Interview with KoonsFuller attorney Sherri Evans

http://www.sbotfam.org/KLIF_Pro_Bono_Initiative.mp3

A native of Kingwood, Texas, Sherri is board certified in Family Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization and is licensed to practice before the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas and the Supreme Court of Texas.

Sherri Evans is a leader among Houston family lawyers as well as Texas family lawyers. She is the Chair of the Family Law Section of the State Bar of Texas with a membership of over 6,000 family lawyers.

109 North Post Oak Lane 
Suite 425 
Houston, Texas 77024
(713) 789-5112
(713) 789-5123

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Dallas, TX – The College of the State Bar of Texas has voted to award the Franklin Jones Best Continuing Legal Education Article Award for 2012 to Rebecca Tillery and her co-authors for their article “Appellate Practice from Every Angle.” Ms. Tillery presented the article at the annual Advanced Family Law Course in August 2011. Ms. Tillery, who is Board Certified in Family Law, has built a thriving appellate family law niche and successfully argued before the Supreme Court of Texas in 2011. The oral argument can be viewed here.    http://texassupremecourt.mediasite.com/mediasite/Play/3177815386f24fc7b0b554fc0b18b1d31d 

“We could not be more proud of Rebecca and her accomplishments, she is a valuable member or our team and our clients. Her appellate practice continues to thrive and her knowledge is second to none.”  -  CEO Ike Vanden Eykel

Ms. Tillery is a member of the Dallas Bar Association (DBA), Dallas Association of Young Lawyers (DAYL), Texas Academy of Family Law Specialists, Collin County Young Lawyers (CCYLA), Family Law Section of the DBA, Appellate Law Section of the DBA, American Bar Association, and the College of the State Bar of Texas.

She was recently selected for the 2012 DAYL Leadership Class. She shows leadership in the greater legal community with her roles within the Leadership Class, the Dallas Bar Association Legal Lines Committee, and serving as the 2012 Co-Chair of the Dallas Bar Association Admissions and Membership Committee

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Dallas, TX—Not every attorney knows they want to be an attorney at age 8—but Ike Vanden Eykel decided on his dream in just the third grade.  “I took an aptitude test in third grade.  It said I should be a lawyer,” he told laws.com in a recent interview.  “Sounded good to me!  I had never met a lawyer, but I thought it would work and I could do it.”

Of course, in third grade, Eykel could never have foreseen that he would grow up to be one of the nation’s most renowned family lawyers.  “As far as family law, I got into that quite by accident,” he says.  “I had a boss in my early years of practice that did some work in the field, and I enjoyed the challenges and seemed to get good at it pretty quickly.  I found a lot of satisfaction in family law, so I kept doing it and was blessed with good results.” CLICK HERE TO READ MORE

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Rising Stars is a distinguished list of attorneys put out every year by Thomson Reuters. Lawyers are asked to nominate the best attorneys who are 40 or under, or who have been practicing for 10 years or less. They are instructed to nominate lawyers they have personally observed in action — whether as opposing counsel or co-counsel, or through other firsthand courtroom observation.

KoonsFuller, P.C. Rising Stars are:

Rebecca Tillery - Rebecca is a member of the Dallas Bar Association (DBA), Dallas Association of Young Lawyers (DAYL), Texas Academy of Family Law Specialists, Collin County Young Lawyers (CCYLA), Family Law Section of the DBA, Appellate Law Section of the DBA, American Bar Association, and the College of the State Bar of Texas.

Kristy Piazza Blanchard – Kristy is a member of the Dallas Women Lawyers Association, the Dallas Association of Young Lawyers (DAYL), the Collin County Young Lawyers (CCYLA), the Family Law Section of the State Bar of Texas, and the College of the State Bar of Texas. She is a fellow of the Texas Bar Foundation and the Dallas Young Lawyers Association.

Emily Miskel - After graduating from Harvard Law School, Ms. Miskel was a litigator at a large, AmLaw 200-listed law firm in Dallas. Her trial experience includes complex litigation in state courts, federal courts, and even the International Trade Commission. She also trained at the Family Law Trial Institute in Houston, Texas.

