Press Release

Haynes and Boone Announces 2021 Class of Partners

January 01, 2021

Haynes Boone is proud to announce the promotion of 12 lawyers across the firm’s Austin, Dallas, Dallas-North, Houston, New York, and Orange County offices to its partnership ranks.

Effective Jan. 1, the new partners are Kellie Bobo, Adam Fowles, Andrew Guthrie, Jason Jordan, Jason Lao, Jade Laye, Brandon McCoy, Rosebud Nau, Don Shiman, Vera Suarez, Brian Sung, and Laura Whitley.

“Through their hard work and commitment to client service, these lawyers have demonstrated that they are poised to become the firm’s next generation of leaders,” Managing Partner Taylor Wilson said. “We are especially happy to be promoting such a large class this year despite the well-known challenges of 2020. Haynes Boone is looking to the future with optimism and hope and our new partners truly embody this spirit.”

Kellie Bobo

Kellie Bobo is a member of both the Investment Funds and M&A Practice Groups in Haynes Boone’s Austin office. Kellie regularly advises investment funds and investment advisors, and commodity pool operators and traders with regard to the formation, organization and operation of both hedge funds and private equity funds and their compliance with applicable federal and state laws. Her practice also focuses on mergers, acquisitions, private equity investments, and corporate compliance and governance. She received her bachelor’s degrees magna cum laude from the University of Florida and her juris doctor from the University of Texas School of Law.

Adam Fowles

Adam Fowles is member of the Patent Prosecution Practice Group in Haynes Boone’s Dallas-North office. His practice includes preparing and prosecuting patent applications, conducting portfolio analysis for offensive and defensive purposes, conducting patentability, infringement, freedom-to-operate, and invalidity analyses, and authoring opinion letters. He also participates in all phases of post-grant proceedings, from pre-filing preparations to appeals. He received his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Utah State University, master’s degrees in electrical engineering and business administration from Utah State University, and his juris doctor from the George Mason University School of Law.

Andrew Guthrie

Andrew Guthrie is member of the Appellate Practice Group in Haynes Boone’s Dallas office. He focuses his practice on appeals and critical trial court briefing across an array of subject matters, including business disputes, government investigations, bankruptcy, energy, products liability, intellectual property, and the False Claims Act. He received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Missouri and his juris doctor from Baylor University School of Law.

Jason Jordan

Jason Jordan is a member of the Appellate Practice Group in Haynes Boone’s Dallas office. He works with clients in various industries, such as the financial, energy, and transportation sectors, and his practice spans all stages of legal disputes. He has experience not only preparing briefing and presenting oral arguments to state and federal courts of appeals, but also handling pre-suit analysis, risk management, and filing and defending against trial court and arbitration proceedings. He received his bachelor’s degree from Colorado State University and his juris doctor from Texas Tech University School of Law.

Jason Lao

Jason Lao is a member of the Intellectual Property Litigation and Patent Litigation Practice Groups in Haynes Boone’s Orange County office. He has substantial experience handling disputes related to patents, trade secrets, copyrights, and complex technology issues. Jason has represented clients across various industries and technologies, including biotech, semiconductor, wireless communications, smart meters, standards patents, trusted computing, digital rights management, satellite technology, virtual machines, and cybersecurity. He received his bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Berkeley, his master’s degree from the University of Michigan, and his juris doctor from New York University School of Law.

Jade Laye

Jade Laye is a member of the Patent Prosecution Practice Group in Haynes Boone’s Houston office. A registered patent attorney, he focuses his practice on intellectual property law, with an emphasis on patent prosecution and counseling, as well as the acquisition, licensing and divestiture of patent rights. Jade has experience with a range of technologies, including electrical and mechanical oil field devices, automotive vehicles, optical computing devices, electromagnetic logging tools, software, semiconductors, fracturing methods, e-commerce, and telecommunications. He received his bachelor’s degree from University of Arkansas College of Engineering, his juris doctor from University of Arkansas School of Law, and his Master of Laws degree from George Washington University Law School.

