Cox Smith Selects Deborah Williamson as Next Managing Director

Cox Smith, the largest Texas law firm headquartered in San Antonio, today announced that its shareholders have selected Deborah D. Williamson to serve as the firm’s next Managing Director. Williamson, who has been a shareholder for more than 31 years, succeeds Jamie Smith, who will serve as the firm’s Chair. Williamson has led the firm’s bankruptcy department for most of that time, and has participated in different aspects of firm management for many years.

Smith, who has been Cox Smith’s Managing Director since 2005, said, "Deborah is an excellent choice and will continue to serve the firm very well. She is passionate about the firm and our clients, she has a broad perspective on our industry, and she is well known to professional colleagues around the country and the world. I look forward to working with her."

Williamson, who will continue her practice in addition to assuming her new management role, is nationally and internationally renowned for her knowledge of bankruptcy issues and trends. She is regularly called on by clients in a variety of industries for her bankruptcy experience and advice regarding counter-party risk. Williamson currently serves as one of the 19 members of the American Bankruptcy Institute’s (ABI) Bankruptcy Reform Commission and was recently awarded the ABI’s Lifetime Achievement Award, which has been presented only twice in the ABI’s nearly 30-year history.

Williamson has been named a leader in her field by Chambers USA since 2003, selected for inclusion by Texas Super Lawyers as one of the Top 100 Lawyers in Texas (regardless of practice) and as one of the Top 50 Women Lawyers in Texas and one of the Top 50 Lawyers in Central Texas since the honor’s inception. Named one of The Best Lawyers in America© consecutively for over two decades, she was recently included for the second time in Texas Lawyer’s Go-To Guide as one of the top five bankruptcy attorneys in the state of Texas, which is compiled by the magazine’s editorial department and published only every five years. She is also the current Co-Chair of the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Litigation Committee of the Litigation Section of the American Bar Association. In 2012, Williamson co-authored When Gushers Go Dry, a guide to oil and gas bankruptcy. She had previously co-authored Bankruptcy Litigation for the Commercial Litigator.

"I'm honored and excited to have been asked to assume this very important role for the firm," said Williamson. "And I am very humbled by the support of my fellow shareholders and the responsibility they have placed in me. Jamie has done an outstanding job as the firm’s Managing Director and I look forward to drawing on his firm management experience and working with him in continuing our focus on our clients and our communities as I transition into my new role."

In his role as Chair, Smith will continue to be involved in firm leadership, as well as devoting even more time to working with the firm’s clients. "My first priority will be to work closely with Deborah to ensure a smooth transition in early 2014, and thereafter to focus more of my time on client service initiatives, developing and expanding client relationships, civic involvement and other matters of strategic importance to the firm. Deborah and I have worked well together on client matters for more than 20 years, and I look forward to being a resource for her as she assumes this important leadership role."