Eric Navarrette – Eric earned his bachelor of arts degree in criminal justice from St. Mary’s University and his Doctor of Jurisprudence from Texas Tech University School of Law. He is a member of the Collaborative Law Institute of Texas, Denton County Collaborative Professionals, Dallas County Bar Association, the Denton County Bar Association, Denton County Young Lawyers Association, College of the State Bar, the Family Law Section of the State Bar of Texas and the Texas Family Law Foundation.

Michelle Thuillier – Michelle is also a Certified Public Accountant and worked in accounting and finance for eight years before law school, including as an auditor for the international accounting firm of Deloitte & Touche, LLP.  Michelle’s education and experience as a practicing CPA is invaluable to the firm’s many clients who own businesses or who need to unwind years of commingling separate and community property.

About Thomson Reuters -
Thomson Reuters is the world’s leading source of intelligent information for businesses and professionals. They combine industry expertise with innovative technology to deliver critical information to leading decision makers in the financial and risk, legal, tax and accounting, intellectual property and science and media markets, powered by the world’s most trusted news organization. With headquarters in New York and major operations in London and Eagan, Minnesota, Thomson Reuters employs approximately 60,000 people and operates in over 100 countries.  For more information, go to www.thomsonreuters.com.

For more information on Rebecca, Kristy, Emily, Eric and Michelle click on their name to go to their bios.

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FORT WORTH — Barton Hermer still remembers that moment on the dance floor when his new romance turned serious.

Hermer and Simmone Cohen were slow-dancing about three months after meeting on a singles cruise out of Venice, Italy. Christmas was approaching, and the couple seemed to be growing closer.

As they danced, Cohen “kept smiling at me like she was the happiest woman in the world,” Hermer remembers.

Hermer, originally from Plano, was 47 at the time and living in New York. He asked Cohen, then 37 and a Londoner, why she was smiling.

“I’m looking at our unborn children in your eyes,” she said.

The romance, however, was short-lived.

“It turned out that it was all a scam she engineered to have a baby with a foreigner and take it to London,” he said.

Cohen had a baby girl about a year later, but the couple never married. For three years, Hermer has been fighting to bring his child back to Texas. He has not seen his daughter in almost two years.”I still carry her pacifier with me,” he said. “It’s all I have left.”

Hermer’s plight is familiar to thousands of parents whose children have been taken across international borders. Every year, about 500 parents lose access to their children this way.

Texas parents are at the epicenter of the issue, which is rampant in border states. Almost half the border-state children taken by their parents to other countries are believed to be hidden in Mexico, said Maureen Heads, a supervisor with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

“It really depends on the country they go to,” Heads said. “I’ve seen issues get resolved within weeks. On the other hand, I’ve seen cases where the children never get returned.”

Even when parents know where their children have been taken, cross-border jurisdictional battles can make these cases expensive and complex to litigate.

For parents who know where their children are, the lack of adherence to the law in some countries and the failure to enforce the law in others make the process of retrieving a child more difficult.

The U.S. State Department says there is an epidemic of parents sequestering their children behind international borders. The risks are especially high in contentious divorce cases when one parent has ties to another country.

Hermer’s appellate attorney, Jessica Janicek, said arguing the case overseas would require her client to give up his claim that the United States has jurisdiction.

The State Department verified that it is investigating Hermer’s case but would not discuss details.

A State Department letter said Hermer is a cooperating witness in a federal criminal investigation and asked that evidence from the Collin County civil case be preserved.

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The Texas Family Law Foundation is an organization that operates on donations.  The Texas Family Law Foundation employs a lobby team and the head lobbyist is Steve Bresnan.  Family law attorneys make up the membership of the Foundation and volunteer their time to testify before the legislature and perform bill reviews.  The Family Law Section of the State Bar of Texas has proposed legislation for this legislative session of which the Foundation will support.

