© 2018 The Texas Lawbook.
By Brooks Igo
(May 31) – David Keltner has had a distinguished and decorated career in the practice of law that has included serving on the Texas Court of Appeals, being a pioneer of the state’s appellate bar and receiving numerous awards for excellence and professionalism.
But this month he received an honor that ranks near the top of his accomplishments. The Tarrant County Bar Association presented Keltner with its most prestigious recognition, The Blackstone Award, which his father received in 1986.
Keltner and his dad, the late Edgar H. Keltner, Jr., are the first father-son recipients in the award’s history.
“Receiving this award just proves that you’re old,” said Keltner, a partner at Kelly, Hart & Hallman in Fort Worth. “I don’t know if I’m deserving of this, but I am very gratified that someone thinks I am. That makes a difference to me because this is a unique award.”
Keltner’s father was a corporate and securities lawyer who started his own firm, which eventually grew to more than 50 attorneys in the 1980s. He counseled several of Fort Worth’s most prominent companies, including Texas American Bancshares, Southland Royalty Company and the global eye care company Alcon Laboratories, which he incorporated.
“It is a really nice thing to win an award your father has won. That makes it especially gratifying,” Keltner said.
Colleagues praise Keltner’s work ethic and character. Marshall Searcy, a litigation partner at Kelly Hart and 2015 Blackstone Award winner, says “he is what every lawyer and person should strive to be.
“He is brilliant but always humble and understanding; strong while remaining steadfastly compassionate and kind; diligent yet always there to support and give; and filled with an integrity wholly unmarred by hubris or self-adulation,” Searcy added.
Sharon Millians, a member of Kelly Hart’s executive committee, said Keltner “never approaches a legal argument thinking it is unwinnable.
“He exhibits what Dee Kelly said was all-important to build a great reputation: hard work and total dedication,” she said. “He works until he finds a way through sound legal analysis to prevail.”
When Keltner started his career at Shannon, Gracey, Ratliff & Miller after graduating from the SMU Dedman School of Law in 1975, there weren’t many lawyers dedicated to building an appellate practice and it was rare for a law firm to have an appellate section. His mentor, Kleber Miller, even tried to persuade him to not pursue appellate work.
Keltner started focusing on appeals work anyway and was later appointed by then-Texas Governor Mark White to the state’s Second Court of Appeals in Fort Worth in 1986. After serving on the Texas appeals court for four years, he was hired by Haynes and Boone to launch its appellate section. Keltner has practiced for the last 11 years at Kelly Hart.
In 2017, Keltner won a major appellate victory for Enterprise Products Partners when the Dallas Court of Appeals reversed a landmark $535 million 2014 jury verdict against his client in a partnership dispute with Energy Transfer Partners.
But it was a 1985 case called U.S. v. Keith Bryan Webb that comes to Keltner’s mind when asked about which of the more than 300 appeals he has handled best embodies the spirit of The Blackstone Award.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit appointed Keltner to represent Keith Bryan Webb, a man accused of killing his two-year-old son. Keltner’s advocacy got his client’s conviction reversed.
“There were a lot of criticisms of me,” he said. “It was a difficult case with horrible facts. Webb deserved representation like any other accused.”
The Webb case is a perfect example of why Miller, the legendary Fort Worth lawyer, calls his mentee Keltner a “true professional.”
“The essence of this noble profession is service to others and not the sale of a product,” Miller said. “His career exemplifies this belief as he has rendered service to others from large companies to pro bono clients in needy circumstances.”
Keltner, now in his 60s, has no interest in retiring from the practice of law anytime soon.
“To me it is one of the best things you can do. If I didn’t do it for a living I would do it for a hobby. I’m going to continue doing this for another good 20 years,” he said.
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