December 2025/January 2026
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David Chamberlain, Judy Kostura, and Richel “Rikky” Rivers have been named the Austin Bar’s 2026 Distinguished Lawyers. The Hon. Rudy Metayer has been named the recipient of the David H. Walter Community Excellence Award by the Austin Bar Association. The Austin Bar Foundation will also honor Travis County Court Administrator Warren Vavra, who will retire from the position soon after the new year, with the Legacy Award.
Each of these recipients will be honored with a video presentation at the 2026 Austin Bar Foundation Gala on Saturday, Jan. 24, 2026, at the Four Seasons Hotel. Tickets and sponsorships are still available at austinbar.org/gala.
Distinguished Lawyer – David Chamberlain, Chamberlain McHaney
David Chamberlain is a partner at Chamberlain McHaney.
Double board-certified in trial law, David has also been recognized as the Outstanding Defense Bar Leader in the nation by DRI, the largest association of defense trial lawyers in the country, from which he received the Fred Sievert Award.
He is a past chair of the Board of Directors of the State Bar of Texas and past chair of the Board of Trustees of the State Bar of Texas Insurance Trust. In 2024, he received the Richard T. McCarroll Professionalism Award from the Austin Chapter of the American Board of Trial Advocates.
He received the “Standing Ovation” Award from the State Bar of Texas for outstanding service as the course director or speaker for more than 30 State Bar of Texas legal education courses in the last 15 years. He served as the 2015 president of the Texas Chapters of the American Board of Trial Advocates, Texas Chapters.
In 2011-12 he served as President of the Austin Bar Association, the year it was named the Outstanding Local Bar Association in Division IV by the State Bar of Texas. He has served as president of the Texas Association of Defense Counsel and received the association’s Founder’s Award for outstanding leadership and service to the profession. He is named in the peer-selected Best Lawyers in America and has been named a Texas Super Lawyer for more than 20 straight years in Texas Monthly Magazine, an honor limited to five percent of Texas attorneys. He is double-certified in both civil trial law and personal injury trial law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. Less than one percent of Texas attorneys are board certified in both of these practice areas.
He is the senior partner in the Austin civil trial firm of Chamberlain McHaney and has had the highest peer review rating (A.V. – Pre-eminent) issued by Martindale-Hubbell for more than 25 years. He has served as the course director of the State Bar of Texas Advanced Civil Trial Law Course, State Bar of Texas Advanced Personal Injury Law Course, and the State Bar of Texas Business Disputes Institute, among others.
Distinguished Lawyer – Judy Kostura, Sorrels Law
Judy Kostura is a partner at Sorrels Law in Austin.
Judy’s passion is helping others. For more than 40 years, she has devoted her professional life to representing individuals, consulting with colleagues, teaching professional legal seminars, and serving as court-appointed guardian ad litem for injured children.
The first of her family to graduate college, Judy received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Texas at Austin, working her way through college and law school as an assistant sergeant-at-arms for the Texas House of Representatives. She obtained her law degree from the University of Texas Law School in 1980. After the first five years on her own in a general civil practice, representing family law clients, writing wills and probating them, and handling real estate closings, Judy found her calling in personal injury law. She achieved a $1.1 million jury verdict in 1995 on behalf of a motorcyclist hit by a man with only $20,000 in liability insurance coverage and then collected most of the judgment from the defendant’s liability carrier. A much smaller trial court verdict, forcing a health insurer to treat her injured client fairly, resulted in the Austin Court of Appeals affirming her client’s trial court verdict in 1995. These dual victories resulted from a practice of faithfully pursuing justice from insurers that refuse to honor their obligations.
Pursuing the health insurer at trial and on appeal triggered the start of Judy’s expertise in health insurance subrogation law. For nearly 30 years, Judy has helped her clients keep more of their personal injury recovery by requiring their health insurers to put their insureds first. When the Texas Supreme Court altered the law in favor of health insurers in a 2007 court opinion, Judy lobbied the Texas Legislature to reform Texas health insurance subrogation law. Those efforts contributed to improvements for local governmental employees in 2007 and more sweeping reform in 2013. Judy received an award from the Texas Trial Lawyers Association for Legislative Contributions to insurance reform in 2013. The award included three Texas flags, one flown on the date the House of Representatives passed the 2013 law, one flown when the Senate passed it, and the flag flown the day the governor signed the bill into law. The consumer protection organization, Texas Watch, honored Judy with their Champion of Justice award in 2019, and the Texas Trial Lawyers Association presented her with their Lifetime Achievement Award in 2023.
