While many lawyers have spent the run-up to the holidays ogling their bonuses and hoping for time off, entirely different issues have consumed Chris Kruger ‘s life. The ex-lawyer now owns and operates his Fort Worth Food Park, where he organized the food trucks to serve holiday-themed dishes in a Dec. 17 celebration. The event, where Christmas music entertained diners and children posed with Santa, was just one more milestone in his metamorphosis from lawyer to entrepreneur. The former associate with Shannon Gracey Ratliff & Miller in Dallas used to tackle the intellectual challenges of writing appellate briefs and preparing for commercial litigation. Since he quit the firm in October, he spends the day much differently. “Now a lot of what I’m doing is talking to people, recruiting people for the park or promoting the park. It’s very much people-based at this point,” says Kruger, the managing member and the only employee of CDK Ventures, which he created to own and operate the food park. Kruger says he and his wife share “a passion for food” and they wanted a food park in Fort Worth after observing the “food truck culture” in Austin. Kruger says he liked eating outside with a vast array of meal choices in one convenient location. Kruger’s business charges food trucks a fee to operate inside the park. Available edibles so far range from tacos to cupcakes, vegan entrees to Korean barbecue. Before working at Shannon Gracey from 2009 to 2011, Kruger was an associate with Kelly Hart & Hallman in Fort Worth from 2007 to 2009. He served as a briefing attorney at the 14th Court of Appeals in Houston for one year just after earning his law degree in 2006 from the University of Houston Law Center . Kruger says he used his “lawyerly background” every day for months to work with the city of Fort Worth to launch the food park. He successfully argued before a city board to gain a zoning variance, and he worked with another department to obtain construction permits. He also handles everyday tasks such as recruiting vendors, marketing and cleaning the park. Coincidentally, a former lawyer from Austin also runs a taco truck operating in the food park. Kruger says he has talked with Michael McDermott of Fort Worth’s YES! Taco about their common backgrounds. Kruger says, “I think lawyers are just, a lot of times, creative thinkers and kind of big-box thinkers.” McDermott says he has enjoyed working with Kruger, noting, “It’s made it easy to work with him, because we do have similar backgrounds and similar ideas of what we would like to do now.”
Bonus Bonanza
Associates with Susman Godfrey got some great news on Dec. 12. That day, the firm awarded associates year-end bonuses ranging from $40,000 to $110,000, says Stephen Susman , a founder of the Houston-based litigation firm. Also, Susman says, two associates were up for partner, and both made it. The newly minted partners are Robert Safi and Chanler Langham , both of Houston. Susman says Safi and Langham received $110,000 bonuses, and other partnership-track associates received bonuses based on their seniority, quality of work and hours worked. Susman says associates at the firm less than a year received a fraction of a $40,000 bonus. He says the firm again paid generous year-end bonuses to associates because the firm did well financially in 2011. The 90-lawyer firm is known for its big bonuses. The firm stunned the Texas legal market in 2000 when it gave its associates bonuses equal to their base salaries — bonuses ranging from $114,000 to $165,000. In 2010, Susman Godfrey associates received year-end bonuses ranging from $45,000 to more than $100,000. The firm also has offices in Dallas, Los Angeles, New York City and Seattle.
