AUSTIN—Texans for Lawsuit Reform has announced that Lee Parsley has been named president, a position that has been vacant since 2020.
Parsley will continue serving as TLR’s general counsel, while TLR founders Dick Weekley, Dick Trabulsi and Hugh Rice Kelly will remain active in the daily operations of TLR and its sister organizations.
Weekley, Trabulsi and Kelly released the following statement: “Lee has been an important part of TLR’s advocacy team for two decades. As president, he will ensure TLR remains an effective, policy-driven organization for years to come. Lee’s elevation to TLR president has been long-planned, and allows Dick Trabulsi to lighten his workload while focusing on the activities of TLRPAC, the most active and effective political action committee in the state.”
Trabulsi has overseen all back office administrative duties for TLR’s various entities for nearly 30 years. As part of his promotion, Parsley has assumed these responsibilities to ease the time and work burden on Trabulsi, who is 78, a press release states.
Parsley is an appellate lawyer who joined TLR as outside counsel in 2002, and was named general counsel in 2016. His legal expertise has played a key role in the research, development and advocacy behind landmark tort reforms in Texas, including the comprehensive omnibus reform bill of 2003 that made Texas the nation’s leader in tort reform, and 2007’s bill addressing asbestos and silica litigation abuses, both of which continue to serve as national models today.
More recently, Parsley has been instrumental in TLR’s efforts to pass reforms addressing weather-related litigation abuse (2017), attorney advertising (2019), commercial vehicle litigation abuse (2021), and the 2023 creation of Texas’ complex business court and first new court of appeals since the 1980s.
Parsley received bachelor’s and master’s degrees in business administration, as well as a law degree from Texas Tech University. During his career as an attorney, he practiced in the litigation departments of two of Texas’ largest law firms. He also served as the first Rules Attorney at the Texas Supreme Court, and is a former adjunct law professor at the University of Texas School of Law and a former member of the Texas Board of Law Examiners.