Commissioners

State Representative Gene Wu proudly serves the people of District 137 in the Texas House. Prior to being elected in 2012, he served as a prosecutor in the Harris County District Attorney’s Office, where he sought justice for thousands of crime victims. Gene is currently an attorney in private practice.

Outside his legislative work, Gene remains active and involved in the Houston community. For the past nine years, he has worked with Neighborhood Centers Inc. in conducting monthly workshops that have helped several thousand Harris County residents become United States citizens. Gene currently serves on community advocacy organization boards such as the OCA-Greater Houston Advisory Board, the Chinese Community Center Advisory Board, and the Baker-Ripley Neighborhood Centers Advisory Committee. He is the past President of the Houston 80-20 Political Action Committee. Gene has also served as a mentor and teacher for adults in the Skills for Living program, and tutored at-risk youth at Sharpstown High School.

Gene grew up in the Southwest Houston neighborhood of Sharpstown. He earned his Bachelors of Science Degree from Texas A&M University, a Master’s Degree from the LBJ School for Public Affairs at the University of Texas in Austin, and a Law Degree from the South Texas College of Law in Houston.

Gene and his wife, Miya, reside in Southwest Houston. They are the proud parents of two sons.

The second highest-ranking state senator, Judith Zaffirini has passed 1,024 bills (more than any legislator in the state’s history); cast 60,000 consecutive votes since 1987; and received more than 950 honors for her legislative, professional, and civic accomplishments. Also a member of the Texas Judicial Council, she champions preventing cronyism and corruption in the legal system, protecting persons under guardianship and/or with intellectual and emotional disabilities, and increasing access to justice. Her legislation includes creating legal self-help centers; multi-county law libraries; standardized forms for landlord-tenant disputes, wills, and other basic legal matters for low-income Texans; and eliminating "debtors' prisons." Her son, Carlos Jr., a member of the Access to Justice Foundation, established the Carlos Sr. and Senator Judith Zaffirini Access to Justice Initiative, which pays bar review and exam costs for low-income UT law graduates who will represent low-income clients.

Senator Zaffirini holds B.S., M.A., and PhD degrees from UT-Austin.

Judge Nicholas Chu was sworn in as the Presiding Judge of Travis County Probate Court No. 2 on October 1, 2023. Previously, Judge Chu served as Justice of the Peace for Precinct 5 in Travis County, Texas since 2017. He was an Assistant District Attorney with the Travis County District Attorney’s Office and as a chief misdemeanor prosecutor with the Travis County Attorney’s Office. Judge Chu served as chair of the Texas Supreme Court’s Justice Court COVID-19 Response Working Group and was appointed to the Texas Supreme Court’s Remote Proceedings Task Force. He is also a volunteer faculty member for the Texas Justice Court Training Center and serves on the Texas Supreme Court Advisory Committee.

Judge Chu presided over the nation’s first fully virtual/remote criminal jury trial in August of 2020 and was recognized as 2021’s Judge of the Year by the Justices of the Peace and Constables Association, Texas’ largest association of elected officials. His court docket includes having primary responsibility for all of Travis County’s civil mental health cases.

Nick is the proud son of immigrants and the grandson of the owner of the first Chinese restaurant in Grapevine, Texas, where he was raised. He is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin, where he received his B.A. in Government, and he earned his law degree from Baylor Law School. His wife, Kathryn Whitley Chu, is a school board trustee for Austin ISD, and together they live happily in Austin with their daughter and son.

