SLATE & ASSOCIATES - Key Persons
Ben J. Raia is an Associate Attorney at Slate & Associates. He has been practicing law since 2008 focusing on family law matters, including divorce, child custody, asset division, protective orders, modification of orders, and adoption; as well as drafting wills and ancillary documents along with other probate matters, including administrations, guardianships, heirship proceedings, and estate planning. He has immense experience both taking cases to trial as well as coming to settlement in mediation.
Ben was born and raised in the Houston area. After graduating from high school, he attended Texas A&M University and earned a degree in Business Administration with an emphasis on small business and entrepreneurial ventures. After returning to the Houston area, Ben received his Doctor of Jurisprudence from South Texas College of Law in 2007. Shortly after passing the bar exam in 2008, Ben worked at Sheri Y. Dean & Associates, a family law firm.
Prior to joining Slate & Associates, Ben was the principal attorney at Ben J. Raia & Associates in Friendswood, from 2010 to January of 2020. His practice was also centered around helping clients with their family law cases, probate matters, wills, and Social Security benefit matters. Ben decided to join Slate & Associates in 2020 and he is looking forward to the team atmosphere of the firm and discussing case strategy with other attorneys at the firm who have more than 90 years of collective experience in family law.
Prior to starting his law career, he worked in managerial roles at two restaurants owned by his family: D'Amico's Italian Market & Café and Raia's Italian Market. Ben is married and is the proud parent of a beautiful daughter and rambunctious son.
Brittany is an Associate Attorney at Slate & Associates with a passion for serving clients. Since joining the firm, she has helped serve clients in all aspects of family law, including complex divorce, child custody and asset division matters. Prior to joining the firm, Brittany consulted individuals and small businesses in tax related matters.
Brittany is a Houston native. She graduated from Baylor University in 2013 with a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy and Political Science. In 2016, Brittany graduated from The University of Texas School of Law. During her law school career, Brittany served as the Managing Editor of the Texas Journal for Women, Gender, and the Law, and an active member of the Thurgood Marshall Legal Society. After graduation, Brittany returned to Houston where she began her legal career.
In her spare time, Brittany enjoys exploring the Houston food scene and spending time with her family.
Job Titles:
- ATTORNEY
- in 2022 As Founder of Its
- Texas Appellate Law Attorney
Karlene Poll joined Slate & Associates in 2022 as founder of its appellate section. She has extensive experience as an appellate lawyer and working at every level of Texas appellate courts. In her most recent position as a partner at a prestigious appellate boutique, Kuhn Hobbs, PLLC, Karlene's practice gravitated towards family-law and CPS cases, where she found her passion. She represents clients of Slate & Associates as well as individual clients across the state. Often, she is brought onto a client's team by outside family-law lawyers when a case needs advanced trial court motions drafted, assistance at trial, or when cases reach the appellate level.
Karlene graduated salutatorian from South Texas College of Law, where she served as Editor-in-Chief of the South Texas Law Review. While working full-time and attending the school's night program, she won several national, state, and local writing awards attached to scholarships, including the Association of Legal Writers' "Scribes Award" (best moot court appellate brief in the country), the Texas Family Law Association's law review award (best family law review article in the state), and the Houston Bar Association Appellate Section's brief award (best appellate brief written by a student at the city's three law schools).
Karlene began her legal career as a briefing attorney for the late Texas Supreme Court Justice James A. Baker and then served as a law clerk for the Honorable Harold R. DeMoss Jr. on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit before joining Baker Botts LLP's appellate section. At Baker Botts, she gained particular expertise in Texas Jury Charge practice, often joining trial teams to write and argue motions, advise on legal strategies and error preservation, and handle the jury-charge conference and post-trial motions. Karlene served as lead appellate counsel and argued cases before the Texas Supreme Court, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, and several of the intermediate Texas Courts of Appeals.
Texas Monthly magazine rated Karlene an appellate practice "Rising Star" her last three years at Baker Botts and a Super Lawyer in 2020. Before founding Kuhn Hobbs, PLLC's Houston office, Karlene was a staff attorney for Chief Justice Sherry Radack on the First District Court of Appeals in Houston. She resumed private practice so she could devote a portion of her practice to representing parents in parental-termination cases. She is also an adoptive parent, so she understands the intricacies and the real personal stakes regardless of who she is representing in a family-law or CPS case.
Karlene's varied experience also includes representation in the family-law courts through the Houston Bar Volunteer Lawyers program, staffing legal clinics for HIV/AIDS patients, and representation of military veterans in the United States Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims. She has served as lead counsel on amicus briefs in the Texas Supreme Court, representing scholars and leading family-law counsel all over the country in cases involving significant family-law and custody policy and law. She is especially proud of taking, as lead attorney, a criminal pro bono case all the way to the United States Supreme Court, where she obtained a reversal for her client.
Active in the legal community, Karlene served as a council member of the Houston Bar Appellate Practice Section for seven years before being elected Chair of the section in 2016. She is a member of the Texas State Bar Appellate Section's Amicus Committee. She has also written and presented on a wide variety of legal topics at local and statewide conferences.
Karlene is a single mom, widowed in 2015. She and her incredibly loved-and-missed husband Geoff have four sons. Karlene spends her free time with her great village of friends, joyfully taking advantage of every moment watching her children and their friends grow up and develop into amazing people.
Lauren F. Durso is Board Certified in Family Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. She was named a Super Lawyer in Family Law by Texas Monthly Magazine in 2014 and 2015. Prior to that, Lauren was named as a Rising Star in Family Law by Texas Monthly Magazine in 2005 and from 2007-2014.
In 1998, Lauren earned her Bachelor of Arts in History and English from Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas. After returning to Houston, Lauren received her Doctor of Jurisprudence from the University of Houston Law Center. As a law student, Lauren served as the Associate Chief Justice and then Chief Justice of the student Honor Court. Pursuing her life-long interest in family law, Lauren completed a judicial internship in the 311 th Family District Court and then went on to work as a law clerk and then paralegal for the family law firm of Short Jenkins Kamin.
After working full-time and attending law school full-time, she was admitted to the State Bar of Texas in 2002. She worked as an associate attorney for the family law firms of Short Jenkins Kamin from 2002-2008 and then for Short Carter Morris from 2008-2017. She has co-authored multiple continuing legal education articles for the State Bar of Texas. Lauren is also a member of the Gulf Coast Family Law Specialists, Texas Academy of Family Law Specialists, the Family Law Section of the State Bar of Texas, and the Family Law Section of the Houston Bar Association.
Although she is a strong advocate for her client, Lauren believes in the benefits of alternative dispute resolution methods. She has completed her mediation training through the A.A. White Dispute Resolution Center and has successfully mediated hundreds of cases. Lauren has also completed the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers Arbitration training. She is also trained in Collaborative Law and has successfully completed many cases through the Collaborative process.
Lauren and her husband have 3 beautiful children and are proud residents of Friendswood, Texas.