A panel of three Texas appellate justices—Justice Young, Chief Justice Byrne, and Chief Justice Martinez—will answer moderated questions regarding practical tips for appellate advocacy. The panel will be moderated by Magistrate Judge Howell, and a question and answer session with the audience will follow.

Please arrive at 11:45 am so that you can be seated with your food for the start of the program at 12 pm.

Speakers:

• Texas Supreme Court Justice Young, Panelist
  • Justice Evan A. Young was appointed to the Texas Supreme Court in November 2021 by Governor Greg Abbott. Justice Young clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and served as Counsel to the Attorney General at the U.S. Department of Justice, during which time he spent nearly a year based at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, Iraq, helping lead the U.S. Government’s Rule of Law mission. He joined the law firm Baker Botts L.L.P. and served as chair of the firm’s Supreme Court and Constitutional Law practice group. Justice Young, who served as a member of the Texas Judicial Council from 2017 until his appointment to the Supreme Court, is a former chair of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children Texas Regional Office, a member of the Supreme Court Advisory Committee, an elected member of the American Law Institute, and an adjunct professor at The University of Texas School of Law. Justice Young received Bachelor of Arts degrees from Duke University and from Oxford University, where he was a British Marshall Scholar, and his law degree from Yale Law School.
     
• Third Court of Appeals Chief Justice Byrne, Panelist 
  • Prior to her election as the Chief Justice of the Third Court of Appeals of Texas in 2020, Justice Darlene Byrne served for 20 years as the presiding judge of the 126th Judicial District Court in Travis County. She was a general jurisdiction trial judge presiding over civil matters, but her passion was serving as the presiding judge over all the foster children in Travis County for 17 of her 20 years of service to the trial bench. In that role, she received not only local recognition for her work serving foster children and their families, but also statewide and national recognition for her court improvement work in this area. Prior to her election in 2000, she practiced for thirteen years in the areas of employment, commercial and governmental entity litigation. She is a graduate of University of Houston Law Center, where she graduated magna cum laude and was a member of the law review’s editorial board and an Order of the Coif member.
     
• Fourth Court of Appeals Chief Justice Martinez, Panelist 
  • Chief Justice of the Fourth Court of Appeals Rebeca C. Martinez received her law degree from Boston University School of Law in Boston, Massachusetts and upon graduation was the honored recipient of the Faculty Award. After clerking with a large prestigious Boston law firm, Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky & Popeo, P.C., Chief Justice Martinez returned to Texas to serve with U.S. Magistrate Judge for the Southern District Eduardo de Ases, and later for Justice Federico Hinojosa on the Thirteenth Court of Appeals.Chief Justice Martinez’s private practice began as associate counsel at Thornton, Summers, Biechlin, Dunham Brown. She provided representation and trial defense to individuals, small businesses, and large corporations. Her practice included every aspect of defending cases involving personal injury, premises and products liability, construction defect, oil and gas, environmental and toxic tort, as well as multi-party class action defense in both state and federal courts. Chief Justice Martinez also served as Of Counsel to the Law Offices of Ramon Garcia, P.C. in Edinburg, Texas, one of the Top 100 Trial Lawyers in Texas. As President of her own litigation practice for almost 14 years, managing 3 offices and as many as 16 employees, Rebeca continued to represent individuals and entities involved in multi-party litigation both in state and federal court, including actions involving toxic tort, product defect, premises and property liability claims. After moving to San Antonio, Chief Justice Martinez enlarged her practice to include family law and criminal defense in civil and criminal trial courts in Bexar County and across South Texas.
     
• Magistrate Judge Howell of the W.D. Tex, Moderator
  • Judge Howell began serving as a magistrate for the Western District of Texas in 2021. Prior to that, he served as a Travis County district court judge, worked in private practice at McKool Smith and Baker Botts, and was an assistant solicitor general at the office of the Texas attorney general. He also served as an adjunct professor at the Texas Tech University School of Law. He clerked for Chief Justice Wallace Jefferson at the Texas Supreme Court. He is a past member of the Third Court of Appeals pro bono committee, the Texas Young Lawyers Association Board of Directors and Chair of the Board, and the Austin Young Lawyers Association Board of Directors. He is a present member of the Austin Bar Association Appellate Section Council, a Texas Bar Foundation Fellow, the Texas Lyceum Board of Directors, and the Lloyd Lochridge Inn of Court.

This program has been approved for credit in the following jurisdiction(s):

State Bar Of Texas Minimum Continuing Legal Education

Credit has been approved with the State Bar Of Texas Minimum Continuing Legal Education for 1.00 General credit.

Location:

The Austin Club
110 E 9th St
Austin, TX 78701 

Attendees:

Please arrive at The Austin Club around 11:45 am so that you can get food and be seated for the presentation to begin at 12 pm.

Cancellation Policy

In-person registrations cannot be cancelled within 72 hours of the event.