Articles

November Branch Meeting Main Speaker

Ms. Carrin F. Patman - Houston Metro Chair

Carrin F. Patman serves as chair of the Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County (METRO). She is the agency’s first woman chair, appointed in 2016 by Mayor Sylvester Turner. She previously served on the board from 2010 to 2013 and chaired the Government & Public Affairs Committee.

In her professional career, Carrin was a partner of Bracewell where for three decades she worked as a trial lawyer representing diverse clients in major litigation involving commercial disputes, securities matters, antitrust and competition issues, and regulatory compliance. She was the first woman elected to the firm’s seven-member Management Committee and is the only woman to have been twice elected to serve on that committee. Carrin retired from Bracewell in December, 2016.

Carrin graduated from Duke University (with honors) and from the University of Texas School of Law (Texas Law Review).

In 2014, Carrin completed a year-long Advanced Leadership Fellowship at Harvard University. One area of focus during Carrin’s Fellowship concerned transportation (including urban transit) and infrastructure. She also spent a year in the American Leadership Forum (ALF) program and is now an ALF Senior Fellow (Class XXIX).

Carrin’s extensive civic involvement reflects her passion for community service. Currently, she serves as a senior trustee on the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston Development Board. She is a founding board member of the Center for Women in Law at the University of Texas School of Law, which is dedicated to improving the status of women in the legal profession.

Some of her prior activities on behalf of non-profits include, serving as a board or executive committee member of the University of Texas Law School Foundation, the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, Legacy Community HealthServices Endowment, Texas Appleseed, Girls Inc. of Greater Houston and Sheltering Arms Senior Services. Carrin was vice chair of the Houston Bar Foundation, and former president of the University of Texas Law Alumni Association and University of Texas Law Review Association.

Carrin has also chaired or co-chaired many fundraising events for worthy causes, including for Interfaith Ministries of Greater Houston, American Leadership Forum, the Texas Defender Service, the Houston Area Women’s Center, Girls Inc. of Greater Houston, the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, and the Houston School for Deaf Children (now the Center for Hearing and Speech). She most recently served on the National Finance Committee for the ‘Hillary Clinton for President’ campaign.

Carrin has received several awards that recognize her professional achievements and community service. In 2001, Carrin became the first woman to receive the Karen H. Susman Jurisprudence Award, given each year by the Anti-Defamation League Southwest Region to "an outstanding member of the legal community who exhibits a commitment to equality, justice, fairness, and community service." In 2000, she was selected as a Woman on the Move by the Houston Chronicle, Channel 11 and Texas Executive Women. In 2012, she was inducted into the Greater Houston Women’s Chamber of Commerce Hall of Fame, and in 2013, received the Pacesetter Award from the Ivy Educational and Charitable Foundation of Houston.