Beginning in June, Dentons Houston partner Laura Gibson will take over as chair of the State Bar of Texas board of directors.

The bar board elected Gibson in a three-candidate race during the board's quarterly meeting April 27 in Fort Worth.

“I had two excellent opponents,” Gibson said.

She faced Christy Amuny, senior counsel in the Beaumont office of Germer, and Rudolph Metayer, an attorney with Chamberlain McHaney in Austin, in the board race.

“We've got a perception problem with a lot of our members,” Gibson said, noting that some bar members believe that the board is made up of bar insiders.

“This is not about insiders or outsiders,” she said. “This is about making our profession as strong as it can be.”

Gibson said she has heard that people think bar board members serve because they get to go on junkets.

“We don't go on junkets,” she said.

Gibson said that most of the people she knows who serve on the bar board do not get any benefit from their service.

Leadership is nothing new for Gibson. She served as president of the Houston Bar Association in 2015-16 and also served as president of the Association of Women Lawyers in 2011 and of the Houston Lawyer Referral Service in 2009-2010.

A 1984 graduate of the University of Houston Law Center, Gibson heads Dentons' labor and employment practice in Houston.

Gibson will be sworn in June 22 during the State Bar's annual meeting in Houston. She will succeed Rehan Alimohammad of Sugar Land.

Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated Laura Gibson's years as Houston Bar Association president.