Biography

Prior to assuming the bench, Judge Ezra was in private practice in Honolulu, Hawaii from 1972 to 1988, becoming a partner in the law firm of Anthony, Hoddick, Reinwald, and O’Connor in 1980. He became the Managing Partner of the law firm of Ezra, O’Connor, Moon and Tam in 1981.

Judge Ezra was appointed to the United States District Court for the District of Hawaii in 1988, becoming the youngest federal judge in Hawaii history, and was the longest-serving active federal judge in Hawaii’s history. Judge Ezra took Senior Judicial status in 2012. He has handled complex litigation matters in Hawaii, and by designation of the Chief Judge of the Ninth Circuit and the Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, in many districts throughout the country. Judge Ezra is currently serving by designation on the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas, San Antonio Division. He carries a full caseload, hearing cases both in the San Antonio and Austin Divisions of the Western District of Texas.

Judge Ezra was elected by the judges of the Ninth Circuit to a three-year term as a member of the Judicial Conference of the United States, which governs the operations of the Federal Judiciary (2002-2005). Judge Ezra was appointed and served on the Judicial Conference Committee on the Administration of the Bankruptcy System and was its long-range planning chairman. In 2010, Judge Ezra was appointed to the Council on Budget and Finance of the Judicial Conference of the United States. He continues to be designated to serve on federal courts both within and outside the Ninth Circuit, particularly in complex cases and is often designated to sit on the Court of Appeals.

• University of Hawaii Alumni Association Lifetime Achievement Award, 2013
• Rosewood Gavel Award, St. Mary’s University, 2007
• Lifetime Achievement Award, St. Mary’s University School of Law, 2013
• Distinguished Law Graduate, St. Mary’s University School of Law, 2017

Biography

Tom currently serves as an Assistant City Attorney in the Regulatory Division of the San Antonio City Attorney’s Office where he advises City staff and officials in various areas of municipal law. Prior to joining the San Antonio City Attorney’s Office, Tom was a judicial clerk for the Honorable N. Carlton Tilley, Senior District Court Judge for the Middle District of North Carolina in Greensboro. He also practiced defense litigation in North Carolina and later worked as in-house counsel for a Texas employee benefit plan administrator.

During law school, Tom served as Editor-in-Chief of the Wake Forest Law Review and as a member of the Moot Court Board. Tom attended UNC-Chapel Hill on a Morehead-Cain Scholarship—a full merit scholarship recognizing leadership, integrity, and academic excellence. He was also one of two students in North Carolina selected for a United States Senate Youth Scholarship. Tom lives in San Antonio with his wife Zoe.

Biography

Michael Forrest brings to the classroom practical knowledge as a trial lawyer and academic teaching experience from two law schools. His past legal employment includes a judicial clerkship with the United States District Court for the Southern District of Iowa, where he worked on prisoner rights and habeas corpus cases. Following that appointment, he was the judicial law clerk to Justice Linda K. Neuman at the Iowa Supreme Court.

In addition to serving state and federal court systems at the trial and appellate stages, Forrest practiced law as a litigator with the law firm Younge & Hockensmith, representing the municipalities and counties of Western Colorado as an insurance defense attorney in the areas of constitutional litigation and zoning compliance.

His faculty appointments have been at the University of the Incarnate Word teaching Business Law, Drake University Law School as the Assistant Director of Legal Writing, and St. Mary’s University School of Law as faculty in the Legal Research and Writing program.

Articles

• “The Accounting Doctoral Shortage: Accounting Faculty Opinions on Hiring JD-CPAs as Accounting Educators,” 9 Administrative Issues Journal 19-34 (2019)
• “Discharging Student Loans in Bankruptcy: Good Luck with That,” 23 Journal of the International Academy for Case Studies 16-19 (2017)
• “Teaching Business Law from Literature: Lessons to Be Learned from the Novel Mildred Pierce and the Road to Entrepreneurial Success,” 33 Journal of Legal Studies Education 361-377 (2016)
• “Bribery and China Go Together Like Yin and Yang,” 43 Cumberland Law Review 423-432 (2014)
• “A Fresh Look at the Constitutional Rights of Teens: Sex and Drugs at the Supreme Court,” 45 Idaho Law Review 71-92 (2008)

Books

• Patent Reform: A Legislative History of the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act, Public Law 112-29 (Bridge Publishing Group, 2012)
• Health Care Reform: A Legislative History of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Public Law 111-148 (2010) (W.S. Hein & Co., 2011)
• Finance Reform: A Legislative History of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, Pub. L. 111-203 (2010) (Bridge Publishing Group, 2010)
• Intelligence Reform: A Legislative History of the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004, Public Law No. 108-458 (2004) (W.S. Hein & Co., 2006)

Presentations

• “JD-CPAs as Accounting Educators: Accounting Faculty Attitudes and Business School Accreditation Standards,” American Educational Research Association, April 2018, Annual Meeting, New York, New York.
• “Litigation as a Business Strategy: Art and Appropriation for a Piece of the Profits,” Southern Academy of Legal Studies in Business, March 2018, Annual Conference, San Antonio, Texas.
• “Looking Down the ‘Business’ End of a Colt Pistol: The Patent Story,” Southern Academy of Legal Studies in Business, March 2017, Annual Conference, San Antonio, Texas.
• “Conversations on Wills and Trusts,” Financial Planning Association of San Antonio & South Texas, April 2013, Financial Planning Symposium, San Antonio, Texas.

