The Board of Trustees
E. William Barnett
Life Member Trustee
Mr. Barnett joined Baker Botts LLP in 1958. He was Managing Partner from 1984 to 1997 and Senior Counsel from 1998 to 2004, when he retired from the firm. His main areas of practice have been commercial litigation and antitrust law. He is the former Chairman of the Section of Antitrust Law of the American Bar Association and is a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers.
He is a current Director and former Chairman of the Greater Houston Partnership and Houston Zoo, Inc., former Chairman of Rice University Board of Trustees and former Chairman of Central Houston, Inc. He is a former Trustee of the Texas Heart Institute and Baylor College of Medicine. He is Chairman of the Advisory Board of the Baker Institute at Rice University. He is also a Director of St. Luke’s Episcopal Health System and the Center for Houston’s Future. He also serves as a Director of Reliant Energy, Inc., Enterprise Products G.P., and Westlake Chemical Corporation.
Mr. Barnett received a B.A. from Rice University in 1955 and an LL.B., with honors, in 1958 from The University of Texas School of Law, where he was a member of the Chancellors and the Order of the Coif, and served as an editor of the Texas Law Review. Mr. Barnett is the recipient of the 2003 Law School’s Lifetime Achievement Award and the 2005 Rice University’s Gold Medal Lifetime Achievement Award.