THL:Where were you born and where did you attend school?

Reasoner: I was born in Houston at Hermann Hospital. I grew up in the Southampton area of town over by Rice University, and went to Lanier Junior High and Lamar High School.

THL:Tell me about your family.

Reasoner: I met my wife, Susan, at the Harris County District Attorney’s Office. She was an outstanding prosecutor and worked for Johnny Holmes for five years. We have been blessed with five children, three girls and two boys.  Matthew is 15, Caroline is 13, William is 11, Olivia is 9 and Eloise is 7.  Things stay very hectic around our house, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

My dad, Harry, is a great lawyer here in town who is well known to many of our members. My mom, Macey, helped run job training programs for many years, and spent a lot of time raising my sister and me. My sister, Macey Reasoner Stokes, heads up the appellate section at Baker Botts. Her husband Bob is president of the Galveston Bay Foundation, and they have two great kids, John and Charlotte.

THL:Tell me about your dad’s legal career and some of his community work.

Reasoner: My dad started at Vinson & Elkins, just after I was born, and he has stayed there throughout his illustrious career. He has been very active in pro bono cases over the years. I remember when I was young, he had a very important case involving prisoner’s rights. As a result of his success in that case, prisoners in Texas were able to receive confidential mail after proper screening for contraband. It had an influence on me, seeing him handle those types of pro bono cases. He is now serving as chair of the Texas Access to Justice Commission.

THL:Where did you go to college?

Reasoner: I went to Duke University in North Carolina, earning my undergraduate degree in political science. I loved my four years there. I became a big basketball fan, though I did stop short of painting my chest or sleeping in a tent to get good seats to a game. I then did a one-year graduate degree at the London School of Economics, with a focus on international and comparative politics. The year in London was a wonderful opportunity to meet people from all over the world and to visit places I had never seen, such as the Soviet Union. My trip was during the time that Mikhail Gorbachev was in power, so it was a period of incredible change in Russia.

THL:Did you know you wanted to go to law school at that point?

Reasoner:I did plan on going to law school, but I thought the year in London would be a once in a lifetime opportunity before starting down that path. After the London School of Economics, I went to the University of Texas Law School, where I got a great legal education. Regardless of your background, I think a strong legal education teaches you to think in a more logical and focused way than you ever have before.

THL:So your interest in law extends primarily from watching your dad?

Reasoner: Well my grandfather on my mother’s side, Gus Hodges, was a famous professor of civil procedure at UT law school, so I had exposure to the profession from both sides. I did not start out with a plan to become a lawyer, but my skills seemed to develop in that area. I got involved in debate in high school and won a couple of debate tournaments. I got to see my dad in trials and hearings on occasion, and I could tell it was an exciting and challenging career.

THL:Where did you work after law school?

Reasoner:I worked at the Harris County District Attorney’s Office from 1990-1992. I knew how difficult it was for young lawyers to get trial experience, so I looked into the District Attorney’s Office as a chance to get incredible experience and do some good for the community. That turned out to be a really invaluable part of my career. I met some great lawyers and friends there. Most importantly, I met my wife! But I also tried 30 jury trials, which is experience that’s hard to get anywhere else.

THL:What types of cases did you handle at the DA’s Office?

Reasoner: I started out trying misdemeanors like DWI’s, thefts, illegal carrying of weapons, and then worked through the progression to felonies like possession or sale of drugs, aggravated assaults, and car thefts. I was fortunate enough to handle some really interesting cases even though I was only there for a couple of years.

THL:Did you think at some point you might want to do criminal defense work?

Reasoner: I thought about that. It’s an exciting area and a very people-oriented area of the law, which makes it appealing. But I always thought of business litigation as an interesting area, one in which the learning curve is steep and it is always a challenge to stay ahead.

THL:You went from the DA’s office to Gibbs & Bruns?