Judge Roy Ferguson (2013-present) presides over a five-county court of general jurisdiction covering roughly 20,000 square miles and over 20% of the US-Mexico Border. He was the 32nd sitting district judge in Texas history to author a published appellate opinion. In recognition of his advocacy for high quality justice for all, Judge Ferguson was named a Commissioner and executive committee member of the Texas Access to Justice Commission, a commissioner on the Texas Children’s Commission, and Chair of the Child Welfare Standards of Representation Committee. As a national advocate for using technology to expand access to justice, Judge Ferguson serves on the Texas Artificial Intelligence Task Force, Texas Supreme Court’s Judicial Committee on Information Technology, Uniform Case Management System Study Group, Judicial Needs Assessment Committee, the NCSC Hybrid Proceedings Task Force, and the Judicial Council Civil Justice Committee’s Advisory Council. He served on the Texas Remote Proceedings Task Force and was the keynote speaker at the launch of the Iowa Remote Proceedings Taskforce. Judge Ferguson is active in State Bar of Texas leadership, serving on the governing boards of the Family Law, GPSolo, Judicial, and Computer & Technology Sections, and the State Bar Rules Committee. Judge Ferguson is a Trustee and Sustaining Life Fellow of the Texas Bar Foundation, and a member of the Texas Bar College and the Champions of Justice Society. He is a frequent educational speaker to lawyers and judges around the world for the Texas Center for the Judiciary, American Bar Association, ABOTA, and TexasBarCLE, and is on faculty for the National Judicial College. He authors the “Let’s Talk Lawyering” column in the ABA Young Lawyers Magazine. He is one of the best-known judges on social media (Twitter: @JudgeFergusonTX), which he uses to educate the public about the justice system in an uplifting, entertaining, and ethical way.

Krisi Kastl founded Kastl Law, P.C. to help those with personal injury claims in Texas. For years, Kastl Law has been the lifeline that victimized parties needed to recover maximum compensation for their injuries. Making a difference in the lives of her clients has always been her main goal. Krisi has many years of courtroom experience as a Dallas trial attorney and has covered a wide variety of cases, including catastrophic motor vehicle accidents, motorcycle wrecks, truck wrecks, premises liability, wrongful death, and products liability. Ms. Kastl has earned the respect of her peers and insurance companies and the gratitude of the clients she represents. Krisi is a no-nonsense attorney who is proud to be the voice of the victims against big insurance companies that attempt to use intimidation to unfairly get out of accepting responsibility for their insured’s wrongdoing.

Tom  Leatherbury  is  co-head  of  the  Appellate  Section  of  Vinson  &  Elkins  L.L.P.  and  the  Director of  the  First  Amendment  Clinic  at  the  SMU  Dedman  School  of  Law.    Tom  currently  serves  as  the President  of  the  Texas  Supreme  Court  Historical  Society  and  as  a  member  of  the  Council  of  the State  Bar  of  Texas  Appellate  Section  and  of  the  Editorial  Board  of  the  ABA’s  Communications Lawyer.  He  has  served  as  a  member  of  the  ABA  Forum  Committee  on  Communications  Law Governing  Committee  and  as  President  of  the  Defense  Counsel  Section  of  the  Media  Law Resource  Center  and  of  the  Freedom  of  Information  Foundation  of  Texas.  He  has  also  served  as Chair  of  the  Dallas  Bar  Association's  Media  Relations  Committee  and  is  a  fellow  of  the  American Bar  Foundation,  the  Texas  Bar  Foundation,  and  the  Dallas  Bar  Foundation  (which  honored  him with  its  Justinian  Award  in  2018). 

Tom  has  been  ranked  in  First  Amendment  Litigation  and Appellate  Litigation  by  Chambers  USA,  has  been  named  in  Best  Lawyers  in  America  in  First Amendment  Law,  Commercial  Litigation,  Appellate  Law,  and  Bet-the-Company  Litigation,  and is  a  member  of  the  American  Law  Institute  (and  an  Advisor  on  the  current  project  concerning  the defamation provisions  of  the  Restatement  of  Torts).  Tom is  licensed  to practice  in Texas  and is  admitted to practice  before  all  federal  courts  in  Texas, the  United  States  Courts  of  Appeals  for  the  Second,  Third,  Fourth,  Fifth,  Ninth,  and  Federal Circuits,  and  the  United  States  Supreme  Court.  He  graduated  summa  cum  laude  from  Yale  College, with  a  B.A.  in  history,  and  was  a  member  of  Phi  Beta  Kappa.  He  earned  his  J.D.  from  Yale  Law School,  where  he  worked  in  the  Mental  Hospital  Legal  Services  Clinic  and  served  as  chair  of  the Jerome  N.  Frank Legal  Services  Organization.  Immediately after  law  school, Tom  clerked  for  the Hon. Robert  M.  Hill, a  U.S. District  Judge  for  the  Northern District  of  Texas  in Dallas. 

