Baylor Law Alum Elected 2009 President of Texas Trial Lawyers Association

At its annual board and membership meeting in Austin, the Texas Trial Lawyers Association elected Baylor Law alumnus and Daingerfield lawyer Nelson Roach as 2009 President. Roach, founding member with Nix, Patterson & Roach, practices in the areas of commercial litigation, products liability law, personal injury law and toxic torts.

Roach was born in Syracuse, N.Y., on March 10, 1959. He received his bachelor's degree from Baylor University in 1981 and graduated cum laude from Baylor Law School in 1984. Roach was a member of Phi Delta Phi and the Baylor Law Review, where he was Notes and Comments Editor in 1983 and Research and Topics Editor in 1984. He also was the author of "The Rule Against Perpetuities; The Validity of Oil and Gas Top Leases, and Top Deeds in Texas After Peveto vs. Starkey," 35 Baylor Law Review 399, 1983.

After law school, Roach was a briefing attorney to Justice Robert M. Campbell, Supreme Court of Texas. He was admitted to the Texas bar in 1984 and also is admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court, the U. S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth and Tenth Circuits, and the U. S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.

He is a member of Morris County, Northeast Texas and American Bar Associations, as well as the Texas Trial Lawyers Association, the American Association for Justice and the American Board of Trial Advocates. He has served as Vice-Chair of the 2006 TTLA Finance Committee, served as a member of the Board of Directors since 2005 and served three terms on the TTLA Executive Committee.

"Baylor lawyers have a well-known reputation for moving to the forefront of leadership in professional venues," said Baylor Law Dean Brad Toben. "Nelson joins two other Baylor lawyers - George Chandler and John Eddie Williams - who have led the TTLA in recent years. We also are proud of the fact that both the current President and President-Elect of the State Bar of Texas - Harper Estes and Roland Johnson - are Baylor lawyers. Baylor law students are taught to serve, and they clearly understand that message and run with it."

The Texas Trial Lawyers Association was founded in 1949 and is a professional association comprised exclusively of attorneys whose primary area of practice is representing plaintiffs in the civil justice system.