On the agenda for this legislative session are several important family law bills: 

Enforcing Divorce Agreements

The first bill is with regard to enforcing divorce agreements.  In a divorce there is a final court order, the divorce decree, which is filed with the court.  However, parties to a divorce can elect to have their actual property settlement in a separate agreement.  This separate settlement agreement is not filed with the court and assures the parties of confidentiality of their property settlement.  The ability of these agreements to be enforced has often been a concern.  The proposed bill would allow these agreements to be enforced just as the court-ordered divorce decree can be enforced.

Child Support

It seems each session there is an important bill regarding child support.  Under current law, a child support “payor” who is behind on their payments can avoid being jailed by paying the amount due just before a hearing to hold the child support payor in contempt. The proposed bill prevents this situation by allowing a court to impose contempt (jail).  This will save on tremendous resources being spent on child support enforcement cases.

Grandparent’s Rights

The law on grandparent’s rights is ever-changing.  When a grandparent files a suit to get court-ordered visitation with their grandchild, the grandparent must attach a sworn affidavit that contains, along with supporting facts, the allegation that denial of visitation with the child by the grandparent would significantly impair the child’s physical health or emotional well-being. The court must deny the grandparent the right to sue and dismiss the suit unless the court determines that the facts stated in the affidavit, if true, are sufficient.  Many courts require that an expert testify to show this harm.  The proposed bill makes it clear that expert testimony is not required in connection with an affidavit of a grandparent for proof of harm when seeking visitation with a grandchild. The bill also requests the elimination of the requirements that that grandparent’s child be dead, gone, in prison or incompetent, in order to get visitation with their grandchild.

Spousal Maintenance

In 2011, the spousal maintenance statute was completely overhauled.  Court-ordered spousal maintenance has limits as to duration and amount.  Parties in a divorce have the ability to agree to spousal maintenance for any duration or amount they so choose.  The proposed bill authorizes courts to enforce by contempt (jail) and wage garnishment spousal maintenance that is agreed upon, as opposed to court-ordered maintenance, to the same extent that the court could have originally imposed the maintenance by order. Any agreed spousal maintenance that exceeds what the court could have originally imposed by order cannot be enforced by contempt (jail) and wage garnishment.

Gestational Agreements

Gestational agreements are allowed under current law.  However, current law allows only married couples to enter into gestational agreements. The proposed bill is intended to also authorize a single individual to enter into a gestational agreement, in addition to a married couple.

*These important bills were created by family law attorneys across the state who are out there in the trenches practicing family law everyday.  These bills are very important to family law and impact many families across the state and the nation.

Legislation Session Begins:

Tuesday, January 8, 2013 (1st day)
83rd Legislature convenes at noon

Friday, March 8, 2013 (60th day)
Deadline for filing bills and joint resolutions other than local bills, emergency appropriations, and bills that have been declared an emergency by the governor

Monday, May 27, 2013 (140th day)
Last day of 83rd Regular Session; corrections only in house and senate

Session Ends

Sunday, June 16, 2013 (20th day following final adjournment)
Last day governor can sign or veto bills passed during the regular legislative session

Monday, August 26, 2013 (91st day following final adjournment)
Date that bills without specific effective dates (that could not be effective immediately) become law

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The post Rebecca Tillery Receives Board Certification in Family Law from the Texas Board of Legal Specialization appeared first on KoonsFuller Family Law.

Ms. Tillery has built a thriving appellate practice, which gives her a special edge in family law. “Working on an appeal allows me the chance to help shape the law in our state while also honing my persuasive writing and speaking skills,” she says.

Ms. Tillery earned her Juris Doctor, cum laude, from the SMU Dedman School of Law in 2007. Selected for the National Criminal Procedure Moot Court Team for two years in a row, she won Best Appellant Brief in 2006 and members of the faculty selected her as a National Member of the Order of the Barristers in 2007.

Since graduating from law school, she has authored and co-authored numerous articles on family law and given many speeches to various law groups.

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