Voting for the Austin Bar’s board of directors opens on Monday, April 13, and will close on Friday,
May 1, at 4 p.m. You will be emailed a link to the ballot. Austin Bar members who are also members (except Sustaining Members) of AYLA will be sent a ballot to vote in both elections. If you do not receive a ballot, please check your spam folder first, then contact billy@austinbar.org.
Judge Maya Guerra Gamble, the 2025-26 president-elect, will assume the office of president on July 1.
The following candidates are running uncontested for officer positions:
Uncontested
Current President-Elect Judge Maya Guerra Gamble will assume the office of president on July 1.
Sarah Harp
President-Elect
Sarah is an appellate attorney and currently serves as a director of the Austin Bar ABA and the Texas Young Lawyers Association (TYLA).
She is the immediate past president of AYLA and is an active member of the Travis County Women Lawyers’ Association. She volunteers monthly with Volunteer Legal Services. She is a life-fellow of the Texas Bar Foundation and a member of the District 9 nominating committee, as well as a Guardian Angel for the Center for Child Protection, and a supporter of the Austin Wildlife Rescue.
Additionally, this year she served as the beverage coordinator for the Austin Bar’s Pro Bono Fall Festival and was the silent auction lead for the Foundation Gala. She was a member of the Austin Bar/AYLA CASA 5K team and worked the craft table for the Evening with Santa event.
She was a project lead for the AYLA MLK Day of Service and was a book donor for Adoption Day. She also currently serves on the TYLA Communications and Projects committees and served as a judge for the final round of the Region 10 National Trial Competition.
Secretary
Ciara Parks
Ciara Parks is the general counsel for the Texas Board of Law Examiners. She worked previously as an assistant district attorney with the Travis County District Attorney’s Office and the Montgomery County Prosecutor’s Office in Dayton, Ohio, prosecuting for more than 10 years.
She is the current president of the Austin Black Lawyers Association and treasurer of the Austin Bar. Ciara also serves as an assistant area coordinator for Texas Youth Conference of the Seventh Day Adventist Church.
Ciara earned her J.D. from Western Michigan University Cooley Law School, where she served as the managing editor for the Law Review, treasurer for Thurgood Marshall Law Society, and member of both the Moot Court and Mock Trial boards. Ciara also placed as a finalist for the Melissa Mitchell First Year Moot Court Competition.
Ciara received her B.S. from the University of Dayton in Dayton, Ohio, where she served as a resident assistant, an advisor for the Colors of Leadership Conference, president and secretary of Black Action Thru Unity, and secretary of the National Society of Black Engineers.
Ciara has been married to Cliffton Parks for 13 years, and they are the proud parents of Chaya, Ceana, and CJ.
Treasurer
Elliott Beck
Elliott Beck works as the staff attorney for 345th District Court. He is currently on the Board of Directors of the Austin Bar Association and a co-chair of the DEI Committee. Elliott has been a member of the Austin Bar and AYLA since he was licensed in 2011. Since that time, he’s served as a co-chair for the Austin Bar/AYLA Leadership Academy, graduated from the 2018 Leadership Academy class, served on the Austin Bar Gala Planning Committee, the Bench Bar Committee, and presented at Bench Bar.
Elliott also previously served as a precinct chair and chair of the Rules Committee for the Travis County Democratic Party, as well as the chair of the LGBT Law Section of the State Bar of Texas and the president of the Austin LGBTQ+ Bar Association.
At the courthouse, Elliott works with the Local Rules Committee, and he advised the Travis County Law Library in its efforts to make pro se forms gender neutral. He is also a barrister in the Lloyd Lochridge Inn of Court.
Elliott lives at home with his husband, Ryan, and their pups: Minnie, Bernie, and Pearl. The whole family loves movies and food, and the humans love wine and travel.
Directors – 4 will be elected to a two-year term
Sam Colletti
Sam recently celebrated his 30th consecutive year of being able to dunk a basketball, though he’s better known as a Board-Certified family lawyer with 20 years of experience. His practice focuses on divorces involving professionals, business owners, and their spouses. Deliberate and understated in style, Sam is a listener first and chooses his words intentionally.
