The Texas Board of Legal Specialization, or TBLS, named William Frank Carroll of Colleyville as board chair and Tina Amberboy of Austin and Lisa Bagley Brown and Diane Dillard, both of Houston, as board members.

Carroll is an adjunct law professor at SMU Dedman School of Law and a faculty member for the NITA Trial Skills and Deposition Skills Program. He has served on the TBLS board since 2016 and was chair of the Civil Trial Exam Commission from 2009 to 2016. Carroll is a past director of the State Bar of Texas and has also chaired the State Bar’s Antitrust and Business Litigation Section, the Dallas Bar Antitrust and Trade Regulation and Business Litigation sections, and the FBA Federal Litigation and Antitrust and Trade Regulation sections. He has been board certified in civil appellate law since 1990 and civil trial law since 1992.

“I am excited about the opportunity to continue the work of former TBLS Board Chair David Dickson,” Carroll said in a press release. “We have an excellent group of board members and an outstanding executive director in Leo Figueroa. I look forward to working with all of them on maintaining TBLS’ highest standards of ethics and professionalism while ensuring the most competent legal representation for the public, organizations, and businesses statewide.”

Amberboy is the executive director of the Children’s Commission, part of the Texas Permanent Judicial Commission for Children, Youth and Families at the Supreme Court of Texas. She is also a co-founder of the Austin Bar Association Section of Court Appointed Family Attorneys and a member of the American Bar Association Center on Children and the Law, the National Association of Counsel for Children, and the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges. Amberboy serves on the Department of Family and Protective Services Public-Private Partnership.

Brown handled litigation, drafting, and negotiating upstream and midstream agreements as managing counsel to Occidental Oil and Gas for 12 years. She was a senior attorney at Burlington Resources Oil & Gas. Brown has been board certified in oil, gas and mineral law since 1990 and is a member of both the State Bar of Texas and the Louisiana State Bar.

Dillard founded the Dillard & Ray Law Firm in 1987, where she was involved in the purchase, development, leasing, and sale of properties for local, regional, and national clients, and previously served as an associate to Vinson & Elkins. She has been board certified in commercial real estate law since 1987. Dillard was the first woman to receive the Distinguished Real Estate Lawyer Lifetime Achievement Award from the State Bar of Texas Real Estate, Probate & Trust Law Section, or REPTL. She was elected to the American College of Real Estate Attorneys in 1993 and served as chair to REPTL from 2000 to 2001.

To learn more about TBLS, go to tbls.org.