Colleagues from around the state have hired her to assist their injured clients. Her generosity in sharing with colleagues led to recognition by the Texas Trial Lawyers Association in 2006 with the John Howie Spirit of Mentorship Award and the inaugural Capital Area Trial Lawyers’ Scott Ozmun Trial Lawyer of the Year award in 2011.
State district courts in counties across the state have appointed her as a guardian ad litem to help injured children preserve their settlement funds. Her work has resulted in savings of millions of dollars for injured children.
Judy is a frequent lecturer on various personal injury topics, including how to present information to maximize the recovery of compensation for clients; ethics topics; standards for proving evidence on appeal; changes in the law regarding the discovery and admission of medical evidence; and health insurance subrogation and liens in personal injury cases. She has taught at seminars for the American Association of Justice, Texas Trial Lawyers Association, University of Texas School of Law, State Bar of Texas, University of Houston Law School, South Texas College of Law, Texas Advanced Paralegal Seminar, Capital Area Trial Lawyers Association, Austin Bar Association’s Ultimate Trial Notebook, South Plains Trial Lawyer Association, Texas Academy of Family Law Specialists, Houston Trial Lawyers Association, and others. Her decades of participation in seminars prompted the State Bar of Texas to award her the Gene Cavin Award for Continuing Education during the Advanced Personal Injury Seminar in 2022, the equivalent of a lifetime achievement award in continuing legal education.
Judy is a member of the Million Dollar Advocates Forum and has been recognized as a Texas Monthly Super Lawyer continuously since 2015, with additional selection as a Texas Monthly Top 50 Texas Women and Texas Monthly Top 50 Lawyer in Central/West Texas in 2016 and a Texas Monthly Top Women Attorneys in Texas 2021.
Distinguished Lawyer – Richel “Rikky” Rivers, Rivers McNamara
Rikky Rivers is a partner at Austin firm Rivers McNamara.
A graduate of the University of Texas School of Law, Rikky joined the Law Enforcement Division of the State of Texas as an assistant attorney general in 1976. In 1980, she left government work and entered private practice with Hilgers and Watkins, becoming a partner in 1983. The firm eventually merged with Brown McCarroll.
She stayed at this firm for more than 30 years. In 2011, she founded Rivers McNamara with fellow Austin attorney Mary Evelyn McNamara. Together with attorney Emma Thomson, Rivers McNamara focuses on divorce and custody matters at the trial and appellate levels.
Rikky is certified in Civil Trial Law, Civil Appellate Law, and Family Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. She is admitted to practice before the Fifth and Eleventh Circuit Courts of Appeals, the United States District Courts for the Northern, Southern, Eastern, and Western Districts of Texas, and the United States Supreme Court.
She has been rated a Texas Super Lawyer for more than 20 years.
Between 1996 and 2006, she was master of the Robert W. Calvert Inn of Court, and served as president of the Inn between 2004 and 2005. Since 2007, she has been master emeritus.
She has been a member of the Austin Bar Association since 1980 and was a member of the Austin Young Lawyers Association between 1981 and 1988. She has also been a member of the American Board of Trial Advocates, the Collaborative Law Institute for Texas, the Austin Bankruptcy Lawyers Association, the Bar Association of the Fifth Circuit, and the Federal Bar Association.
Outside of the law, Rikky has donated her time and efforts to various civic organizations, such as the James Dick Foundation for the Performing Arts, serving on its board of directors since 2015; SafePlace, serving on its board of directors between 2000 and 2004; and the Austin Young Women’s Club of America (YWCA), serving on its board of directors between 1987 and 1996.
She also served on Planned Parenthood’s Legal Advisory Committee in 1992, Austin Community College’s Committee for Development of Paralegal Training Program in 1986, and was principal flautist for the Austin Civic Orchestra between 1987 and 1989.
A frequent speaker and writer for legal seminars and publications, Rikky has spoken at various seminars for and written for the publications of the Austin Bar, the University of Texas School of Law, and the State Bar of Texas, among others.
David H. Walter Community Excellence Award – Hon. Rudy Metayer, Chamberlain McHaney
Rudy Metayer is trial counsel at Chamberlain McHaney.
Rudy is a dynamic, award-winning attorney, government relations professional, and community leader with a passion for helping his clients achieve their goals through a holistic approach.