Biography

Dr. Carlos A. Gabuardi, Lic. Jur., LL.M., Ph.D., is a practicing lawyer and founder of Gabuardi Abogados. He holds a License in Jurisprudence from the Universidad de Monterrey; a Master of Laws, with distinction and a Doctorate of Laws (Ph.D.) both from Tulane University. He has published several articles in Law Reviews and Journals in Mexico and abroad. He is currently a Professor of Law and a Distinguished Legal Researcher at Facultad Libre de Derecho de Monterrey and teaches a Course on Legal Spanish: An Inductive Comparative Law Approach to the Mexican Legal System in St. Mary’s UNiversity School of Law

He was a lawyer in the Legal Department of the World Bank (Washington, D.C.) where he was in charge of the Bank’s portfolio for various countries in Latin America and the Caribbea,. Corporate Legal Manager and Assistant Secretary of Grupo Gamesa (currently Pepsico). In December 2004, he was part of the team that organized the first training for Judges in the Americas on the Hague Convention on International Child Abduction.

He was Professor of Law and researcher at the Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey, Head of the Law Department and Professor of Law at Universidad de Monterrey; Visiting Professor of Law, St. Mary´s University School of Law, San Antonio, Texas; co-planner and administrator of the program: “Joint Venture. A Transnational Study and Training Program for U.S. and Mexican Business Lawyers” (St. Mary’s University School of Law and Universidad de Monterrey); Adjunct Professor of Law, The Washington College of Law, American University, Washington, D.C., and Universidad Regiomontana,

Dr. Gabuardi is a member of the Mexican Bar Association, the Monterrey Bar Association the Mexican Academy of Private International and The Nuevo Leon Academy of Commercial Law.

• The Correlation between Personal Jurisdiction and Foreign Judgments (A Comparative Law Study about Canada, the United States and Mexico), VDM Verlag, 2008.
•  El derecho y los signos de los tiempos. Ibañez y Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Bogotá, Colombia. 1 enero 2014.
•  Las Fuentes del Derecho Internacional Privado (Complejidades por su fragmentación). Editorial académica española. 2017
• La Familia y su Trascendencia: (reflexiones sobre la vida familiar y los bienes materiales) (Spanish Edition) Kindle Edition. 2017.
• Las Fuentes del Derecho Internacional Privado: (Complejidades por su Fragmentación). Kindle Edition. 2017.
• La Dimensión Internacional del Derecho Privado: (Ejes temáticos y tendencias actuales) (Spanish Edition) Kindle Edition. 2017.
  
  II. Chapter in Books:
• ¿Qué va a pasar cuando Bush y Salinas ya no sean presidentes? (Consideraciones jurídicas al proceso de integración económica con la América del Norte). Ponencia preparada para el Foro Nacional de Consulta convocado por el pleno del Senado de la República sobre “Las Relaciones de México con el Mundo” celebrada en la Cd. de Monterrey, N.L. los días 14 y 15 de mayo de 1990. Publicada en las Memorias del Foro Nacional de Consulta “Las Relaciones Comerciales de México con el Mundo.” Senado de la República. LIV Legislatura. Tomo II. 1990.
• Open Price terms in the CISG, the UCC and Mexican Commercial Law, in Review of the Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG), (Michael Maggi, Editor), Kluwer Law International, 2004
• Chapter 9. Biligual Promissory Notes, in Jorge A. Vargas, Mexican Law for the American Lawyer. 2009.

Biography

The Hon. Craig Gargotta (J.D. ’19) was appointed to the bench on October 1, 2007. He was then appointed Chief Bankruptcy Judge for the Western District of Texas on November 2, 2021. Judge Gargotta has a B.A. and M.A. from Texas A&M University and his J.D. from St. Mary’s School of Law in San Antonio, Texas. After law school he clerked for the Honorable Ronald B. King, United States Bankruptcy Judge for the Western District of Texas. He then served as an Asst. U.S. Attorney for 17 years prior to taking the bench. Judge Gargotta is a member of the NCBJ, Federal Bar Association, and Larry E. Kelly Inn of Court. He serves as an Associate Editor for the American Bankruptcy Law Journal and is an adjunct professor at St. Mary’s Law School. Judge Gargotta has spoken at numerous bar conferences on a local and national level. Judge Gargotta currently serves as a Master in the Larry E. Kelly Inn of Court and Director of the Texas Aggie Bar Association.