An experienced litigator and mediator, Sam understands that divorce is a complex mix of psychology, logistics, and math. Colleagues describe him as a problem-solver: honest and
diplomatic in negotiation, and a strong advocate when negotiation fails. His wife might simply say, “He thinks he’s right about everything.”
Originally from Port Arthur, Sam took his Southeast Texas accent to Trinity University, then to Austin in 2002 for law school at UT. Along the way he was a basketball player, Eagle Scout,
country-western dancer, choir singer, and reluctant sitter-still-and-read law student.
Today, Sam is a devoted husband and father of three. He and his wife, Lauren Colletti, a functional medicine nurse practitioner, share a deep-listening, root-cause approach to helping people through their most stressful problems. Sam is also a highly regarded family law mediator; a role he considers his highest and best use as a lawyer. When not working, he can be found driving his kids around Austin, playing volleyball, or drinking coffee on the porch.
Mary Henderson
Mary is a member of Butler Snow’s Tort, Transportation, and Specialized Litigation group. She is certified in civil appellate law and has represented clients and state and federal courts.
She previously served as a briefing attorney to a state appellate justice and as deputy chief of consumer protection and senior attorney for charitable trusts and general litigation for the Office of the Texas Attorney General.
Mary is a certified guardianship attorney and attorney ad litem and is licensed to practice in all of Texas’s U.S. district courts, the Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, and the U.S. Supreme Court.
She earned her JD from Baylor University School of Law, where she was president of the Harvey M. Richey Moot Court Society, a member of the National Appellate Advocacy Team, president of the International Law Society, and a member of the Order of Barristers.
With the State Bar of Texas, Mary has served on the District 9 Grievance Committee, as a course director for the 22nd-annual Governance of Nonprofit Organizations, and the Unauthorized Practice of Law Committee.
Caitlin Johnston
Caitlin is a native Austinite and the managing attorney of the Haney Law Firm, a firm started by her mother, Susan Haney, in 2000. Her practice includes estate planning, probate, and probate litigation. She is a cofounder of the Cancer Law Clinic (CANLAW), a project of the Austin Bar Foundation. She graduated from the AYLA/ABA Leadership Academy in 2015. In 2018, Caitlin was awarded the Austin Bar Foundation’s David H. Walter Community Excellence Award, and she previously served as the chair of the Austin Bar’s Pro Bono Committee.
She was named an Access to Justice Champion by the State Bar of Texas and a Pro Bono Award Recipient from the Travis County Women Lawyers’ Association. She has also received the Austin Under 40 Award in the legal category and the TCWLA’s Pathfinder Award. Caitlin has been named a Texas Super Lawyers Rising Star since 2024 and an Austin Monthly Magazine top attorney in wills and estate planning every year since 2020.
At home, Caitlin spends time with her husband, Drew, and their 4-year-old daughter.
Judge Jessica Mangrum
Jessica Mangrum has served as Judge of the 200th District Court of Travis County since January 1, 2021. She presides over civil and family law cases, including business, commercial, administrative, consumer, real estate, divorce, child custody, and child protective services (CPS) cases. Prior to serving as judge, she was a partner in the Austin office of Thompson Coe. In that position, she handled commercial and construction litigation, personal injury, professional liability, and other complex business cases.
Judge Mangrum is a “double Longhorn” with a BA in Government and a JD from the University of Texas. She is an adjunct professor at the University of Texas School of Law, teaching a skills section of Trial Advocacy in the evenings.
Judge Mangrum resides in Austin with her husband and daughter and their rescue dog. She is a member of the local PTA and active in Girl Scouts of Central Texas.
Judge Mangrum is a member of the Austin Bar Association, the Travis County Women Lawyers Association, and the State Bar of Texas. She is board certified by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization in Construction Law (since 2017). She serves on the Editorial Board ofThe Advocate, the quarterly publication of the Litigation Section of the State Bar of Texas. She also serves on the Ethics Committee of the Judicial Section of the State Bar of Texas.
Hon. Rudy Metayer
Rudy is senior counsel at Chamberlain McHaney and a city councilmember for the City of Pflugerville. He earned his JD from the University of Texas School of Law and also earned his master’s in public affairs.
