Edgardo Colón, a public finance, business and corporate law attorney, has joined West & Associates as a partner in the firm's Houston office. Colón formerly was senior counsel with Bechtel Corp. and negotiated contracts for pipeline and chemical projects in the United States and Latin America.

New Positions

James P. Plummer has joined the San Antonio office of Bracewell as a partner in the public finance department. Plummer has more than 30 years of experience in advising clients on tax-exempt financings, tax credits and government contracts, especially with respect to tax-exempt housing finance. His clients range from large urban counties to national housing developers. He joins Bracewell from Norton Rose Fulbright.

Brian Hail, a litigator and cofounder of Gruber Hail Johansen Shank, is leaving the firm to rejoin Kane Russell Coleman Logan as a director in its Dallas office. Hail has almost three decades of courtroom experience handling complex commercial litigation.

John B. Phair has joined Thompson & Knight as an associate in the firm's Dallas office. Phair is in the firm's corporate and securities practice group and focuses on mergers and acquisitions, private equity investments and general corporate matters.

Alexandra Crawley and Caroline Newton have joined Armbrust & Brown in Austin as associates. Crawley focuses her practice on transactional matters related to commercial real estate. Newton's practice focuses on commercial real estate and business matters.

Nicole Herron and Mahan Wright have joined the Dallas office of Kane Russell Coleman Logan as associates. Herron defends clients in product liability matters, employment and commercial disputes and catastrophic loss claims. Wright represents clients in product liability disputes, insurance defense matters and catastrophic loss claims. Wright also has experience helping clients with transactional law matters, commercial contract and lease review and drafting, estate planning, title liens, title curative, business formations and trademarks.

Appointed

Brian Teaff, a partner in Bracewell's tax and public finances practices in Houston, has been appointed to serve as tax chair of the Tax-Exempt Finance Affinity Group for the American Health Lawyers Association. His two-year term begins July 1.

Josh O. Ungerman, a partner in Meadows, Collier, Reed, Cousins, Crouch & Ungerman in Dallas, has been appointed to the American Bar Association Section of Taxation's Committee on Appointments to the Tax Court for a five-year term. The committee is tasked with reviewing all appointments to the United States Tax Court.

Awards

Baker Botts recently received the Harris County Bench Bar Pro Bono Award in the large firm category in recognition of the firm's outstanding contribution to pro bono legal services in 2017. This is the second consecutive year that the firm has received the award. Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld won the award in the mid-size firm category, and Berg & Androphy won for small firm. The Exxon Mobil Corp. Law Department, received the award in the corporate category. Mike Day of Trey Yates Law received the award recognizing an individual for pro bono work. Steven C. Howard of Steven C. Howard P.C. received the President's Pro Bono Star.

Honor

Allen J. Dickey, a Polsinelli shareholder in Dallas, has been elected a Fellow of the Texas Bar Foundation. Dickey is in Polsinelli's real estate finance group.