CLOUGH & ODDO - Key Persons

Job Titles:

• Attorney
• Partner in the Austin

Andrew York is a partner in the Austin office of Barron, Adler, Clough & Oddo, LLP. Andrew's practice is dedicated exclusively to representing individual, corporate, and institutional landowners in eminent domain litigation and transactional matters. Andrew works on various roadway and highway takings and also utility easement and other takings throughout Texas. Prior to joining the firm, Andrew was a partner with Armbrust & Brown, PLLC in Austin, where he was a trial and appellate litigator with a focus on real estate and commercial disputes. In addition to traditional litigation, Andrew's prior practice included eminent domain matters and he also represented municipal utility districts, acted as general counsel to condominium boards, and advised and advocated for landowners and developers with respect to land use and entitlement issues. Andrew began his career as a trial associate in the Austin office of Baker Botts LLP. Since graduating from law school in 2008, Andrew has tried numerous cases to judgment in Travis and Williamson Counties, argued before the Third and Fifth Courts of Appeals, and presented arguments to city councils, zoning commissions, and appraisal review boards.

Barron, Adler, Clough & Oddo, LLP has an office in Austin, Texas. However, our reputation and knowledge draws clients from across Texas, from Bexar to Collin County, Harris to Tarrant County and beyond. Contact Barron, Adler, Clough & Oddo, LLP and let us put our 100+ years of combined experience to work assisting you with your eminent domain or regulatory taking issues.

Job Titles:

• Attorney
• Member of the Commercial
• Member of the State Bar of Texas

Blaire Knox joined Barron, Adler, Clough & Oddo, LLP in 2016. She is an attorney in the Austin Office specializing in eminent domain, inverse condemnation, and land use litigation. Prior to joining Barron, Adler, Clough & Oddo, LLP, Ms. Knox was an associate with McGinnis, Lochridge & Kilgore, LLP, where she focused her practice on commercial litigation, including business disputes, oil and gas issues, condemnation matters, and administrative law matters, in Texas state and federal courts. Ms. Knox also has experience litigating civil cases in state and federal appellate courts. Ms. Knox is a member of the State Bar of Texas, and she has been admitted to practice in the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and the United States District Courts for the Western and Northern Districts of Texas. Blaire Knox graduated with a B.A. in Plan II and English from the University of Texas at Austin in 2007. Ms. Knox attained her law degree in 2010 from Baylor University School of Law, where she graduated summa cum laude, served as a Technical Editor on the Baylor Law Review, and was a member of the Baylor Moot Court and Mock Trial Teams. Ms. Knox also served as a briefing attorney to Justice Dale Wainwright of the Supreme Court of Texas from 2010-2011. Blaire Knox is a member of the Commercial Litigation Section of the State Bar of Texas. She is also a member of the Austin Bar Association and the Austin Young Lawyers Association. Ms. Knox also volunteers with Volunteer Legal Services and American Gateways, and she is a supporter of Equality Texas.

Job Titles:

• Attorney
• Partner
• Partner of Barron

Christopher Oddo is a partner of Barron, Adler, Clough & Oddo, LLP. He joined the firm in 2015 and specializes in eminent domain and inverse condemnation cases. As an experienced litigator and trial attorney, Christopher has a strong and demonstrated history of service and leadership in the legal community. He currently serves as a Director for the State Bar of Texas, is the former President of the Austin Bar Association and is a member of the American Board of Trial Advocates. Prior to joining Barron & Adler, Christopher was a partner with the law firm of McGinnis, Lochridge & Kilgore, LLP where he served as the chair of the firm's Eminent Domain and Inverse Condemnation Practice Group and represented corporate and individual property owners in all aspects of eminent domain and condemnation matters. Christopher is a member of the State Bar of Texas and has been admitted to practice in the United States District Courts for the Eastern, Southern and Western Districts of Texas, as well as the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Prior to entering into private practice, Christopher served as an Assistant Attorney General for the State of Texas where he tried more than 30 cases to conclusion. Christopher Oddo graduated with a B.S. degree from Texas A&M University in 1996. He attained his J.D. degree from The University of Tulsa College of Law in 1999.

