Carthage Native and Dallas Attorney To Deliver ETBU Fall Commencement Address

MARSHALL, Texas (12/05/12)- The Office of Academic Affairs at East Texas Baptist University announces that Dallas attorney E. Leon Carter will be the keynote speaker for Fall Commencement. Carter, a native of Carthage, is a graduate of ETBU and a partner and founding principal of Carter Stafford Arnett Hamada & Mockler, PLLC. Fall Commencement will be held on Saturday, December 15, 2012, at 10:00 a.m. in Baker Auditorium of the Ornelas Spiritual Life Center.

"We are honored in having Mr. Carter serve as our final Centennial speaker for this year’s commencement,” said ETBU Provost/Vice President for Academic Affairs Dr. Sherilyn Emberton. "He represents all that is excellent about ETBU graduates and what is possible by living a life of faith, integrity and inspired determination.”

Carter graduated from ETBU in 1980 with a B.A. in History and was as outstanding basketball player for the Tigers. He earned a Juris Doctor from Texas Southern University in 1986. ETBU presented Carter with a Distinguished Alumnus award during homecoming festivities in 2010. Carter is also a member of the Carthage High School Hall of Fame. The Dallas Bar Association presented him with the 2011 Martin Luther King Jr. Justice Award.

Carter is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers and Fellow in the Litigation Counsel of America with over 25 years of trail and litigation experience. He has tried more than70 civil and criminal cases to a jury in state and federal courts. His experience includes representing the plaintiffs and defendants in the areas of patent litigation, products liability, First Amendment, labor and employment, and redistricting litigation.

In 2007, he was named by the Dallas Business Journal to "The Defenders - One of the Top 15 Business-Defense Lawyers in the D-FW Metroplex” and selected as one of Lawdragon’s 500 Leading Lawyers in America. In 2010 and 2011, Carter was selected for inclusion in Thomson Reuters’ Super Lawyers® Top 100 Lawyers in Texas. Recently, he was listed in the Best Lawyers® in Texas publication in five areas: Bet-the-Company Litigation, Commercial Litigation, Labor & Employment Litigation, First Amendment Litigation, and Intellectual Property Litigation.

Carter has served as a Dallas County Assistant District Attorney and as an Assistant Attorney General for the State of Texas. He has been involved in higher education by serving as an adjunct professor at The University of Texas at Arlington and Dedman School of Law at Southern Methodist University. Carter has provided legal analysis for Court TV, a CBS Affiliate and a FOX affiliate.