The Board of Trustees
H. Lee Godfrey
Term: 2005 — 2008
H. Lee Godfrey is one of two co-managing partners of Susman Godfrey L.L.P., a law firm with offices in Houston, Dallas, Seattle, and Los Angeles. He is a trial lawyer and has represented plaintiffs and defendants on matters involving a wide range of complex litigation and arbitration issues. Prior to joining Susman Godfrey in 1982, Mr. Godfrey was a shareholder with Wood, Campbell, Moody & Gibbs in Houston from 1979 to 1982, and he was a partner with Graves, Dougherty, Gee, Hearon, Moody & Garwood in Austin from 1971 to 1978.
In 2002 Mr. Godfrey was awarded the Texas Law Review Association Leon Green Award “for outstanding contribution to the legal profession.” In 1999 he was named Barrister of the Year by the University of Texas Board of Advocates and he was also selected as one of the top lawyers in Texas by the National Law Journal. Mr. Godfrey was listed among the top 15 American commercial trial lawyers in a recent survey conducted by International Commercial Litigation magazine. He has been included in The Best Lawyers in America since 1991. Mr. Godfrey has written and lectured extensively on legal topics relating primarily to business litigation.
He is a Fellow of the American Law Institute, the American College of Trial Lawyers, the International Academy of Trial Lawyers, the International Society of Barristers, the American Bar Foundation, the Texas Bar Foundation, and the Houston Bar Foundation.
He earned his J.D. with Honors in 1969 from the University of Texas School of Law where he served as Managing Editor of the Texas Law Review and was Order of the Coif and Chancellors. He received his Bachelor of Arts from the University of Texas at Austin in 1966 after discharge from the U.S. Air Force. During his years in the Air Force, Lee attended the Yale University Institute of Far Eastern Languages, and served on active duty in Taipei, Taiwan. He is admitted to the bars of the State of Texas, the District of Columbia, the Federal District Courts for the Eastern, Western, Northern, and Southern Districts of Texas, the Fifth and Tenth U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeal, and the U.S. Supreme Court.
He has taught an introductory law course as an adjunct professor in the political science department at Rice University.
He and his wife Sandy reside in Houston, where they are active in the Houston Grand Opera, Houston Ballet, Houston Museum of Fine Arts, Trees for Houston, Chinquapin School, and other charitable and civic affairs.