Brandon McCoy

Brandon McCoy is a member of the Private Equity Practice Group in Haynes Boone’s Dallas office. His practice focuses on complex business transactions for both private and public clients in a range of industries, with a focus on mergers, acquisitions, private equity investments, and joint ventures. Brandon also assists clients with premerger notification compliance under the Hart Scott Rodino Act. He was included in the 2021 "Ones to Watch" category of Best Lawyers in America, Woodward/White, Inc. In addition, Brandon is a Certified Public Accountant, and prior to attending law school, he worked as a tax accountant at Ernst & Young LLP. Brandon received his bachelor’s degree in business administration and master’s degree in professional accounting from the University of Texas at Austin, his master’s degree in business administration from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and his juris doctor from University of Pennsylvania Law School.

Rosebud Nau

Rosebud Nau is a member of the Capital Markets/Securities Practice Group in Haynes Boone’s Dallas office. Her practice focuses primarily on securities law and general corporate matters, including public and private securities offerings, SEC reporting and compliance and corporate governance. She represents clients in a range of industries, including SaaS, financial services, energy and medtech. Rosebud received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Oregon and her juris doctor from University of Texas School of Law.

Don Shiman

Don Shiman is member of the Business Planning & Tax Practice Group in Haynes Boone’s New York office. He works on a variety of tax matters, such as those that relate to mergers and acquisitions, corporate restructurings, security offerings, private equity funds, hedge funds, real estate acquisitions, cross-border structuring, and cross border acquisitions. Don works with clients from a range of industries, such as food, energy, healthcare, pharmaceutical, manufacturing and technology. Don received his bachelor’s degree from Ner Israel Rabbinical College, his master’s degree from Beth Medrash Govoha, and his juris doctor from Rutgers School of Law, Newark, and his Master of Laws degree in Taxation from New York University School of Law.

Vera Suarez

Vera Suarez is member of the Patent Prosecution Group in Haynes Boone’s Dallas office. She focuses her practice on building domestic and international patent portfolios. She not only manages domestic and international patent portfolios in a variety of technology areas, but also advises clients with respect to patent validity, freedom to operate, and product clearance. Vera received her bachelor’s degree from Oklahoma State University and her juris doctor from Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law. 

Brian Sung

Brian Sung is a member of the Financial Transactions (Derivatives) Practice Group in Haynes Boone’s New York office. He concentrates his practice in the areas of derivatives, commodities, prime brokerage, structured equity/margin lending, cryptocurrency financing, and other alternative investments. He represents banks, hedge funds and other financial institutions, borrowers, institutional investors, and other corporate entities, as well as cryptocurrency trading entities and funds in connection with various derivatives, hedging, structured products, repos, securities lending, margin loan, structured equity financing, commodities, and other financing transactions, and in providing related regulatory and interpretive advice. Brian received his bachelor’s degree from Dartmouth College and his juris doctor from Columbia Law School.

Laura Whitley

Laura Whitley is a member of the Financial Transactions Practice Group in Haynes Boone’s Dallas office. She serves as counsel to financial institutions and borrowers in an array of sophisticated finance transactions. During her career, Laura has represented agents, lenders and borrowers in syndicated credit transactions involving revolving credit facilities, subscription-secured credit facilities, term loans, letters of credit, multi-currency facilities, cross-border financings, and acquisition financings. She received her bachelor’s degree from College of William & Mary and her juris doctor from University of Richmond School of Law.

Haynes Boone is an international corporate law firm with offices in Texas, New York, California, Charlotte, Chicago, Denver, Washington, D.C., London, Mexico City and Shanghai, providing a full spectrum of legal services in energy, technology, financial services and private equity. With more than 575 lawyers, Haynes Boone is ranked among the largest U.S.-based firms by The National Law Journal, The American Lawyer and The Lawyer. It also was recognized across the board for excellence in the BTI Consulting Group’s 2020 “A-Team” report, which identifies the law firms that in-house counsel commend for providing superior client service.

The following publications reported on the promotions:

ABL Advisor

Bloomberg Law

Houston Business Journal

Intellectual Property Magazine

Orange County Bar Association

The Recorder

University of Texas School of Law - Class Notes

Westlaw Today