Kevin Laughlin joined the Firm in April 2008 and is now a Partner. He served from October 1989 to March 1996 with the City of Midland, the last four years as First Assistant City Attorney. Following his tenure in Midland, Mr. Laughlin served from March 1996 to May 2002 as the full-time, in-house City Attorney for the City of Kerrville, Texas. During his 12+ years with the cities of Midland and Kerrville, Mr. Laughlin performed legal services in every area of municipal government, including, but not limited to, airport development, leasing, and operations at both commercial and general aviation airports (i.e. Midland International Airport, Midland Airpark, and Kerrville/Kerr County Municipal Airport), land use and development, public safety, and law enforcement, open government, community development, and grant administration, public utilities, and other public services, tort claims, water law, eminent domain, interlocal agreements, human resources, public contracting and procurement, and parks and recreation.

Mr. Laughlin has extensive experience in contract negotiation and preparation as well as the preparation of ordinances and resolutions covering a wide range of matters. In the six years immediately prior to joining the Firm, Mr. Laughlin was in private practice with a law firm in Odessa where his practice focused extensively on real estate transactions, including all aspects of title examination, preparation of real estate sales contracts, and closing documents, title curative matters, and lien foreclosures. Mr. Laughlin has and continues to provide legal services for Type A and Type B economic development corporations, and often teams with Mr. Smith on various economic development projects for the Firm’s clients, particularly those that involve some type of real estate component. Mr. Laughlin is presently serving as general counsel for the North Texas Emergency Communications Center, Inc. (NTECC), the local government corporation created by the Town of Addison and Cities of Carrollton, Coppell, and Farmers Branch to operate a consolidated public safety dispatch center on behalf of the four cities. Mr. Laughlin is also serving as lead counsel on the joint radio project in which the same four cities are participating.

Mr. Laughlin has served on the board of directors of the Texas City Attorneys Association, serving as its president in 2002-2003 and more recently as the TCAA representative on the Texas Municipal League Board of Directors.  Mr. Laughlin has also been an occasional speaker at TCAA conferences and seminars, speaking on matters such as federal and state cases affecting cities and counties and real estate issues. Mr. Laughlin is serving as the City Attorney for the cities of Highland Village and Lake Dallas, is an assistant attorney for the Cities of Allen, Richardson, and Farmers Branch, and a number of other cities, and is the primary real estate attorney for the majority of the Firm’s clients.