Sylvia Borunda Firth of El Paso elected State Bar of Texas president-elect

Borunda Firth

Texas attorneys elected Sylvia Borunda Firth of El Paso to be president-elect of the State Bar of Texas.

Borunda Firth received 49.31 percent—9,515—of the 19,298 votes cast during the voting period that ended May 29. Her opponent, Pablo Almaguer of Edinburg, received 49.11 percent or 9,478 votes. Write-in candidates accounted for 1.58 percent of the votes cast.

Borunda Firth will be sworn in as president-elect during a virtual Board of Directors meeting on June 25 and will serve as president of the State Bar of Texas from June 2021 to June 2022.

Borunda Firth is a solo practitioner in El Paso. Prior to establishing her own firm, she was an associate of two local firms, general counsel to American Garment Finishers, and served the city of El Paso for nearly 20 years. During her time with the city, she was an assistant city attorney, director of intergovernmental affairs, chief of staff to the mayor, and ultimately the city attorney.

Borunda Firth was on the State Bar of Texas Board of Directors from 2014 to 2018. She is currently vice chair of the State Bar of Texas Local Bar Services Committee and serves on the council of the State Bar of Texas Government Law Section. Borunda Firth is a multiyear member of the Texas Bar College. She is the immediate past president of the Texas City Attorneys Association and serves on the El Paso Bar Association Board of Directors.

In 2017, she received the President’s Award for exemplary service to the El Paso Bar Association. She is a Texas Bar Foundation life fellow and served on the foundation’s board of trustees. Borunda Firth earned her J.D. from the University of Texas School of Law in 1984.

Rispoli

In the Texas Young Lawyers Association election, Jeanine Novosad Rispoli of Waco was elected president-elect and will serve as TYLA president from June 2021 to June 2022. Rispoli received 57 percent of the 3,401 votes cast, while her opponent, Donald Delgado of College Station, received 42 percent. Write-in candidates accounted for 1 percent of the votes cast.

Detailed election results, including directors’ races, are available at texasbar.com/elections.