OFF THE RECORD

Bruce Jamison and Old Smokey:
Family Business Keeps Texas Tradition Fired Up

By Wesley R. Ward

With the Houston Rodeo and World’s Championship Bar-B-Que Contest just behind us, many Houstonians and Houston lawyers are getting their grills fired up and focusing on the outdoor grilling season. But for one HBA member, barbecue grills are more than just a seasonal interest. Intellectual property law attorney Bruce K. Jamison continues a family tradition as one of the co-owners and executives at Houston’s Old Smokey barbeque grill manufacturing company.

Old Smokey is a well-known Houston institution. Founded in 1923, the company has been in Houston so long that its mailing address is P.O. Box 4. The familiar barrel-shaped grill is an integral part of generations of Texas family gatherings. While most of the sales are regional, Bruce said that he does receive correspondence from happy customers around the world. “People seem to really bond to our grills, and we get letters from people, like Texas ex-pat workers, that have taken their grills all over the world.”

Founded in 1923, Old Smokey is a family company that Bruce has been involved with since high school. Bruce’s father had worked at the company since the 1950s, and then purchased it in the 1970s. Some of Bruce’s first jobs were working in the shipping department, loading trucks, and driving delivery vans. Eventually, Bruce and his brother took over the company, buying it from their father in 1988.

But Bruce also had a legal calling that he needed to answer. Taking a hiatus from the company, Bruce went to law school at the University of Houston Law Center and then was admitted to the patent bar. Bruce worked for several years as what he calls a “downtown, suit-wearing lawyer,” practicing in business litigation, intellectual property and trademark cases. Eventually, he went back to Old Smokey. Now serving as co-president and general counsel of the company, Bruce still maintains an active IP law practice. Most of his work is now in trademarks, but he does handle a variety of IP and patent issues for various business clients.

It can be unusual sometimes, working out of a non-traditional law office. “Sometimes, I’ll be on the phone with opposing counsel in some trademark matter. The other guy is probably in some downtown hi-rise office,” Bruce says. “He won’t realize that my office is in a manufacturing facility with a train track right behind it. But when that train horn goes off right outside my office, it’s pretty much a dead giveaway that my office is not in a hi-rise.”

Bruce says it’s rewarding to make one of the last American-made barbecue grills, and to know that he can carry on this family tradition while still helping his clients with their legal issues.

Wesley R. Ward is a principal in The Ward Law Firm.

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