Monica Latin had 30 minutes to make a decision. Lawyers for the plaintiffs, U.S. Risk Brokers, had just rested their non-compete after three days of trial testimony without calling the defendant as a witness.
“My client had been vilified and he really wanted to take the stand to defend himself,” Latin said.
Latin realized that opposing counsel planned to use their cross-examination of her client to “try to prove up specific elements of their claims.” It was a risk but Latin convinced her client, who was a senior broker at USR, to trust her when court reconvened.
Judge: Ms. Latin, call your next witness.
Latin: Your honor, the defense rests.
“The opposing attorneys were shocked,” she said, remembering back to the case in 2011. “I argued to the jury that the plaintiff had not met specific elements required in the law to prove their case. And the jury thankfully agreed.”
Latin’s critical thinking and strategic planning is a key reason why the partners at Dallas-based Carrington Coleman elected her as the law firm’s fifth managing partner in its 50-year history and the first woman to lead the firm. Her first day was Friday.
“We had an official passing of the torch Friday on an all-firm Zoom,” Latin told The Texas Lawbook in an interview Sunday. “We thanked Bruce for his eight years of incredible leadership.”
Bruce Collins has led the law firm for the past eight years. He told The Lawbook earlier this year that he plans to continue his complex commercial litigation practice at the firm.
“Monica is a natural to take the reins of this firm,” Collins said in a statement. “She knows the firm inside and out, knows what it stands for and understands our challenges and opportunities.”
Latin has been the head of litigation at Carrington Coleman and served on its five-person management committee.
“I never aspired to this position, but what a compliment it is to be chosen by the partnership to lead,” she said. “It is an honor I wouldn’t say no to.”
With 48 lawyers, Carrington Coleman is far from the largest corporate law firm in Dallas. The last time the firm reported its revenue, according to the Texas Lawyer, was 2014 when it had revenues per lawyer of $790,000, which was higher than Bracewell, Locke Lord and Winstead. If it is anywhere close to that today, it would put the firm’s annual revenues at about $35 million.
But Carrington Coleman is one of the most respected legal operations in North Texas. It was co-founded by legendary lawyer Jim Coleman, who died in February. It lost another great and long-time partner John Martin last October.
The list of great lawyers who trained under Coleman is long, including U.S. District Chief Judge Barbara Lynn, Bill Dawson of Gibson Dunn, Mark Werbner at Winston & Strawn, Dick Sayles at Bradley Arant, Baker Botts partner Rod Phelan and Vinson & Elkins partner George Kryder.
Numerous corporate general counsel, including Fannie Mae Deputy GC Todd Barton, North Texas Tollway Authority GC Dena Stroh and Avanos Medical Center GC John Wesley, have Carrington Coleman as a critical early stop in their careers.
Latin, who is 51, said that she will not step back from her litigation practice.
“At a firm our size, the managing partner position is not full-time,” she said. “I would not have accepted the position if I had to step away from my practice.”
Born and raised in El Paso and with no lawyers in her family, Latin traces her interests in being a lawyer to a high school debate her senior year.
“We were 10 minutes into the first round when I realized something was off while my opponent was speaking,” she said. “I took as many notes as I could, and when he was done, I asked the judge if I could step into the hallway.”
Latin spotted a student “talking to a wall – this is what speech kids do at tournaments” – she asked the student what the Lincoln-Douglas debate topic was.
“She told me, and it was an entirely different topic from what my school had been told,” Latin said. “I knew I had a choice. I could walk back into the classroom and withdraw under the circumstances, or give it a go. I chose the latter, went back inside and stood up and presented argument on the fly.”
Latin won the round and went on to win the whole tournament.
Latin’s father is an engineer who worked at El Paso Natural Gas for two decades and then served as senior vice president of Rimkus Consulting in Houston. He retired last year. Her mother went back to college in her 40s and earned a Ph.D. in economics at Texas Tech. She has been an economics professor at Houston Baptist University and Texas A&M in Galveston. She is retiring later this month.
During her first year of law school at the University of Texas, Latin was recruited by Wesley, who was at Carrington Coleman. She clerked at the firm that next summer and then was the briefing attorney for Texas Supreme Court Justice Lloyd Doggett, who is now in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Other law firms recruited Latin, but she found the “atmosphere and environment” at Carrington Coleman more her style.
“I found that everyone was happy to be there and to be working with each other, including the staff,” she said. “At some firms, the support staff would not even lift their heads or look you in the eye. At Carrington, everyone seemed to like and respect each other.”
Latin started at Carrington Coleman in 1994. After her first week on the job, her boss, then-partner Barbara Lynn, handed her a case file and told her the matter was going to trial the next month.
Their client was a storefront canvass signs business in Ellis County. The “trial” took place six weeks later before a justice of the peace. The maximum amount of damages was $5,000.
“No doubt, Judge Lynn agreed to take the case with me in mind to give me some courtroom experience,” Latin said. “In JP court, you are lucky if you get 30 minutes total to explain your case. It is the wild west, but it teaches you to be prepare and to think fast on your feet.”
Her client won.
One of Latin’s biggest cases came in 2015 when she convinced the Dallas Court of Appeals to reverse a $21.6 million jury verdict won by Highland Capital Management against her client, the Royal Bank of Canada.
Latin said she knows Carrington Coleman, like other Texas corporate law firms in Texas, faces challenges.
“The legal business is constantly evolving,” she said. “You must be nimble. You can’t keep doing things the same way just because that’s the way they have always been done.
“At Carrington Coleman, we don’t just want to be viable, we want to be critical to the market,” she said. “If there is a place in this world for a one-city full-service law firm with regional and national practices, we want to be it.”
Latin said COVID-19 is impacting Carrington Coleman, but the firm’s lawyers are staying busy and they haven’t seen a significant reduction in revenues so far.
Latin said the firm added a new lateral associate last week and is in talks with a couple of partners at another firm about joining later this year.
“We want to grow the firm with like-minded lawyers,” she said.
Latin admits she gets offers from other law firms to make the jump.
“I just don’t see myself practicing in a different environment and culture,” she said. “I love getting off the elevator every day and being at the firm. Picking a law firm is like picking a spouse – it is very personal.”