Commissioners

State Representative Gene Wu proudly serves the people of District 137 in the Texas House. Prior to being elected in 2012, he served as a prosecutor in the Harris County District Attorney’s Office, where he sought justice for thousands of crime victims. Gene is currently an attorney in private practice.

Outside his legislative work, Gene remains active and involved in the Houston community. For the past nine years, he has worked with Neighborhood Centers Inc. in conducting monthly workshops that have helped several thousand Harris County residents become United States citizens. Gene currently serves on community advocacy organization boards such as the OCA-Greater Houston Advisory Board, the Chinese Community Center Advisory Board, and the Baker-Ripley Neighborhood Centers Advisory Committee. He is the past President of the Houston 80-20 Political Action Committee. Gene has also served as a mentor and teacher for adults in the Skills for Living program, and tutored at-risk youth at Sharpstown High School.

Gene grew up in the Southwest Houston neighborhood of Sharpstown. He earned his Bachelors of Science Degree from Texas A&M University, a Master’s Degree from the LBJ School for Public Affairs at the University of Texas in Austin, and a Law Degree from the South Texas College of Law in Houston.

Gene and his wife, Miya, reside in Southwest Houston. They are the proud parents of two sons.

The second highest-ranking state senator, Judith Zaffirini has passed 1,024 bills (more than any legislator in the state’s history); cast 60,000 consecutive votes since 1987; and received more than 950 honors for her legislative, professional, and civic accomplishments. Also a member of the Texas Judicial Council, she champions preventing cronyism and corruption in the legal system, protecting persons under guardianship and/or with intellectual and emotional disabilities, and increasing access to justice. Her legislation includes creating legal self-help centers; multi-county law libraries; standardized forms for landlord-tenant disputes, wills, and other basic legal matters for low-income Texans; and eliminating "debtors' prisons." Her son, Carlos Jr., a member of the Access to Justice Foundation, established the Carlos Sr. and Senator Judith Zaffirini Access to Justice Initiative, which pays bar review and exam costs for low-income UT law graduates who will represent low-income clients.

Senator Zaffirini holds B.S., M.A., and PhD degrees from UT-Austin.

Judge Roy Ferguson (2013-present) presides over a five-county court of general jurisdiction covering roughly 20,000 square miles and over 20% of the US-Mexico Border. He was the 32nd sitting district judge in Texas history to author a published appellate opinion. In recognition of his advocacy for high quality justice for all, Judge Ferguson was named a Commissioner and executive committee member of the Texas Access to Justice Commission, a commissioner on the Texas Children’s Commission, and Chair of the Child Welfare Standards of Representation Committee. As a national advocate for using technology to expand access to justice, Judge Ferguson serves on the Texas Artificial Intelligence Task Force, Texas Supreme Court’s Judicial Committee on Information Technology, Uniform Case Management System Study Group, Judicial Needs Assessment Committee, the NCSC Hybrid Proceedings Task Force, and the Judicial Council Civil Justice Committee’s Advisory Council. He served on the Texas Remote Proceedings Task Force and was the keynote speaker at the launch of the Iowa Remote Proceedings Taskforce. Judge Ferguson is active in State Bar of Texas leadership, serving on the governing boards of the Family Law, GPSolo, Judicial, and Computer & Technology Sections, and the State Bar Rules Committee. Judge Ferguson is a Trustee and Sustaining Life Fellow of the Texas Bar Foundation, and a member of the Texas Bar College and the Champions of Justice Society. He is a frequent educational speaker to lawyers and judges around the world for the Texas Center for the Judiciary, American Bar Association, ABOTA, and TexasBarCLE, and is on faculty for the National Judicial College. He authors the “Let’s Talk Lawyering” column in the ABA Young Lawyers Magazine. He is one of the best-known judges on social media (Twitter: @JudgeFergusonTX), which he uses to educate the public about the justice system in an uplifting, entertaining, and ethical way.

Bio and photo coming soon!

David McAtee, Senior Executive Vice President and General Counsel, is responsible for all legal matters at AT&T as well as for AT&T's public policy organization. He was appointed General Counsel in October 2015 and Chair of the AT&T Foundation in May 2018. David joined AT&T in January 2012 , prior to that, he was a partner of Haynes and Boone, LLP, an Am Law 100 firm based in Dallas, where he specialized in complex litigation matters, antitrust and government investigations. He also served as the administrative partner of the firm’s Dallas office. Prior to joining Haynes and Boone, David was senior law clerk to U.S. District Judge Jerry Buchmeyer, then Chief Judge of the Northern District of Texas. David is a former executive committee member of the State Bar of Texas, chair of the Board of Editors of the Texas Bar Journal, and chair of the Fellows of the Texas Bar Foundation. He has twice received a Presidential Citation by the State Bar of Texas for leadership in the bar and received a Leadership Award from TexasBarCLE for his contributions in support of continuing legal education.

David is a former president of The Dallas Assembly and the Trinity Commons Foundation, the coordinating organization for local, state and federal government initiatives in the $1.5 billion Trinity River Corridor Project in Dallas. He currently serves on the board of directors of St. Mark’s School of Texas, Methodist Health System and the Alcuin School. Born in Dallas, Texas, David graduated from Duke University with honors and from The University of Texas School of Law, where he was an associate editor of The Review of Litigation.