Job Titles:

• Attorney
• Managing Partner
• Managing Partner of the Austin Office of Barron, Adler

Chris Clough is the Managing Partner of the Austin Office of Barron, Adler, Clough & Oddo, LLP, the largest eminent domain firm in the State focused solely on defending landowners in statutory and inverse condemnation cases. Chris joined the predecessor firm of Barron & Adler, LLP, in 2008 and became Managing Partner in 2014. Prior to joining the firm in 2008, Chris spent four years with the Transportation Division of the Attorney General's office where he worked from 2004 to 2008, representing the State of Texas predominantly in eminent domain matters, focusing primarily on the massive Katy Freeway expansion project in Houston. Chris serves as condemnation counsel in Texas for numerous major institutional clients and nationally traded companies, including McDonald's, H.E.B., 7-Eleven, Weingarten Realty, Simon Property Group, and Life Storage among many others. He has tried numerous condemnation cases to jury verdict, handled hundreds of special commissioners' hearings and has multiple published appellate court decisions. Chris was recently admitted as a Counselor of Real Estate (C.R.E.). CRE is a prestigious international membership organization of approximately 1,000 top real estate leaders, nominated by their peers, as individuals who provide intelligent, unbiased and trusted real estate advice on the toughest real estate issues facing their employers and clients.

Job Titles:

• Attorney
• of Counsel

Michael M. Barron, along with Stephen Adler, co-founded Barron, Adler, Clough & Oddo, LLP more than 35 years ago. Mr. Barron brought to the firm his years in litigation practice with the Attorney General's office, rising to the level of Chief of the Antitrust Division under Attorney General John Hill, and several years in private practice representing landowners in eminent domain litigation. Mr. Barron also served as Chief Counsel for the Human Resources Committee in the Texas Senate 63 rd Legislature in 1973. Mr. Barron represents landowners in statutory eminent domain cases, inverse condemnation cases and regulatory taking claims. Over the last 28 years, he has participated in several hundred special commissioners' hearings and numerous jury trials, and has lectured on eminent domain issues across the state of Texas. He has also participated in legislative attempts to redraft the condemnation statutes to ensure more fairness to landowners.

Job Titles:

• Attorney
• Partner
• Member of the Real Estate
• Member of the State Bars of Texas
• Partner in the Austin

Nick Laurent is a partner in the Austin office of Barron, Adler, Clough & Oddo, LLP where he exclusively represents landowners in eminent domain, inverse condemnation, land use, and real property transactions and litigation. Nick has represented landowners in all phases of the condemnation process, including pre-suit negotiations, in special commissioner hearings, before state and federal trial courts, and on appeal before Texas intermediate appellate courts and the Supreme Court of Texas. His clients range from individual landowners and ranchers to Fortune 50 companies, franchise and independent hotel and restaurant owners, family offices, mineral owners, nationwide and local real estate investment trusts, self-storage owners, churches and large religious institutions, commercial, industrial, residential and multifamily developers, international real estate investors, multinational corporations, and other large institutional entities. Nick's eminent domain and real property rights practice extends across the state of Texas, from El Paso to Beaumont and from the Panhandle to the Rio Grande Valley, in addition to cases in Oklahoma, North Dakota, Virginia, Georgia, and Colorado. He has represented landowners in eminent domain matters pursued by the federal government, the State of Texas, regional mobility and toll road authorities, most major Texas counties and several rural Texas counties, every major Texas city, all of the major oil/gas pipeline and midstream companies, all of the major electric transmission providers and rural electric cooperatives, municipal utility districts, special utility districts, water authorities, water districts, and other condemnors. His broad experience covers a variety of real property takings, including road and highway projects, oil/gas underground pipeline easements, oil/gas pipeline surface sites, electric transmission line easements, underground water and sewer pipeline easements, above ground water tower takings, raw water intake facilities, drainage easements, inundation easements, railroad acquisitions, border wall takings, flood levee projects, and the acquisition of billboards and billboard ground leases. In addition to handling statutory eminent domain matters, Nick has litigated the breadth and scope of utility easements on behalf of landowners in injunction proceedings following upgrades and other projects and has pursued inverse condemnation claims on behalf of landowners as well as claims under the federal "Big" Tucker Act and the Texas Tort Claims Act. He also represents landowners in contested cases on power line routing before the Public Utility Commission of Texas and the State Office of Administrative Hearings. Prior to joining Barron, Adler, Clough & Oddo, LLP, Nick was a partner with McGinnis, Lochridge & Kilgore, LLP in Austin where he practiced commercial litigation, including eminent domain, real property and land use, partition matters, oil and gas matters, business disputes, secured finance matters, bankruptcy matters, and complex multiparty receivership matters in state and federal courts both in Texas and elsewhere. While practicing at McGinnis, Lochridge & Kilgore, LLP, Nick represented clients in several appellate matters in state and federal appellate courts and presented oral arguments before the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans and the Texas Third Court of Appeals at Austin. Nick is a member of the State Bars of Texas and North Dakota and has been admitted to practice in the United States Supreme Court, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth and Eighth Circuits, the Federal Court of Claims, and the United States District Courts for the Western, Eastern, Southern and Northern Districts of Texas. He has been appointed Chair of the Condemnation Committee of the American Bar Association's Section of Real Property, Trust and Estate Law for the 2018-2019, 2019-2020, 2020-2021, and 2021-22 terms and served as the Vice Chair of the same committee for several prior terms. He was named as a Texas Super Lawyer in 2021 and was previously selected to the Texas Super Lawyers Rising Star list. As a frequent author and lecturer on eminent domain and condemnation issues, many of Nick's papers and articles have been published in legal journals and cited and referenced in numerous other journals and scholarly publications. In his free time, Nick can be found spending time with his wife and young son and daughter or on the golf course, usually losing more golf balls than he cares to admit. Nick Laurent is a member of the Real Estate Council of Austin and the Oil, Gas & Energy Resources Law Section of the State Bar of Texas.

