TLIE is proud to announce the election of two new members to the Board of Directors, Mary-Ann A. Bellatti and James E. Brill. Mr. Brill was elected at the Board meeting of June 18, 1999, and Ms. Bellatti was elected on September 17, 1999, increasing the number of TLIE Directors to eleven.
Ms. Bellatti will serve a regular term of three years. Mr. Brill will fill the unexpired term of Thomas H. Lee of Ross, Banks, May, Cron & Cavin, P.C. (Houston). A Director since 1987, Mr. Lee is retiring from the practice of law. TLIE congratulates Mr. Lee on his retirement and his 49 years of service to the legal profession, and expresses its great appreciation for his service on the Board of TLIE.
Mary-Ann A. Bellatti
Ms. Bellatti is a shareholder of Sheinfeld, Maley & Kay, P.C. (Houston), and has practiced law in Texas since 1987. She is also licensed in the District of Columbia.
Prior to law school, she worked with administrative law matters in her employment with the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services. Her practice emphasizes areas of commercial litigation and insurance, including representation of business entities and individuals in matters ranging from simple contract disputes to more complex matters involving land titles and easements, trust interpretations and lender disputes.
She graduated from South Texas College of Law magna cum laude in 1987, where she was a member of the Order of the Lytae, and served as Editor-in-Chief of the South Texas Law Review. Ms. Bellatti is a Fellow in the Texas Bar Foundation and the Houston Bar Foundation. She is a native of Tulsa, Oklahoma.
James E. Brill
Mr. Brill is engaged in general civil practice in Houston, and most of his career has been as a solo practitioner. A 1957 graduate of The University of Texas School of Law, he received the State Bar of Texas President's Award as Outstanding Lawyer in Texas in 1978. He has served as chair of both the Continuing Legal Education (CLE) and Professional Efficiency and Economic Research (PEER) Committees of the State Bar and of the Law Practice Management Section of the American Bar Association.
For his pioneering work in developing and editing the Texas Probate System, Mr. Brill was elected in 1972 as a Fellow in the American College of Probate Counsel (now the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel). He is a life fellow of the Texas Bar Foundation and the American Bar Foundation, and in 1994 the State Bar of Texas awarded him the Gene Cavin Award for Excellence in Continuing Legal Education.
Mr. Brill served for three years on the ABA Task Force on solo and small firm practitioners, and contributed several articles concerning practice management for American Bar Association publications and for the Texas Bar Journal. Currently, he serves as vice president of the College of Law Practice Management. In 1994, Mr. Brill founded an organization for solo practitioners in Houston, Solos Supporting Solos.
He is married to the former Patricia Ann Guinn of Dallas. They have two sons, David and Paul, and five grandchildren.
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