plants and other topics (Amy E. has sure received some strange e-mail inquiries as a result).
Though the name mix-ups have been occurring for several years, the Dallas Amys did not meet until earlier this year, when Amy M. introduced Amy E. as a speaker at a State Bar of Texas Litigation Section-sponsored CLE conference in San Antonio.
“We just gave each other a huge hug,” Amy M. said. “Some people at first thought I was going to speak and were wondering if I was referring to myself in the third person.”
At lunch with the two Amy Stewarts on a sunny December afternoon at Toulouse, off the Katy Trail, it is immediately apparent that they share more than just a name: Both are mothers. Both are list-makers. Both are entrepreneurial. Both are active in the ABA, State Bar and women-focused professional groups.
But most importantly, both are female power attorneys who have hit exciting milestones in their careers and are true leaders in the legal community.
Amy E. founded a successful law firm that continues to grow, and Amy M. is a partner at Estes Okon Thorne & Carr, the largest woman-owned law firm in Texas.
Insurance Amy
Amy Elizabeth, known by her name twin as “Insurance Amy,” recently celebrated her firm’s six-year anniversary and snagged some stellar lateral hires. Now with seven attorneys, the boutique Amy Stewart Law exclusively represents policyholders in complex insurance coverage and bad faith litigation. Clients range from small family-owned businesses to high net worth individuals to Fortune 100 companies.
Stewart started her firm in the fall of 2009, after spending 17 years in Big Law. A graduate of the University of Virginia School of Law, Stewart started her legal career at Gardere Wynne Sewell in 1992 practicing commercial litigation. Five years later, she moved to Wilson Elser Moskowitz Edelman & Dicker, where she was introduced to insurance litigation by defending insurance carriers in coverage disputes.
By 2009, Stewart was ready for a change. She always liked the idea of taking on a heavier leadership position, so she sought out the opportunity to spearhead a new insurance coverage practice group at a firm that did not have one. The timing was off for that, however. Many firms were risk-averse due to the recession, therefore not looking for growth opportunities.
But Stewart still believed in her plan, so she took matters into her own hands and started Amy Stewart Law. The first year her firm was in operation, she represented both policyholders and insurers. After establishing herself, she switched to her ultimate dream: exclusively representing policyholders.
“I realized in the process of talking to other firms that I believed in my own plan, that I could make it work,” Stewart said. “It’s the best decision I’ve ever made.”
Six years later, the firm is thriving – especially with recent strong lateral hires. Last July, Amy Stewart Law snagged Tarron Gartner-Ilai, who has nearly 10 years of in-house experience at Travelers Insurance. And last November, Stewart welcomed her newest attorney and old former colleague, Tracy Schrader.
Stewart formerly worked with Schrader during her days at Gardere. He also served as Amy Stewart Law’s fractional general counsel, a role he took up after spending many years doing in-house legal work, senior management and professional consulting services. At Amy Stewart Law, he leads the firm’s risk management consulting practice.
When asked where she sees the firm in the next five years, Stewart said the firm wants to grow – especially by bolstering its national practice. But she doesn’t want to rush the growth.
“We’re definitely in expansion mode,” she said, but, “we want to increase our size in a responsible way.”
Coach Amy
The same month Amy Stewart Law celebrated its fifth anniversary last year, Amy M. Stewart reached her own milestone by joining the second minority-owned law firm in her career – a move that also promoted her from a senior associate to a partner. Last September, Stewart left the downtown office of White & Wiggins, Dallas’ oldest African-American-owned law firm, to Turtle Creek’s Estes, Okon, Thorne & Carr, the largest women-owned law firm in Texas.
The move worked well for Stewart, who had been “eyeing the firm from afar.” When an opportunity arose, Stewart, already a fan of practicing at minority-owned law firms, said she reached out to named partner Melanie Okon through a friend.
“I just reached out and it was just one of those things that was meant to happen,” Stewart said. “I met with Melanie and Dawn Estes at the Mansion for lunch, we had a great visit, and the rest is history.”
A year later, Stewart is still happier than ever with her decision to move her practice there.
“They’re just a great group of women and litigators,” Stewart said. “I love going to work every single day. “There is a push for companies to find outside counsel that are more like their clients. [Practicing at Estes Okon] really helps me out in marketing that.”
Stewart took a non-conventional path that led to her legal career. She started her post-college career coaching women’s basketball at her alma mater team, the Wake Forest Demon Deacons, and a year later, at the Tulane Green Wave.
She later jumped into pharmaceutical sales, but she reached a crossroad when the company went out of business. Stewart said she always wanted to be a lawyer – especially because, like coaches, attorneys are in “adversarial positions” – but she never considered it seriously until then. A few years later, she got a law degree from the University of Missouri.
She moved to Dallas for her husband’s job at the Big 12 Conference headquarters, and practiced at Markland Hanley, Cox Smith and Bickel & Brewer before joining White & Wiggins in 2013.
At Estes Okon, Stewart divides her practice between complex commercial litigation, labor & employment law and insurance defense.
She also recently began advising small, non-Texas-based companies that are beginning to do business in Texas and don’t have their own in-house legal department. One example is the Georgia-based flooring company, 50 Floor.
When she’s not lawyering, Stewart continues her passion for coaching by working with her 11-year-old daughter’s basketball team. But even when she’s wearing the lawyer hat, her coaching side still comes out.
“Coaching has kind of infused itself into my entire professional career… it’s still a part of me today,” she said. “Even with clients, we talk about what our game plans are [before trial].
Like athletics, “litigation is always changing. As soon as opposing counsel changes the strategy, you have to change yours,” she said.
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