Job Titles:

• Attorney
• Partner
• Partner in the Austin Office of Barron, Adler

Roy Brandys is a partner in the Austin Office of Barron, Adler, Clough & Oddo, LLP where, for more than sixteen years, he has exclusively represented landowners in eminent domain, inverse condemnation, and related land use matters. Roy has represented landowners in negotiating settlements, in special commissioners' hearings, and in jury trials on hundreds of road and highway takings, power line takings, pipeline takings, takings of billboard easements, and other similar takings. The substantial experience Roy has developed in eminent domain, inverse condemnation, and related land use matters also includes complex matters, including takings involving competing claims to condemnation proceeds among landowners and easement owners. Roy's practice extends to all parts of Texas, including El Paso, the Rio Grande Valley, central Texas, Dallas, San Antonio, Houston, and rural areas across the State. Prior to joining Barron, Adler, Clough & Oddo, LLP, Roy was a civil trial lawyer and over his career has tried more than fifty civil cases to jury verdict in Texas, Illinois, and New Mexico. Roy also has extensive appellate experience in state and federal appellate courts, having argued and prevailed in cases before intermediate Texas appellate courts, the Texas Supreme Court, and the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Before representing clients in eminent domain, inverse condemnation, and related land use matters, Roy represented clients before numerous administrative bodies including the National Collegiate Athletic Association, Bureau of Indian Affairs, and the Merit Systems Protection Board. Roy was admitted to the State Bar of Texas in 1985 and the State Bar of New Mexico in 1986. He has also been admitted to practice in the U.S. District Court for the Southern and Western Districts of Texas as well as the United States Federal Court of Claims.

Job Titles:

• Attorney
• Attorney in the Austin Office of Barron, Adler

Sejin C. Brooks is an attorney in the Austin Office of Barron, Adler, Clough & Oddo, LLP. Raised in Oklahoma, he joined the firm in 2014 and focuses on eminent domain litigation. For eight years Mr. Brooks served as an Assistant Attorney General at the Office of the Attorney General of Texas, Transportation Division. While in that position he acted as the project manager of litigation for parcel acquisition matters regarding the DFW Connector Highway Construction Project. Prior to his time as an Assistant Attorney General, Mr. Brooks served as an Assistant District Attorney in Oklahoma and as a Partner Attorney for a law firm in Oklahoma. Mr. Brooks is a member of the State Bar of Texas and the Oklahoma Bar Association.

Job Titles:

• Attorney
• Counsel for Barron
• Member of Many Local Business
• Owner and President of the Steve T. Matthews Company

Stephen Matthews serves as attorney of counsel for Barron, Adler, Clough & Oddo, LLP and specializes in eminent domain cases throughout Texas. He has been with the firm since 1987. Mr. Matthews is a seasoned attorney with forty years of experience to his credit. He was admitted to the State Bar of Texas in 1972 and has been a licensed real estate broker since 1973. Mr. Matthews is the owner and president of the Steve T. Matthews Company, which specializes in commercial user land acquisitions, and works with clients from preliminary location studies to the completion of entitlement requirements at the government level. His primary focus for the past 10 years has been the representation of Simon Property Group (SPG) in Texas and the Southwestern United States. Since joining Barron, Adler, Clough & Oddo, LLP in 1987, Mr. Matthews has worked on some of the largest eminent domain and condemnation cases in the state of Texas. Mr. Matthews is a two-time graduate of The University of Texas at Austin. He earned his B.B.A. in 1970 and his J.D. in 1972. Mr. Matthews is an active member of many local business groups, such as the Austin Chamber of Commerce. He has held multiple honorary and voluntary positions within his community, including