Reasoner:Yes, I joined the firm in 1992. At the time, it was Gibbs & Ratliff. Deborah Ratliff retired about a year after I started, and we became Gibbs & Bruns. I had clerked for the firm in law school, as well as for a couple of outstanding big firms in town, but I really felt like this was a great opportunity. At the time, we only had 15 lawyers. It was an incredibly talented group of people and it seemed like the sky was the limit in terms of the future. Now we have about 35 lawyers. We’ve tried to grow very slowly because we like being a smaller firm, but a little bit of growth is inevitable. I’ve been here almost 17 years. The firm has just improved steadily over time, and the quality of the attorneys, both as lawyers and people, has been the key to its enormous success.

THL:What types of cases do you handle?

Reasoner: I handle all sorts of business disputes, which is one of the things I like about working for this firm. I handle litigation in the areas of securities, professional malpractice defense, construction, intellectual property, oil and gas, real estate, and insurance coverage. We try not to specialize in one niche or area, but to have a skill set that can apply to any sort of business dispute.

THL:You’ve talked about the influence of your dad, but who were some of your other mentors throughout your legal career?

Reasoner:I’ve been very fortunate to work with some extraordinary people. At the DA’s office, I was surrounded by experienced trial lawyers and got to watch them in action frequently. Early on in my career with the firm, I got to try cases with Robin Gibbs, Chris Reynolds and Kathy Patrick. They set a great example in terms of thoroughness, preparation, and not being afraid to take chances. Robin has also shown me the qualities a great leader of an organization needs to have, and I’ve tried to emulate those where I can.

THL:How did you get involved in bar work?

Reasoner:As I got a little further along in my career, I wanted to get more involved in community service. I co-chaired a school mentoring program for the Houston Young Lawyers Association and really enjoyed that experience. After that, I began looking for other opportunities to stay involved. One of the great things about the HBA is there are so many different ways to get involved, depending on your interests.

THL:What was your first involvement in the HBA?

Reasoner:Probably my first exposure was volunteering for LegalLine at the HBA office. You get the experience of talking one on one with someone about their problems, someone who clearly just needs a lawyer’s advice. Most of the time it’s just common sense, logical advice. I also took some pro bono cases through the Houston Volunteer Lawyers Program. I found those cases to be very rewarding. You feel like you’re really making a difference to someone. I got involved with a couple of HBA committees, and ultimately decided that I wanted to step up my involvement and run for the HBA board.

THL:What was your most challenging leadership role before being elected president of the HBA?

Reasoner:I would say chairing the Houston Volunteer Lawyers Program was a very challenging job. My predecessor there was Denise Scofield. She and I were chair and chair-elect when we hired the new executive director, David Mandell. That search process led us to look at where the organization was and where we felt it needed to go. In the last several years, it has reached another level of service to low-income people in our community. With the implementation of the Equal Access to Justice Champions Program, the Veterans’ Program, and the Saturday clinic system, our bar is providing more people in the community than ever with advice and counsel. I think the HVLP is in a very good place right now.

THL:What do you see as the role of organized bars such as the HBA in society today?

Reasoner: I believe a bar association should have two main focuses. One is providing service to the community. For all the lawyer jokes, we have an outstanding history of giving back to the community as a profession. I think bar organizations provide a great structure for doing that. Another focus is promoting collegiality and professionalism, which I think are vitally important, particularly as the Houston legal community has grown.

THL:How do you see your role as bar president in that mission?

Reasoner: One of the first things was to put good people in place to run our committees. The way the organization is structured, a substantial amount of our work is done at the committee level. Having the right people involved, people who are workers and people with ideas, is critical. I think we’ve put together a great group. I also think it is important for the president to participate in as many things as possible. I believe the president has to know our programs and believe in them, and has to be a spokesperson for the organization.

I also think it’s important to reach out to the judiciary and foster good relations between the bench and bar. And I need to get to know lawyers in all different practice areas, to make sure we are an organization that’s relevant to them and offering them the tools they need to help their practices.

THL:You addressed this in more detail in your President’s Message in this issue, but tell me briefly about some of the areas you will focus on during your administration.