Tom has  served  as  amicus  counsel  for  the  Texas  Access  to  Justice  Commission and for  the  Texas Access  to  Justice  Foundation  in  several  appeals.  He  has  also  served  as  pro  bono  counsel  for  Texas Appleseed,  the  Texas  Civil  Rights  Projects,  the  League  of  Women  Voters  of  Texas,  and a  number of  publishers,  broadcasters,  and journalists. 

Judge Latosha Lewis Payne is the Presiding Judge of the 55th Civil District Court in Harris County, Texas. She also serves as the current Harris County Local Administrative Judge. Prior to her election to the bench, she practiced at Am Law 200 international law firms for most of her 18-year law practice. Judge Payne is a former elected Partner of Gardere Wynne Sewell LLP n/k/a Foley Lardner and was a Co-Founding Partner of Trahan Dinn Kornegay Payne LLP, a woman-owned civil litigation and insurance coverage law firm.

Judge Payne earned her law degree from the University of Texas School of Law in 2000 and a double major from Tulane University, H. Sophie Newcomb Women’s College in 1996. She was recognized as a Tulane Honors Scholar after being awarded a postgraduate fellowship by the Thomas J. Watson Foundation to study “Culture and the Development of Women’s Sports” in Kenya, Botswana, Ghana, and Jamaica. She was also a scholarship athlete who is the former Metro Conference Champion in the Women’s 400Meter Hurdles.

Judge Payne is Board Certified in Civil Trial Law and has been honored as a fellow of the American Bar Foundation and Texas Bar Foundation. She has received many honors, including “Outstanding Young Lawyer of the Year” by the Houston Young Lawyers Association.

In addition to her service to the community on the bench, Judge Payne is an Adjunct Professor of a Communication Law & Ethics course at the University of Houston. She also dedicates over 500 hours per year as a volunteer head coach for 11-12 girls and hurdles with the largest youth track club in the United States.

Sandra Phillips is an executive leader and independent director with a breadth of experience strategically managing complex corporate issues, integrating business and stakeholder relations to achieve successful outcomes.

Phillips is senior vice president, chief legal officer and corporate secretary for Toyota Motor North America, where she directs strategy to support its expansion as a global mobility company, as well as oversees Compliance and Audit, Sustainability and Regulatory Affairs, Social Innovation, Corporate Shared Services and Toyota de Mexico.

Phillips is an independent director for MSA Safety, Inc., where she chairs the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee and is a member of the Audit Committee. She was recently an independent director for The Chemours Company, where she served on the Nominating, Governance and Audit Committees. In 2019, WomenInc. selected Phillips as a Most Influential Corporate Board Director. In October 2024, Phillips will receive the Distinguished Alumna Awards from DirectWomen.

Phillips serves on the board of trustees for the University of Texas Law School Foundation, the board of directors for the United Way of Metropolitan Dallas and the Southern Methodist University Tate Lecture Series, and is a co-founder of the Center for Women in Law at the University of Texas. She holds a Bachelor of Journalism degree and a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Texas at Austin. In 2018, Phillips received the Outstanding Alumna Award from Texas Law.

Phillips is a leader in her profession and industry. In 2023, she was named Woman of the Year by the National Association of Minority Automotive Dealers and in 2020, Automotive News named Phillips an Automotive All-Star and a 100 Leading Women in the North American Automotive Industry.

Marshall is a native Texan, long-time Austinite, graduate of Texas A&M University, and graduate of the University of Texas School of Law. Marshall has a passionate, empathetic, and charismatic approach to representing the needs of children and families in crisis. For Marshall, the practice of family law inherently contains an element of public service, and he maintains a personal and professional commitment to helping families.

Marshall first realized his passion for family-law during his time at the Domestic Violence Clinic at UT Law. Marshall strives to provide every client with peace of mind that their legal problems will be dealt with both effectively and promptly. Equally comfortable in the courtroom, mediation, or behind the scenes, Marshall understands that every case is unique and requires special care and creative problem solving.

Marshall also serves as a Board Representative for the Texas Young Lawyers Association and a member of the Austin Young Lawyers Association. He is also a member of the Family Law section of the State Bar of Texas and the Austin Bar Association.

