David Clonts, left, and Kevin Cadwell, right. David Clonts, left, and Kevin Cadwell, right. Courtesy photos

Kelley Drye & Warren announced the addition of two partners to its intellectual property and litigation practices: David R. Clonts and Kevin E. Cadwell, who come to the firm from Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld. Based out of Kelley Drye's Houston office, Clonts and Cadwell focus on high-tech and commercial litigation, with an emphasis on issues surrounding new and emerging technologies.

The Bassett Firm in Dallas welcomes Catherine A. Schraegle, who started at the firm April 23. Her areas of practice include personal injury, transportation litigation, premises liability and estate planning. She is admitted to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas and the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas. She is admitted to practice in the state of Texas. She earned her Doctor of Jurisprudence at Texas Tech University School of Law in Lubbock in 2016, and her B.A. in English at Southern Methodist University in Dallas in 2012.

Promotion

Smita Bhakta

Kruger Carson, with offices in San Antonio and Austin, has promoted Smita Bhakta to partner of the law firm. Bhakta focuses on complex commercial real estate matters. She joined Kruger Carson in 2016 as an attorney and counselor. Bhakta completed the first year of an LLB degree in law at The University College of London, U.K., before immigrating to the United States, where she completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Texas at Austin, graduating with highest honors in 2001. She then graduated from the University of Texas School of Law with honors in 2004.

 

Honors

Cynthia Olson Bourland[Photo Credit: Korey Howell Photography.]
The State Bar of Texas Board of Directors and President Joe K. Longley presented a resolution honoring retired Justice Cynthia “Cindy” Olson Bourland on April 26 at the Sheraton Georgetown, in Georgetown, Texas. Bourland is a former justice on the Third Court of Appeals who served on the bench from 2015 through 2018. She is a fifth-generation Texan and a fifth-generation resident of the city of Round Rock. She was a private practice lawyer for 20 years, in Austin and Round Rock, before her time on the bench. She is president of the Bourland Law Firm, which she founded in 2009.

 

Jasmine S. Wynton

The law firm of Thompson & Knight announced that Jasmine S. Wynton,  an associate in the trial practice group at the firm's Dallas office, has been elected a member of the Board of Trustees for the Texas Supreme Court Historical Society. She will begin her three-year term June 1. The Texas Supreme Court Historical Society is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to the collection and preservation of information, papers, photographs, and significant artifacts relating to the Supreme Court and the appellate courts of Texas. Wynton represents clients in a variety of business litigation matters in state and federal courts, with an emphasis on defending companies in civil disputes involving allegations of breach of contract, fraud, negligence, breach of fiduciary duty, tortious interference with contracts and employment discrimination.

The American Bankruptcy Institute (ABI) announced that Eric Madden of Reid Collins & Tsai in Dallas has been elected to ABI's Board of Directors. An ABI member since 2000, Madden has served as a co-chair of both the ABI Bankruptcy Litigation and Commercial Fraud Committees. He will serve a term of three years on the 60-member ABI Board of Directors. Madden is a partner in the Dallas office of Reid Collins & Tsai, where his practice is focused on complex business and insolvency-related litigation. He has represented trustees, receivers, creditor and bondholder committees, and defrauded investors in a number of major cases throughout the country. He received his J.D. in 1999 and his B.A. from the University of Kansas in 1996.