He leverages his experience representing state agencies and other governmental entities in a broad range of legal matters ranging from federal appellate review of state agency actions to strategic counsel on multi-billion dollar public procurement contracts. While at the Texas Capitol, he draws on his background in public policy and extensive network to amplify his clients’ voices and deliver meaningful results.
The son of Haitian immigrants, Rudy is the first generation in his family to graduate from college, public policy school, and law school. He has been a tireless advocate in the community, speaking and working on a host of issues ranging from teaching at-risk children, co-authoring an honor code for the University of Texas, helping form a partnership with local law enforcement and the State Bar to address the issue of community policing, and creating pro bono legal advice clinics for U.S. military veterans. He has been recognized numerous times as one of the most influential young professionals in Texas.
Rudy serves as an adjunct professor at the University of Texas School of Law, where he advises students in the university’s well renowned Advocacy program. He also serves as Councilmember of the City of Pflugerville, where he enjoys contributing solutions to the growing city where he lives
with his wife, Letisha, and their three daughters: Celeste, Arielyn, and Brooklyn.
In his free time, Rudy enjoys various activities including reading, exercising, and cheering on his beloved Texas Longhorns in whatever sport they are competing in.
Legacy Award – Warren Vavra, Travis County Court Administrator
Travis County Court Administrator Warren Vavra has announced he will retire in early 2026.
If you’re a lawyer who has done work in Travis County, you’ve likely interacted with Warren– and remember him.
“He’s always well-dressed, he’s a smart lawyer, but he sounds like he just got out of a pickup truck after tending to the horses,” said Travis County Local Administrative District Judge Amy Clark Meachum. “I just try to prepare people for Warren and his big personality, he’s the guy in the room that you’re never going to forget.”
“I’ve heard him described as a ‘metro-redneck,’” said Jacob Stokes, Director of Court Management for Travis County.
As the court administrator, Warren’s job entails scheduling cases for Travis County’s central docket–a job that requires delicate handling of lawyers’ and judges’ often conflicting personalities, said family law attorney Keith Maples.
“He has a tough job,” said family law attorney John Barrett of Coble Law & Mediation. “He has to get lawyers and judges in front of each other and have them all stay sort of happy. I’d be in the penitentiary if I had his job.”
Warren, however, is especially suited for this role, with 419th District Judge Catherine Mauzy calling him both “the lawyer whisperer” and “the judge whisperer.”
“He loves his job,” said Justice Gisela Triana, who served as the 200th District Court Judge in Travis County for 14 years before taking the Third Court of Appeals bench. “And he’s good at his job. He loves helping the litigants and the lawyers. To still take such great pride in doing it right after 30 years is really incredible.”
In his 30 years of service to the Courts, Warren has worked with approximately 85 different judges and probably thousands of different lawyers.
“Very few people, in their legal careers, can say they have had such an impact on the profession as Warren has,” said Judge Meachum. “The courthouse just won’t be the same without him.”
Warren is a 1992 graduate of Baylor Law School. He has been licensed to practice law in Texas since 1993. He has been a member of the Austin Bar since 1996 and speaks regularly at Austin Bar and AYLA events–most recently at the 2025 Bench Bar Conference.
According to Warren, his time working for the Travis County Civil District Judges came about purely by chance. In the spring of 1995, he was an assistant general counsel at the State Bar of Texas when Jim McCormack, then the chief disciplinary counsel, sent him, along with Joseph C. Parker, Jr., to El Paso, Texas, to try a famous reinstatement case.
“The ink wasn’t even dry on my bar card, and about all I was qualified to do was carry the trial cases for Mr. Parker,” Warren said.
The judge appointed to hear the case in El Paso was none other than Judge Pete Lowry, the senior civil district judge from Austin.
“I was literally working five blocks away from the HMS Courthouse, but I had to go to El Paso to meet Judge Lowry,” said Warren.
Less than a year later, Judge Lowry hired Warren as his staff attorney in January of 1996.
“If that’s not serendipity, then I don’t know what is,” Warren said.
Warren initially planned to be a trial lawyer.
“But that’s not the way my life worked out,” he said. “This was the perfect job for me, it gave me purpose, it energized me, and it made me feel like I was making a difference, like I was taking care of people and helping them. Now, of course, I realize my career worked out just like it was supposed to. I’m so grateful to all the Judges, the lawyers, and all the incredibly dedicated staff members who made this such a rewarding and satisfying job for me, I can’t thank them enough.”