Founded in 1917 in Houston during Texas’ oil boom days, Vinson & Elkins grew up helping oil and gas clients resolve disputes and touts itself as “one of the world’s leading energy law firms.” “It is a big, big part of what we do and who we are,” says V&E Houston partner Jim Thompson.

David E. Colmenero, a partner in Meadows, Collier, Reed, Cousins, Crouch & Ungerman in Dallas, has been elected treasurer of the State Bar of Texas Section of Taxation. Plus more new positions, appointments, awards and honors.

San Antonio attorney Michael McCrum on Aug. 19 took the oath of office to serve as an attorney pro tem to investigate allegations that Gov. Rick Perry committed crimes when he vetoed funding for the Travis County District Attorney’s Public Integrity Unit.

When a retired University of Texas at Dallas professor needed an attorney for a patent infringement case, he recalled being impressed as a juror with Jackson Walker partner Robert Latham’s handling of a 2007 commercial case.

Facing the possibility of having to pay twice the benefits available under an Employee Retirement Income Security Act-regulated pension plan, Marathon Oil Corp. turned to Haynes and Boone’s labor and employment practice group for help.