Haynes Boone had another impressive showing in The Best Lawyers in America directory published by Woodward/White, Inc., with a cross section of lawyers from offices across the country recognized in the 2023 edition. Ten Haynes Boone lawyers were recognized as “Lawyer of the Year” in their practice areas, while hundreds more were designated “Best Lawyers” and “Ones to Watch.”
The 10 Lawyers of the Year are Partners Ronald W. Breaux, Randall Colson (who received the distinction in two practice areas) Tamara I. Devitt, Scott Drablos, Thomas Kelton, Laura E. O'Donnell, William B. Nash, Laura Prather, and Mark Trachtenberg and Senior Counsel Brian D. Barnard.
Best Lawyers
The Best Lawyers in America guide lists more than 100 firm lawyers as Best Lawyers from the Austin, Charlotte, Chicago, Costa Mesa, Dallas, Dallas-North, Denver, Fort Worth, Houston, New York, Palo Alto, San Antonio, The Woodlands, and Washington, D.C., offices. Selection is based on detailed peer-review evaluations.
See the full list of Haynes Boone Best Lawyers.
Ones to Watch
The guide also includes about 100 Haynes Boone lawyers in its 2023 “Ones to Watch” directory. The Ones to Watch distinction is given to lawyers early in their careers in recognition of their outstanding professional excellence in private practice in the U.S. Nominated by peers in the industry, the recipients have been in practice for five to nine years.
See the full list of Haynes Boone Ones to Watch.
Lawyer of the Year
This honor is given to lawyers with the highest overall peer feedback for a specific practice area and geographic region. Only one lawyer is recognized as "Lawyer of the Year" for each area of focus and location, according to Best Lawyers in America. Read more about Haynes Boone’s Lawyers of the Year below:
Ronald W. Breaux: Lawyer of the Year – Antitrust Law – in Dallas/Fort Worth
Ron has represented companies in mission-critical litigation and investigations for more than three decades. He chairs the firm's Privacy and Data Security Practice Group and serves on Haynes Boone’s Board of Directors. As one of the most experienced litigators in the Dallas market in a number of key practice areas, Ron is retained by clients because of his sound judgment and detailed knowledge of complex commercial litigation; products liability; internal and governmental investigations; securities, healthcare and environmental fraud; antitrust; and data security. He has tried bench and jury trials and argued critical motions in venues across the country, including state, federal and bankruptcy courts.
Randall Colson: Lawyer of the Year in two areas: Privacy and Data Security Law; and Technology Law in Dallas/Fort Worth
Randall is the head of Haynes Boone's Technology Transactions and Technology Mergers and Acquisitions Practice Groups. Leveraging his industry experience as a hardware and software designer, Randy has extensive experience counseling clients with a myriad of technology and intellectual property (IP)-related transactions, including information technology and business process outsourcing, software development and licensing, SaaS, IP acquisitions and dispositions, cloud computing, hosting, joint development, distribution, consulting, naming rights and e-commerce transactions. Uniquely, Randy has represented both providers and customers of these services.
Tamara I. Devitt: Lawyer of the Year – Litigation: Labor and Employment – in Orange County
Tamara counsels and represents employers in all aspects of labor and employment law. Clients turn to her for defense against claims of discrimination, unlawful harassment, wrongful termination, unfair business practices, and wage and hour claims, including class actions and complex litigation. She advocates for clients in jury and bench trials, arbitration, and pre-litigation negotiations, and in administrative tribunals, including the EEOC, California Department of Fair Employment and Housing, Department of Labor, and California Labor Commissioner. Tamara also advises and counsels employers on compliance, including hiring, discipline and termination practices, wage and hour issues, misconduct investigations, and employment agreements.
Scott Drablos: Lawyer of the Year – Tax Law – in Dallas/Fort Worth
Scott’s practice focuses on legal and tax issues related to business and investment activities of both companies and individuals. In particular, he has a great deal of experience in representing clients in structuring and negotiating complex joint venture transactions. Scott often helps clients with entity formation and operations, complicated partnership agreements and limited liability company agreements, real estate transactions, tax planning (domestic and international), acquisitions, mergers, financing arrangements, restructurings and dispositions.
Thomas Kelton: Lawyer of the Year – Trademark Law – in Dallas/Fort Worth
Thomas’ practice focuses on complex and disputed matters, with special emphasis on United States Patent Office (USPTO) patent invalidation procedures such as reexamination and inter partes review (IPR). He serves as a trusted advisor to numerous large and midsized companies as they navigate their way through the complexities of the USPTO, where he recently led a project to invalidate more than 15 patents in a contested procedure, achieving great results and allowing his client to negotiate a favorable settlement in infringement litigation.
Laura O'Donnell: Lawyer of the Year – Litigation: Labor and Employment – in San Antonio
Laura is co-chair of the firm's Litigation Practice Group and heads the firm’s Wage and Hour Litigation group. She is board certified in labor and employment law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. Her practice includes employment litigation, client counseling, executive investigations, executive agreements, compliance projects, and employment aspects of M&A and other corporate transactions. On the litigation front, Laura focuses on the defense of FLSA collective actions, but Laura also regularly defends employers against a multitude of employment-related claims, including claims involving theft of trade secrets, restrictive covenants, whistleblower retaliation, discrimination, harassment, failure to accommodate and wrongful denial of leave.
William B. Nash: Lawyer of the Year – Litigation: Patent – in San Antonio
Bill is a registered patent attorney and litigator with more than 30 years of extensive national and international experience in IP. As a litigator, he protects his clients' rights and is often called upon in critical company litigation. He has handled major patent infringement, trademark infringement, copyright infringement, unfair competition, and trade secret cases in jurisdictions from California to Massachusetts, including the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) in Washington, D.C., in addition to those filed in the four federal districts within Texas. As an intellectual property advisor, he has broad experience in infringement and validity opinions, and he regularly helps clients develop strategies to avoid or minimize litigation risks.
Laura Prather: Lawyer of the Year – Litigation: First Amendment – in Austin
Head of the firm’s Media Law Practice Group, Laura received The American Lawyer’s inaugural Tony Mauro Media Lawyer Award for advocating for legislation to strengthen First Amendment rights, including advocacy for free speech rights at the statehouse and the courthouse. She was also recently named a Fulbright Scholar for efforts to enhance speech and press freedoms globally. Board certified in Civil Appellate Law, Laura represents an array of clients at the trial and appellate court level in First Amendment, Anti-SLAPP, and IP disputes. She represents content providers including online and traditional publications, cable and terrestrial broadcasters, streaming media platforms, podcasts, and music and sports entities.
Mark Trachtenberg: Lawyer of the Year – Appellate Practice – in Houston
Recognized as one of the top 100 lawyers in Texas and as one of the top appellate lawyers in the state by Texas Super Lawyers (Thomson Reuters), Mark represents major companies in high-stakes appeals. He is ranked in Chambers USA, 2019-2022 (Chambers and Partners) for appellate law in Texas, which notes his “excellent ability to see the broad picture and evaluate appellate issues before they even arise at the trial stage” and describes him as “very responsive, a superlative writer, and a good ideas person.”
Brian D. Barnard: Lawyer of the Year – Corporate Governance Law – in Dallas/Fort Worth
Brian provides legal advice and business counsel to senior management teams, boards of directors and in-house lawyers of public and private companies on general corporate matters, mergers and acquisitions, securities offerings, reporting requirements and corporate governance. He has earned recognition for his work on a number of landmark transactions and he was named as a BTI Client Service All-Star by BTI Consulting Group in 2018 based on nominations from general counsels and other legal decision-makers.
