Last week I traveled to Austin for oral argument in the Texas Supreme Court.  In all my years of practice, I have never had a case argued before the Texas Supreme Court, so it was quite exciting for me.  We won in the Amarillo Court of Appeals, and are hopeful that the Texas Supreme Court will affirm that win.  I wrote the brief, and my partner (law partner, not life partner) presented oral argument.  UPDATE:  The Court changed the law, reversed our win, and sent us back to the court of appeals.  🙁

We arrived the day before and checked into The Driskill, a historic hotel built in the 1880s (it’s on the National Register of Historic Places).  The hotel is located off of a stretch of Austin’s famed 6th Street referred to as “Dirty 6th Street.”

The hotel lobby is grand, indeed:

As was the hotel’s Driskill Bar:

Texas touches were everywhere, like these pistols:

Bang bang

My room felt more like a charming old bed and breakfast than a hotel:

My room had a little puppet stage, which I didn’t get to use:

Jasper and Maisy would have approved of the accommodations:

I got a kick out of the bookshelves in the hotel’s hallways that were lined with Texas law books:

I’ll let you in on a secret — very few lawyers use law books anymore, because everything is available online, and when you’re billing by the hour, efficiency matters (plus, you don’t have to get your ass out of your chair to go grab a book).  But just in case we forgot the statute that we were talking about, we could always run out to the hall and look it up:

Our client joined us in Austin, and at his request, we had dinner at Matt’s El Rancho, located at 2613 S. Lamar, a sentimental favorite of his. Founded by Matt and Rosie Martinez, the restaurant has been serving Mexican food in Austin since 1952.  The restaurant is huge — and even though it seats more than 500, there was still a wait for a table at this popular restaurant.

We ate outside on the patio, because we can do that in Texas in January.

On our client’s recommendation, we started with Bob Armstrong Dip — queso with a blob of guacamole and taco meat.  Bob Armstrong was a Texas politician, who among other roles, served as the Commissioner of Texas’s General Land Office from 1971 to 1983.  He reportedly ate at Matt’s daily, and always ordered queso with guacamole and taco meat.  Our client stirred it all together, and we dug in with the restaurant’s big thick shovels tortilla chips.  Well, Bob Armstrong is surely my spirit animal — this stuff was crazy good.  I must have said “just one more” about 30 times.

Bob Armstrong Dip

Among the dishes we tried were Tacos al Carbon, which came with tasty chunks of beef tenderloin wrapped in flour tortillas, accompanied by guacamole, pico de gallo, cheese, and, of course, beans and rice, and was as good as it gets:

And Cheese Enchiladas with Chili Con Carne:

So cheesy

The next morning we headed to the Supreme Court of Texas bright and early — everyone had to check in by 8:30 a.m.  There were three cases being argued that morning, and thankfully, our case was first.  (You can try to pretend that sitting through two other cases in which you’re not involved is interesting, but honestly, it’s hard.)

Our case was complicated, and involved, among other things, the Rule Against Perpetuities, the bane of law students trying to get through their first-year property class.  You’re familiar with that right?  No?  Well, the Rule Against Perpetuities provides that “no interest in real property is valid unless it must vest, if at all, within twenty-one years after the death of some life or lives in being at the time of the conveyance.”  Of course.

Law student humor

Just because I was not arguing does not mean that I did not have an important role.  In fact, I was the designated doodler — busily scribbling notes (or pretending to) as each attorney presented argument (note to self: sit out of camera range next time):

I thought oral argument went well, and the justices asked lots of insightful questions in this complex case.  It’ll be a while until we know the outcome.

Before heading back to Houston we had lunch with our client at The Shady Grove, located at 1624 Barton Springs Rd.  The restaurant, opened in 1992, is “nestled under the shade of a 100 year old pecan tree,” and is “styled after the architecture made popular by the State Parks of the 40s.”

I loved the postcard-covered walls near the bar:

We started with an order of Green Chile Cheese Fries, which didn’t really grab us at first, but once you hit the cheese underneath the pile of fries, it quickly became addictive:

I bet Bob Armstrong would have liked these

Our belt-busting meal consisted of Tortilla Fried Queso Catfish (words that you wouldn’t expect to find strung together, much like “turtleneck sweater poncho”), The Bad Chili Dog (isn’t “bad chili” something of a red flag?), and a special of grilled cheese with bacon and avocado and a cup of tomato soup:

With full bellies (too full), and happy that argument went well, we headed back to Houston to relax after a supremely interesting day.