Veteran Houston appellate lawyer Roger Townsend has left the boutique law firm he helped launch more than 15 years ago for Cokinos Young.
Townsend, a founding partner of Alexander Dubose Jefferson & Townsend, says he did not know Cokinos very well until recently, but that the more he talked to them the more it felt like he was talking to himself.
“It’s the feeling like you are falling in love,” Townsend adds. “I adore this firm. I’ve been doing this for 40 years and this feels like a perfect fit.”
Also joining Cokinos with Townsend is Austin lawyer Dana Livingston. Their former firm will now be called Alexander Dubose & Jefferson. The appellate boutique announced their departure on its website as “amicable and voluntary.
“When the firm founded in 2003, it was Roger’s vision to build a powerhouse state-wide appellate law firm. Over the last 16 years that vision has been realized,” the firm’s farewell said.
“Alexander Dubose & Jefferson LLP is sad to lose friends, colleagues, and partners, but we also know that their new roles at Cokinos Young will bring great success, personal fulfillment, and excellent service to their clients. Roger & Dana will be greatly missed.”
Townsend described the announcement as “like getting to read my eulogy without being dead.”
A former chair of the State Bar of Texas Appellate Section, Townsend started his legal career in 1976 at Fulbright & Jaworski, where he practiced for nearly 20 years. He led the firm’s appellate group for almost eight years.
Considering his career highlights, Townsend says “nothing will ever top” being elected president of the by-invitation-only American Academy of Appellate Lawyers, which is the appellate version of the American College of Trial Lawyers.
Townsend, who is currently working on some big cases going to trial and on appeal with hundreds of millions of dollars at stake, says he is paying close attention to how fraud and business tort jurisprudence develops in the Texas appellate courts.
Specifically, he cited Mercedes-Benz USA v. Carduco, which was recently decided by the Texas Supreme Court, and IBM v. Lufkin Industries. The state high court’s unanimous 19-page opinion in the Mercedes-Benz dispute cited a case – Bradford v. Vento – Townsend was involved in 20 years ago.