The Board of Trustees
Nina Cortell
Ex-Officio Trustee
Nina Cortell is a partner in, and former chair of, Haynes and Boone's appellate section. She is a member of the Texas Supreme Court Advisory Committee (which advises the Texas Supreme Court in connection with its rule-making authority). She is President of the Patrick E. Higginbotham Inn of Court, Chair of the State Bar Task Force on Women and Minorities (examining issues relating to the recruitment, retention and promotion of women and minorities in law firms and corporations), a member of the Executive Committee of the University of Texas Law School Alumni Association, Secretary of the Committee for a Qualified Judiciary in Dallas, a member of the Board of Directors of the Texas Law Review Association, and a member of the Executive Committee of Temple Emanu-El in Dallas. She has served as chair of the State Bar Advanced Appellate Course and the Dallas County Bench/Bar Conference. She has also chaired (at the request of Chief Judge Joe Fish) a committee overseeing the appointment of a U.S. magistrate and (at the request of then-Chief Judge Barefoot Sanders) a task force charged with studying the efficiency of the federal courts in North Texas.
Ms. Cortell was named one of the “The Best Lawyers in America,” Commercial Litigation by Woodward/White, Inc. in 2006. She was also named Top 100 Texas Super Lawyers and one of the Top 50 Female Texas Super Lawyers by TexasMonthly Magazine in 2003 - 2005. Ms. Cortell was named one of the top appellate lawyers in Dallas by D Magazine in 2003 and 2005. In 1999, she received the Louise B. Raggio Award for significant contributions toward the advancement of women in the legal profession. She continues her work mentoring women lawyers in her role as an advisory board member of the Dallas Women Lawyers Association.
Ms. Cortell is married to Dr. Robert L. Fine, who practices at Baylor Hospital, and they are the proud parents of Lauren (a singer/songwriter who is attending medical school at the University of Pennsylvania), Rachel (a philosophy major at the University of Colorado at Boulder) and Becca (who is a junior in high school).