When he is not advocating in the courtroom, you can find Marshall volunteering at a clinic for Volunteer Legal Services, canoeing on Lake Austin with children through Austin Sunshine Camps, and handing out coffee and donuts at Community First Village. On the weekends he plays lead guitar with his band, enjoys paddle boarding, officiating weddings, winning his croquet league, and relaxing with his dogs and girlfriend.

Marshall represents clients in all areas of family law, but especially enjoys cases involving:

- High conflict and difficult co-parenting dynamics
- Modification or removal of geographic restrictions
- Prenuptial and postnuptial agreements
-Family law appeals

Dean Emeritus Brad Toben looked upon his position as dean of Baylor Law from 1991 to 2023—indeed he looks upon the profession of law—as a way to help individuals, his community, and our larger society.

Dean Toben completed his B.A., with honors, in political science at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. As the result of AP credit, heavy course loads, summer school work, and a skipped grade in elementary school, he was just beyond his 20th birthday when he graduated in two-and-a-half-years from the University of Missouri-St. Louis.

He enrolled in Baylor Law, sight unseen, because he could start law school at mid-year, owing to the school’s quarter system. He arrived the day before classes started and went on to graduate from Baylor Law with a J.D. with honors in 1977, thereafter being admitted to the bar in Texas and Missouri at age 22.

Following three-and-a-half years of practice with a St. Louis firm that subsequently merged into the current Husch Blackwell, Dean Toben returned to law studies at Harvard Law School in 1980, from which he received the LL.M. degree in 1981.

After Harvard, he taught at Indiana University School of Law-Indianapolis from 1981-83. In 1983, Dean Toben jumped at an opportunity to join the Baylor Law faculty, returning to a place he had come to regard as a sort of professional home. In 1991, when he was 36, he was named dean of the Law School, then the youngest law school dean in the nation. At the time he stepped out of the dean’s role in June 2023, he was the longest-serving law school dean in the nation among the 199 ABA accredited law schools.

His academic interests during his faculty career at Baylor have focused in the areas of commercial law and the relationship of debtors and creditors under state and federal law, although he also has maintained active interests in constitutional law and public policy studies. On occasion, Dean Toben has also partnered with a minister to teach a seminar course on “Law, Public Policy, and Scripture,” inspired by his lifelong interest in theology, and its intersection with his work in the law.

Dean Toben is an elected member of the American Law Institute and has served by appointment of the governor of Texas as a Commissioner to the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws. He currently serves by appointment of the Supreme Court of Texas on the Texas Access to Justice Commission. He has been recognized as an Outstanding Young Alumnus of Baylor University. He also has been recognized as a Distinguished Alumnus of the University of Missouri-St. Louis and has received the University of Missouri-St. Louis Distinguished Alumni Political Science Award.

Dean Toben has been honored as the 2023 Baylor Lawyer of the Year, and as the 2023 Champion of Justice of Texas Watch, a non-partisan, non-profit advocacy group dedicated to the rights of consumers, policyholders, patients, and workers. He also has been recognized by the Texas Trial Lawyers Association at a reception in his honor, for “exemplary service and commitment as a guiding light in legal scholarship and the pursuit of justice.” He has participated regularly in accreditation and membership inspections of law schools for the American Bar Association and Association of American Law Schools and has been active in the State Bar of Texas, especially in the bankruptcy specialization certification program. He also was previously of counsel to the firm of Dawson & Sodd in Texas. He is a Master of the Bench in the Judge Abner V. McCall American Inn of Court and is a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation and the Texas Bar Foundation.

Dean Toben has been active in numerous civic and charitable activities and has served as an elder, trustee, deacon, and chair of the board of Central Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). For many years, he has taught an adult Sunday School class at Central Christian.

His wife, Beth, is a longtime child sexual abuse prosecutor. The Tobens have two children: John, a graduate of Oklahoma State University; and Sarah Beth, a graduate of Baylor University, a former Lady Bear softball player, and a Baylor Law graduate. The members of the Toben family are animal lovers, and Dean Toben once had aspirations to be a veterinarian. His home is outside of Waco in a semi-rural area, and the family menagerie includes several rescues.

Dean Toben enjoys any activity that involves being with his family and was for many years deeply involved in Sarah Beth’s softball endeavors. He also enjoys reading, especially biography, history, science, and theology.