Biography

Dayna Jones J.D., is a native of Eugene, Oregon and attended the University of Oregon for undergrad where she earned a Bachelor of Arts in International Studies with a focus on Law, Diplomacy, and Relations. She moved to Texas in 2004 to attend law school at St. Mary’s. Since graduating from law school in 2007, Dayna has focused solely on practicing criminal defense. After working as a defense attorney at Goldstein, Goldstein, and Hilley (now Goldstein & Orr) and with attorney Neil Calfas, Dayna opened her own office in 2010. She handles all stages of a case, but focuses mostly on post-conviction appeals and writs of habeas corpus. As lead counsel, she has overturnd over 12 wrongful convictions and she currently has six clients listed in the National Registry of Exonerations. Dayna has assisted as co-counsel on several other wrongful convictions as well. She sits on the Board of the San Antonio Criminal Defense Lawyer’s Association and she is on the Bexar County Managed Assigned Counsel’s Oversight Committee.

Biography

After attaining my degrees from St. Mary’s University, I embarked on a career in public service that has spanned over 30 years. I currently serve as the Executive Director for Administration and Financial Services for the Edwards Aquifer Authority, a political subdivision for the State of Texas, where I manage all administrative functions that include finance, budgeting, human resources, building services, and information technology. Prior to the EAA, I served as Director of Human Resources for Angelo State University and Benefits Manager/Director of Civil Service for the City of Plano, TX. In these positions, I led the development and implementation of various programs that contributed to the success of these organizations and augmented workplace culture through fostering entrepreneurial programs vis-à-vis operational initiatives, technological advancements, financial stewardship; and fostering organizational critical thinking through employee training & development, compensation, and employee benefits enhancements. My public service career has brought rewards and challenges that I never anticipated, but I know that the foundation and core values I gained at St. Mary’s have been instrumental both my career and personal life. As Adjunct Professor, I hope to pass on some of these experiences to the next generation of professionals.

Biography

Since 2011, the Hon. Marina Garcia Marmolejo has served as a U.S. District Judge for the Southern District of Texas, Laredo Division. As a federal judge, Garcia Marmolejo has heard over 12,000 criminal and civil cases, presided over nearly 100 trials, and maintained a reversal rate of less than 1%. Garcia Marmolejo has sat by designation on the Fifth Circuit and authored an opinion on a matter of first impression.

Despite presiding over once of the busiest dockets in the country, Garcia Marmolejo devotes significant time to promoting the legal profession at home and abroad. From 2014 to 2019, she co-directed the Hispanic National Bar Association’s moot court competition. She regularly teaches seminars and workshops on U.S. law in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Paraguay and Spain. In 2022, she founded St. Mary’s clerkship mentorship program. In 2023, she will teach an advanced legal writing seminar at St. Mary’s.

Judge Garcia Marmolejo is also active in improving the judiciary process. She currently holds leadership positions with the Federal Judges Association, District Judges Association of the Fifth Circuit, Editorial Committee for the Fifth Circuit’s Criminal Pattern Jury Instructions and Advisory Committee for Texas’s State Criminal Pattern Jury Charges. Chief Justice John Roberts has twice appointed Garcia Marmolejo to serve on the Judicial Conference of the United States’ IT Committee.

Before she became a federal judge, Garcia Marmolejo served as a federal public defender, federal prosecutor and an attorney in private practice. As a federal defender and prosecutor, Judge Garcia Marmolejo tried over 30 cases to verdict. Her cases included domestic corruption, transnational drug trafficking, and complex human trafficking cases.

• Outstanding Service in the Judiciary, Mexican American Bar Association, 2016
• Latina Judge of the Year, Hispanic National Bar Association, 2014
• Americanism Award, Daughters of the American Revolution, 2012
• Distinguished Alumni Award, University of the Incarnate Word, 2011
• Best San Antonio Lawyers, Scene In S.A., 2011
• Texas Rising Stars, Super Lawyers, 2011
• Top 100 Influential Leaders, Hispanic Business Magazine, 2010
• Outstanding Service, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, 2007
• Outstanding Service, Drug Enforcement Administration, 2006
• Recognition for Excellence in Prosecution and Outstanding Prosecutorial Skills, Federal Bureau of Investigation, 2003, 2006
• Recognition of Professional Contribution, Department of Homeland Security – Office of the Inspector General, 2005
• Director’s Award for Superior AUSA Performance, Executive Office for the U.S. Attorney, 2002
• Michael T. Shelby Sisyphus Award, U.S. Attorney’s Office, 2002, 2004, 2005
• Tejano Achievers Award, Laredo LULAC Council, 2000