Reasoner: The Communities in Schools Program (CIS) is something that I’m very excited about, and that has come together in an incredibly short time frame. By the time I had vetted with everyone the idea of having a joint program between CIS and the HBA for the Legal Internship Program, it was time to start working on placing students if we were going to have a program this summer. The committee that I appointed has done an incredible job, and we now have 46 students from at-risk high schools placed as summer interns in law firms, corporate legal departments and government offices all over town. In addition to getting paid work experience in professional environments, they are being mentored, hearing attorneys and judges speak on their careers, visiting courts, watching trials and participating in a mock trial.

A grant from the Houston Galveston Area Council has allowed public offices to become involved for the first time. The involvement of the institutions like the District Clerk’s Office, the Harris County District Attorney’s Office, and the state and federal courts has provided an amazing opportunity for the students. My hope is that employers this summer will see how great the program is and will want to participate each year.

THL:I understand your firm has been involved in the Summer Legal Internship Program for a long time.

Reasoner: Gibbs & Bruns has been involved with the program for about 10 years. It’s very gratifying to me. We have a student this summer, Gladys Montes, who also worked with us last summer. She graduated number four in her class at Madison High School and is going to Texas A&M in the fall. Gladys is someone who would have achieved a great deal anyway, but I think that she has really gotten a lot out of being in our professional environment and getting to know our lawyers and staff and what they do. Over the past 10 years, we’ve had an outstanding group of kids come through our firm.

THL:Are there other new focus areas?

Reasoner: We also want to make sure that our HVLP clinic program is addressing people’s current needs in the best way possible. Specifically, I’ve appointed a Consumer Task Force to look at our offerings and see if there are things we should add to address the financial realities that people are going through these days, such as credit difficulties, bankruptcies, and mortgage problems. Lawyers can provide some good, common sense information to people, telling them how to seek the right help and getting them on the right road. The Task Force will look at partnering with other consumer help organizations, and perhaps asking them to have representation at some of our clinics. We hope to roll out a program in the fall. We don’t know what the demand will be, but we want people to know that when they come to their community center to talk to our volunteers, they can also get information to help them in these tough times.

THL:What do you think has changed most about the practice of law since you were licensed?

Reasoner: It feels like a much bigger legal community. When I started practicing, you would go down to the courthouse and see a lot of people you knew. That was a nice opportunity to visit with people. There’s not as much of that now, and that’s a shame. Our legal community here is one of which I’m very proud in terms of collegiality and professionalism and we need to maintain that. I’ve been other places in the country and it’s not always at that same level. Houston has a very strong, very diverse group of lawyers. We take a back seat to no place in the country as far as having an environment conducive to an active practice with a bar composed of skilled, professional colleagues.

THL:What do you like to do outside the practice of law?

Reasoner: We have five active kids, so I spend as much time as I can going to their sporting events, plays, and musical or dance performances. Although it’s difficult for me because of the time involved, I’ve done a little bit of coaching on some of their teams over time.

I do enjoy running, and also eating good food, so I hope those offset each other somewhat! I ran the Houston Marathon a couple of years ago with one of my childhood friends. Training together and running the marathon was a wonderful experience. When I get the chance, I also love to travel with my family.

THL:Are you involved in any other professional organizations?

Reasoner: I serve on the board of St. John’s School and The Joy School. The Joy School is a school for kids with special needs. It’s a great place for kids who need a little extra support academically. It helps them hone their skills, then mainstream back into a larger school. Watching what it takes to run schools has given me a new appreciation for administrators and teachers who do it well. I previously served on the board of the American Judicature Society, which is a national organization that looks at ways to improve the quality of our justice system and focuses on judicial independence. Chief Justice John Hill was very active in that organization and Chief Justice Tom Phillips continues to be active. I was also honored to be elected to the American Law Institute a few years ago, which is the organization that develops the restatements in various areas of law.

THL: Is there anything else you would like people to know about you?

Reasoner: I’m very honored to have this position, especially since I ran against another very qualified candidate for president-elect. That makes it all the more important to me to do a good job since I’ve been entrusted with this position. Between my practice, my family, and the bar, I feel like I’m on a roller coaster right now – I don’t have any time to catch my breath, but it’s an exciting ride.

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