Cort Thomas Brings Additional Litigation Talent and Experience to Brown Fox
September 14, 2018 by Brown Fox
Cort Thomas comes to Brown Fox as a Partner after spending the past seven years in the commercial litigation group at Vinson & Elkins LLP. Mr. Thomas immediately strengthens Brown Fox’s growing litigation team with experience in the firm’s core practices, but adds unique expertise in matters involving regulatory, oil and gas, real estate, banking, and bankruptcy litigation.
Relying on his near one-of-a-kind experience with the Northern District, Mr. Thomas also has developed a niche as serving as a knowledgeable local counsel in Dallas federal courts. “Insofar as familiarity with the federal judiciary, local rules, practices, and procedures, I doubt there’s another young, partner-level lawyer in Texas who knows the Northern District as well as Cort does,” volunteered Brown Fox’s Managing Partner, Russ Brown. Mr. Thomas began his legal career with the honor of serving as a federal law clerk in the chambers of United States District Judge Jane J. Boyle. Since that time Mr. Thomas has led the inaugural Northern District of Texas Bench Bar Committee and served as President of the Dallas Chapter of the Federal Bar Association. He currently serves on the Northern District of Texas Court Advisory Committee and is a member of its CJA Panel.
Mr. Brown added, “And while Cort’s intimacy with the Northern District and incredible credentials were very attractive attributes, what drove our firm to pursue him are the core intangibles that make him a great lawyer and leader: integrity and drive.” It was this drive that propelled Mr. Thomas, a National Merit Scholar, to graduate with a triple major with high honors and as the Distinguished Honors Scholar at the University of Texas at Austin. Mr. Thomas stayed in Austin for law school, again graduating with honors from the University of Texas School of Law while serving as an editor for both The Review of Litigation and The American Journal of Criminal Law. He also earned the Dean’s Achievement Award for the highest grade in construction law.
Mr. Thomas has managed to do tremendous volunteer work as his career progressed. Mr. Thomas has been recognized as a member of the Pro Bono College of the State Bar of Texas four times, meaning that he spent a minimum of 75 hours each year providing legal services to the poor. This representation included representing a local church in a property dispute and Members of Congress in filing an amicus brief in the United States Supreme Court in support of a high school coach who was fired for kneeling and praying after football games. He also served as a volunteer prosecutor for a local Texas city, including trying more than a dozen jury and bench trials to verdict, and as a volunteer mediator with the Dallas County Dispute Resolution Center.
Brown Fox is a Dallas-based law firm, primarily focused on business/commercial litigation, corporate and securities matters, and labor and employment counseling and litigation. The firm’s representative clientele includes start-ups; partnerships; small to mid-size, private Texas companies; publicly traded companies; and international corporations. The firm also regularly handles contractual negotiations/disputes for C-level executives, upper management, and key employees.
At Brown Fox we believe that regardless of the legal circumstance, fierce advocacy, strategy, and tactics must always be partnered with the utmost integrity. This foundational belief is why our motto, Character Matters®, is at the heart of everything we do.
