Two Houston judges who lost in the 2018 midterm elections announced Tuesday that they have landed at new firms.
Former Texas First Court of Appeals Justice Jane Bland started Monday as an appellate partner at Vinson & Elkins, and a colleague from the First COA bench, Harvey Brown, has joined The Lanier Law Firm, where he will handle trial work and appeals as well as mediation and arbitration.
Bland brings 21 years of judicial experience to her new firm, while Brown brings 15. In addition to serving on the First Court of Appeals, both previously served as state trial judges in Houston, where they took hundreds of cases to jury and bench trials. Both won a multitude of honors and awards during their time on the bench.
Multiple sources have previously told The Texas Lawbook that Bland was on the short list for becoming a Texas Supreme Court justice the last time Governor Greg Abbott named one.
“Jane was an incredible judge and is an outstanding appellate advocate and trial attorney,” said Jim Thompson, V&E’s global litigation department co-head. “Her reputation for excellence and wealth of experience she brings make her a perfect fit at V&E.”
Lanier Law Firm founder Mark Lanier said he and his colleagues are “very gratified” Brown decided to land at his firm given the “number of opportunities and firms” he was presented to resume his practice.
Bland said she joined V&E because she has always had “tremendous admiration and respect” for the lawyers she’s known there for decades.
“When the opportunity presented itself, it seemed like a great fit for my experience and what I could offer to their existing, terrific law firm,” Bland told The Texas Lawbook. “It was the right time and the right fit.”
She’ll also get to call her spouse a colleague; her husband, Doug Bland, is a partner in the firm’s energy transactions & projects practice group.
Asked what her favorite experiences were while serving in Houston’s 281st Judicial District and First Court of Appeals, she hesitated to home in on one case.
“There wasn’t a single case or a single day that I didn’t learn something new… about a lawyer involved, the parties and about my community and the kinds of disputes that people face and encounter in life, whether it was a business or family relationship,” she said. “There isn’t any single case that I didn’t learn and grow from having worked on it.”
As an appellate justice, Bland authored more than 1,200 signed opinions. In 2006, while sitting by special commission, Bland delivered the majority opinion for the Texas Supreme Court in Hyundai v. Vasquez, in which the court clarified principals of jury selection for the state’s trial courts.
In rejoining private practice, Bland said she looks the most forward to “working with lawyers again more directly… representing clients and advocating for a position.”
Brown said he decided to open his new career chapter at The Lanier Firm for many reasons: it provides a platform for him to practice both trial and appellate work, he believes working for a plaintiff’s firm will allow him to have fewer conflicts in his arbitration and mediation practice and will “provide some unique opportunities,” and it was an opportunity to practice with a longtime friend. Brown and his wife have been friends with Lanier and his wife for more than 20 years.
Brown says he’s already kept busy since joining Lanier. A day after he officially joined Lanier Law Firm on Jan. 9, he hopped on a flight to Dallas to spend three weeks in federal court for the latest Johnson & Johnson hip implant trial. The parties announced Monday that they have agreed to settle the bulk, if not all, of the consumers’ lawsuits.
Today, he mixed things up by working on a brief for the Texas Supreme Court.
“I look forward to having a lot of diverse things to work on,” Brown said. “I got involved yesterday in a securities case.”
Asked how the new Democratic judges in Dallas and Houston will impact the civil justice system in the two jurisdictions, Bland said she believes every judge has “the same goal in mind” regardless of their political affiliation, “which is to do your best to resolve disputes for Texas citizens in a way that applies the law safely and in accordance with precedent and the guidelines that the legislature has set forward.”
Because of the mass sweep in the appellate courts of both Dallas and Houston during the Nov. 6 election, Brown pointed out that the new judges have a challenge unique from what he experienced when joining the bench: they will have fewer judicial colleagues to lean on who have been on the bench for a while.
“When I came on the bench, I was the only new judge,” he said of his first few months in the 152nd Judicial District in Houston, where he served for more than six years. “When I joined the Court of Appeals, I had eight colleagues to help me, all with years of experience [on the bench].”
However, the new judges “are very experienced and have the intellect and firepower to do the job,” he said.