Derrick Mitchell has joined Holland & Knight as a partner in the firm’s Houston office. Mitchell, a member of the firm’s national public finance team, serves as bond counsel and disclosure counsel for tax-exempt financing for cities, counties, state agencies and independent school districts, among other matters. He previously was a partner at Bracewell.

Nicholas Sarokhanian and James Voelker have been promoted to the position of partner at Holland & Knight in Dallas. Theresa Wanat has been promoted to partner in the Houston office. Sarokhanian and Wanat are in the firm’s litigation section. Voelker is in the business section.

Luis Enrique Cuervo and Michael W. McCoy are among a group of lawyers who have joined Jones Walker from the maritime law firm of Fowler Rodriguez. Based in the Houston office, both Cuervo and McCoy are in the Jones Walker litigation practice group.

Marc Kaliser has been elected a partner in the Dallas office of Munck Wilson & Mandala. Kaliser is a member of the firm’s corporate law group and leads its real estate practice.

Jill Bindler and David T. DeZern have been elected partners in the Dallas office of Gray Reed. Bindler is the firm’s go-to adviser for all aspects of e-discovery and investigations involving complex, high-volume document production obligations. DeZern handles patent litigation matters. Elise Barajas and Angela Brown, both in the Dallas office, have been promoted to counsel with the firm. Alex Uber has been promoted to an associate in the firm’s Houston office.

Marty Hopkins and Nash Zogaib have been elected counsel in the Austin office of Eversheds Sutherland. Hopkins advises clients on a variety of litigation and regulatory matters. Zogaib drafts and prosecutes domestic and foreign patent applications and advises clients on patent portfolio management as well as on other intellectual property needs.

Mariano Ornelas López, the former legal director of Centro Nacional de Control del Gas Natural, the Mexican government agency that manages the country’s natural gas transportation and storage network, has joined Reed Smith as counsel in its global energy and natural resources industry group. Hollie Reiminger also joined the firm as counsel in its labor and employment group. Haylie Treas has joined Reed Smith as a data security and privacy associate. All three attorneys are in the firm’s Houston office.

Joshua T. McNulty, a corporate and regulatory banking attorney, has been promoted to partner in Bracewell’s Dallas office. Attorneys who recently were promoted to partners in the firm’s Houston office are Molly E. Butkus, oil and gas practice; Lytch T. Gutmann, corporate and securities; and Staci M. Wilson, litigation.

Drew Williamson has joined KoonsFuller as an associate in the firm’s Southlake office. Williamson focuses on family law, divorce, property and asset division and pre- and post-marital agreements, among other matters.

Awards

Bill Holston, executive director of the Human Rights Initiative of North Texas, has received the 2019 Martin Luther King Jr. Justice Award from the Dallas Bar Association in recognition of his service to the Dallas community.

Honor

Melody J. Wang, a commercial real estate and business law attorney with Kane Russell Coleman Logan in Houston, has been elected to membership in the Fellows of the Texas Bar Foundation.