At its quarterly meeting, the State Bar of Texas Board of Directors voted to approve Deborah L. Cordova and G. David Smith as candidates for 2025-2026 president-elect.
Cordova and Smith will appear on the ballot in April 2025 along with any certified petition candidates. Presently there are no additional president-elect candidates, although members have until March 3 to submit their nominating petitions to the State Bar for certification.
Deborah L. Cordova is a founding member and manager of Walsh McGurk Cordova Nixon, PLLC, in Edinburg. A native of the Rio Grande Valley, Cordova grew up in Mission. She received a BBA in accounting and her law degree from St. Mary’s University. She also received her MBA from the University of Texas Pan American.Cordova returned to the Valley after law school and devoted her practice to real estate, corporate, estate planning and probate, first as an associate from 2002 to 2007 at Walker & Twenhafel, LLP in McAllen. She then moved to Kittleman Thomas, PLLC, also in McAllen, where she became an equity partner and remained there for a decade. In 2017, Cordova co-founded Walsh McGurk Cordova Nixon, PLLC, in Edinburg.Cordova has served as president of the Hidalgo County Young Lawyers Association and the Hidalgo County Bar Association and Foundation, as chair of the Women’s Bar Section of the Hidalgo County Bar Association and the Women and the Law Section of the State Bar of Texas, president of Texas Women Lawyers, and vice president of finance for the National Conference of Women’s Bar Associations. She served on the State Bar of Texas Board of Directors from 2019 to 2022 as a representative of the Council of Chairs. Currently, Cordova chairs the State Bar’s Outreach and Engagement Committee, serves on the State Bar’s Diversity in the Profession Committee and the Women and the Law Section. Cordova is also the co-chair of the Business Law and Commercial Litigation Section of the Hidalgo County Bar Association.
G. David Smith is a founding partner of Smith & Lee Lawyers, PC, located in Rockwall. Originally from Slaton, Texas, Smith’s family moved to Canyon and later to Muleshoe, where he graduated from high school. He earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Texas at the Permian Basin and his law degree from Texas Tech University.
After earning his law degree, Smith joined the Odessa firm of Brannan and Pipes in 1983. The following year, he opened the Law Offices of G. David Smith in Odessa, focusing on criminal defense. In 1989, he relocated to Dallas to expand his practice to include personal injury law. In 2002, he moved the office to Rockwall, and the firm eventually became Smith & Lee Lawyers, PC with the addition of his stepson, Ryan K. Lee.
Smith has been actively involved in his local legal community, serving as president and on the board of the Rockwall County Bar Association, as well as on the board of the Rockwall County Bar Foundation. He is a member of the Texas Bar College and a sustaining life fellow of the Texas Bar Foundation. From 2021 to 2024, he represented District 1 on the State Bar of Texas Board of Directors. He has been board certified in personal injury trial law since 1990. Smith now has an extensive mediation practice in addition to his trial work.
Cordova and Smith were recommended to the board by the Nominations and Elections Subcommittee. This year, the subcommittee considered candidates from non-metropolitan counties (all counties except Bexar, Dallas, Harris, Tarrant, and Travis), in compliance with State Bar rules.
Original source can be found here.