© 2014 The Texas Lawbook.
By Brooks Igo
Staff Writer for The Texas Lawbook
(February 4) — Austin-based appellate boutique Alexander Dubose Jefferson & Townsend recently added Marcy Hogan Greer to its Austin office as a partner. She joins from Norton Rose Fulbright, where she practiced for 20 years.
Greer said the opportunity to practice at a boutique firm factored into her decision and allows her to do even more purely appellate work and to develop virtual legal strategy teams.
“The opportunity to build a national appellate practice with former Chief Justice Wallace Jefferson and a platform of stellar appellate lawyers already at the firm was irresistible,” she said.
Currently, Greer is working on a case involving cy pres awards to non-profits in connection with class action settlements that is now before the Supreme Court of Texas. Texas Access to Justice, Texas Appleseed, the Nature Conservancy and Texas Legal Services Center have all supported her clients with amicus briefs.
“This case is important to me because it combines my practice experience with handling class actions with my passion for non-profit organizations, especially those who provide legal services to low-income Texans,” she said.
Greer is also currently representing a death row inmate with help from the Innocence Project. They are working to develop claims of actual innocence, as well as other constitutional challenges to his conviction and sentence.
“I am learning all about forensic DNA, which is really fascinating, and of course, the stakes are as high as it gets, which is very sobering,” she said.
The University of Houston Law Center graduate was awarded the Texas Bar Association’s Frank J. Scurlock Award for Outstanding Legal Services to the Poor in 2011 and has served as the Lead Pro Bono Partner with Texas Appleseed on a major project commissioned by the Texas Supreme Court focused on improving the lives of foster children in Texas.
Pursuing the cause of justice and fighting for her beliefs are characteristics Greer says have been instilled in her by the legacy of Sam Houston, the first president of the Republic of Texas and her great-great-great grandfather.
“I’ve never attempted to live up to his legendary status,” she said. “His story reminds me that even people who accomplish great things are human, and we can all overcome our frailties and disappointments to become even better people.”
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