Gov. Greg Abbott has appointed two judges each to the new business courts in San Antonio, Dallas, Fort Worth and Austin leaving only the division in Houston without inaugural appointees.
On Thursday morning, the governor announced the two appointees for the business court division in San Antonio.
Marialyn Barnard, who currently presides over the 73rd District Court in Bexar County and previously served for a decade as a justice on the Fourth Court of Appeals in San Antonio, will be one of two judges on the business court. Joining her on the bench will be Stacy Sharp, an appellate attorney in San Antonio and adjunct professor at the University of Texas at Austin.
Barnard is a former Bexar County commissioner and the former chair of the San Antonio bar’s litigation section. She has previously volunteered with San Antonio Metropolitan Ministries, Child Advocates San Antonio and Big Brothers Big Sisters.
She holds a bachelor’s degree in political science and English from Texas A&M University and is a graduate of the St. Mary’s University School of Law.
Sharp is the former president of the Federal Bar Association in Austin and has volunteered with Alamo Heights Independent School District, the National Charity League and the Young Men’s Service League. She holds a bachelor’s degree in math, Spanish and education from Vanderbilt University and is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin School of Law.
On Wednesday the governor appointed the judges in Dallas and Fort Worth and on Tuesday he appointed jurists to the newly-created Fifteenth Court of Appeals as well as the Austin division of the business courts.
In Dallas, Andrea Bouressa, who currently serves as a district court judge in Collin County, and William “Bill” Whitehill, a former justice on the Fifth Court of Appeals and current member of Condon Tobin Sladek Thornton Nerenberg, will be presiding over the business court division. And in Fort Worth, Jerry Bullard of Adams, Lynch & Loftin, and Brian Stagner of Kelly Hart & Hallman, were appointed to the bench.
Bouressa holds a bachelor’s degree in sociology from Texas A&M University, a master’s degree in sociology from the University of North Texas and is a graduate of the Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law.
Recently, she served for two years as the local administrative judge for Collin County and is a member of the Curt B. Henderson American Inn of Court and The Federalist Society. The Collin County Women Lawyers Association recognized Bouressa with its Outstanding Jurist award in 2023.
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Whitehill served as a justice on the Fifth Court of Appeals in Dallas from 2015 until 2020 and authored more than 600 opinions during that time. Before his time on the court, Whitehill was an appellate partner at Gardere Wynne Sewell, the firm now known as Foley & Lardner.
He serves as chair of the Dallas Bar Association’s appellate section and is a former chair of the state bar’s antitrust and business litigation section. Whitehill also is an adjunct instructor teaching trial advocacy at the Dedman School of Law, a master of the Mac Taylor Inn of Court.
Whitehill holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Texas at Austin and is a graduate of the Dedman School of Law.
Fort Worth appointee Bullard has more than 30 years of experience as a trial and appellate lawyer. He holds a bachelor’s degree in telecommunications from Baylor University and is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin School of Law.
He serves on the Texas Supreme Court Advisory Committee, was a gubernatorial appointee on the Texas Juvenile Justice Board and serves on the state bar’s appellate, litigation, legislative and campaign law sections.
Stagner has spent the entirety of his 27-year legal career with Kelly Hart & Hallman. He holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration and management from Angelo State University and is a graduate of the Texas Tech University School of Law.
He is a former barrister of the American Inns of Court and a member of the state bar’s litigation and appellate sections. He has previously volunteered with Habitat for Humanity and Big Brothers Big Sisters of Texas and has served as a board member of the Court Appointed Special Advocates of Parker County.
Last month, the first known constitutional challenge to the creation of the Fifteenth Court of Appeals landed at the Texas Supreme Court. In that case, Dallas County is accusing the Texas Health and Human Services Commission of failing to comply with obligations to transfer inmates who have been determined not competent to stand trial or not guilty by reason of insanity from the county jail to state hospitals.
Dallas County has asked the state’s supreme court to declare the newly created court unconstitutional in a bid to prevent its lawsuit from being transferred Sept. 1 when the new court goes live. The county argues the structure of the new court violates the state’s constitution.
In a response to the petition filed June 7, attorneys with the state solicitor general’s office, representing the HHSC, told the Texas Supreme Court that while the state “would benefit from resolution of the question presented,” jurisdictional defects, including Dallas County’s lack of standing, prevent the court from hearing the case.
Additionally, the creation of the new court “does not violate any provision of the Texas Constitution,” the response argues.