He serves as an adjunct professor at Texas Law, advising students in the university’s advocacy program.
In addition to the Austin Bar Association, Rudy is deeply involved with such organizations as the Austin Black Lawyers Association, the Anti-Defamation League, the Board of Disciplinary Appeals, the Lonestar Circle of Care, the National Institute of Trial Advocacy, the Texas Young Lawyers Association, the Austin Young Lawyers Association, and the Texas Black Caucus Foundation.
He is the 2023 recipient of the Austin Bar Association’s Rev. Joseph C. Parker, Jr., Diversity Award and the 2026 recipient of the Austin Bar Foundation’s David H. Walter Community Excellence Award.
In his free time, Rudy enjoys cheering on the Longhorns in whatever sport they’re playing. He lives in Pflugerville with his wife, Letisha, and their three daughters: Celeste, Arielyn, and Brooklyn.
Liane Noble
Liane is counsel at Vinson & Elkins, where she practices in the firm’s commercial and business litigation group.
She represents clients in complex commercial disputes, breach of contract cases, and business torts in state and federal trial and appellate courts.
Before joining the firm, Liane served as an assistant United States attorney in the Western District of Texas, representing the government as a defendant against challenges to federal regulations and enforcing violations of federal law as a plaintiff.
She is a graduate of Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law. She previously served as a judicial clerk in the Western District of Texas, as well as the Northern District of Illinois.
She has been involved in the leadership of the Austin Bar’s Civil Litigation Section since 2019, including serving as chair. She is also a board member of the Federal Bar Association’s Austin chapter; a member of the steering committee of the State Bar of Texas Minority Counsel Program; a member and prior board president of Asian Family Support Services of Austin; a board member of the Asian American Resource Center of Austin; and a member of the Lloyd Lochridge American Inn of Court.
She received commendations from the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division from 2021 to 2023. She is also the recipient of the Travis County Women Lawyers’ Association’s Government Service Award.
Daniel Olds
Daniel Olds is an attorney at Clark Hill, where he handles appeals, commercial litigation, and public law litigation.
Daniel currently serves on the Bench Bar Conference Committee. Previously, he served as the monthly CLE chair for the Austin Bar Administrative Law section. He has also presented at several Austin Bar CLE events and has presented at the Bench Bar Conference. He is a graduate of the Austin Bar/AYLA Leadership Academy.
Daniel spent several years coaching one of the moot court teams at UT Law School and coached the team to a national championship along with his wife, Ashley, another Austin attorney. Daniel was awarded the Mentor of the Year award by UT Law School’s Thurgood Marshall Legal Society. He continues to serve as a volunteer moot court judge at the law school.
Currently, Daniel also serves as the vice chair of the State Bar of Texas Court Rules Committee, which makes recommendations for revisions to the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure and Texas Rules of Appellate Procedure. He has served in various capacities on the committee since 2022.
Outside of work and serving the Austin legal community, Daniel plays ice hockey in Austin and spends time with his wife, Ashley, their son, Caleb, and their dog, Coco.
Katherine Wyatt
Katherine Mendiola Wyatt is a first-generation attorney and daughter of a Hispanic immigrant.
She practices civil litigation attorney in Austin, where she has spent the past eight years representing businesses, individuals, and insurance carriers in complex, high-exposure cases.
She is actively involved in the Austin Bar Association and Travis County Women Lawyers’ Association, where she has focused on connecting attorneys across practice areas, supporting CLE programming, and encouraging students from diverse backgrounds to pursue legal careers. Her approach is grounded in the belief that a strong legal community is one where people feel supported, included, and connected—irrespective of the type of law or phase in life.
In her practice, Katherine is known for her collaborative style and her ability to build productive relationships—some of her strongest professional connections started as opposing counsel.
Outside of the office, her support system is her husband and two daughters (ages 3 and 5). When she’s not chasing them around, she’s running the hills of Austin and recruiting as many people as she can to join her.
Katherine is running for the Austin Bar Board of Directors because she has worked for a seat at the table and is committed to making the table bigger for others.