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TYLA Welcomes New Officers
By:  Sally Pretorius, Andrae Law, PLLC

The Texas Young Lawyers Association is proud to announce its 2013–14 Executive Committee, elected by the members of the TYLA Board of Directors. The 20,000+ members of TYLA will vote on a President-elect in April. President-elect candidates Rebekah Steely Brooker and Alfonso Cabañas will begin campaigning in March; profiles of them will appear in the March eNews and Texas Bar Journal.

Serving as Vice-President will be Victor Villarreal, a named partner of Villarreal & Romero, PLLC, where he practices civil litigation. Victor has been a TYLA director since 2011 and currently serves as TYLA’s Secretary. During his first year on the TYLA Board, he co-chaired the committee that hosted the Texas Supreme Court in Laredo at Texas A&M International University. He has served on the Laredo-Webb County Bar Association as President, President-elect, and Treasurer. This past December, Victor proposed to his girlfriend in Manhattan on the ice rink at Rockefeller Center. Rumor has it the video is on YouTube.

Barrett Thomas will serve as TYLA’s Treasurer. Barrett is an Assistant District Attorney with the 32nd Judicial District Attorney’s Office and also manages the Thomas Firm, a private family-law practice. During his tenure on the TYLA Board, Barrett has served on various committees and was instrumental in the creation and distribution of the TYLA project “Remaining Civil: An Officer's Guide to Responding to Non-Criminal Calls for Service.” Barrett is the current President and former Treasurer of the Abilene Young Lawyers Association and a member of the Nolan County Bar Association. Barrett began his law enforcement career as a correctional officer in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. He later became a police officer, ultimately serving for a brief time as a small-town chief of police. As a felony prosecutor, Barrett has now worked in all three segments of the criminal justice system.

Priscilla Camacho of Plunkett & Gibson, Inc., will take the office of Secretary. In addition to practicing family-law litigation full time, Priscila has served as Secretary, Vice-President, President-Elect and President of the San Antonio Young Lawyers Association; Director of the San Antonio Bar Association and Bexar County Women’s Bar Association; and as a Fellow of the San Antonio Bar Foundation. She has extensive involvement in TYLA. She has been a director since 2011 and chaired, with Victor Villareal, the committee that hosted the Texas Supreme Court in Laredo; co-chaired the Slavery Out of the Shadows committee; was Vice Chair of The Unconscious Truth committee; and has been a member of the National Trial Competition and State Moot Court committees.

Lastly, Dustin Howell was elected to serve as Chair-Elect and will chair the TYLA Board in 2014–2015. He currently practices appellate law in the Texas Attorney General’s Office as an Assistant Solicitor General. He served as co-chair of TYLA's Slavery Out of the Shadows project and has served as vice chair of numerous TYLA projects, including Breaking the Silence and Lawyers as Leaders. In recognition of his service, Howell received a 2012 TYLA President's Award of Merit. Before his service on the TYLA Board, Dustin served as a director of the Austin Young Lawyers Association, where he received the 2011 Outstanding Committee Chair award. Dustin is a true Austinite—he rides his bike to work every day and is currently teaching his two-year old son, Joe, to play golf.