For anyone keeping score, mark Dykema's tally as two Texas offices. The firm, which opened a Dallas office six years ago and has now 13 offices nationwide, announced on July 8 that it just launched an Austin location. The firm is staffing the new office with four senior counsel, two of who were already with Dykema and two who are moving to the state capital as laterals. Also, two firm equity members in the Dallas office will work in the Austin office part time. The laterals are Drew McEwen and Kevin Oldham, both tax attorneys, previously with their own Austin firm, McEwen Oldham. At Dykema, they will be senior counsel. Kimberly Kiplin, who joined Dykema when she retired from her role as general counsel to the Texas Lottery Commission one year ago, resided in Austin but worked as a senior counsel affiliated with the Dallas office. Kiplin now will work directly for the Austin office. Erin Dempsey, who has served as senior counsel in the Dallas office, has moved to Austin. Dallas Dykema equity members Bill Finkelstein and David J. Schenck, who is a former deputy attorney general for the state of Texas, also will work part time in the Austin office. Finkelstein, who will serve as the managing member of Dykema's Texas offices, says, "We're focusing our growth strategy for office on a regulatory practice." Finkelstein notes that Schenck, with his background at the AG's office, will play a pivotal role. "He may be spending more time in Austin than he knows about now," Finkelstein jokes.

DOMA & Divorce

Austin lawyer James "Jody" Scheske represents two clients with same-sex divorce cases pending before the Texas Supreme Court, and he believes that the U.S. Supreme Court's reasoning in United States v. Edith Windsor, et al., one of two same-sex marriage cases recently decided by the nation's highest court, should help his clients. "We could literally cut and paste from that opinion and put in our arguments, even though it dealt with federal benefits," says Scheske about Windsor, which struck down §3 of the federal Defense of Marriage Act. In In the Matter of the Marriage of J.B. and H.B., Scheske represents J.B., a Dallas man trying to divorce the same-sex partner J.B. married in Massachusetts. J.B. has asked the Texas Supreme Court to reverse an Aug. 31, 2010, ruling by Dallas' 5th Court of Appeals, which concluded J.B. and H.B. cannot get divorced in Texas. In State of Texas v. Angelique S. Naylor and Sabina Daly, Scheske represents Angelique Naylor, who also had married her same-sex partner in Massachusetts. Unlike J.B., Naylor was able to obtain a divorce in Texas from her same-sex partner. Their divorce decree survived a challenge by the state: Austin's 3rd Court of Appeals dismissed that challenge on procedural grounds on Jan. 7, 2011. The Texas Office of the Attorney General then asked the Texas Supreme Court to review that 3rd Court ruling. Lauren Bean, a spokeswoman in the Office of the Attorney General, which opposes Scheske's clients in both cases, declines comment due to ongoing litigation. Osler McCarthy, staff attorney for the Texas Supreme Court and spokesman, writes in an email that nothing has happened in the Texas same-sex divorce cases since the U.S. Supreme Court rulings.