MARVIN SLOMAN ENTERS TEXAS APPELLATE HALL OF FAME

At the recent annual meeting of the Appellate Section of the State Bar of Texas, Marvin Sloman—one of the founders of Carrington Coleman Sloman & Blumenthal—was inducted into the Texas Appellate Hall of Fame. The honor is curated and awarded jointly by the State Bar Appellate Section and the Texas Supreme Court Historical Society. “The Texas Appellate Hall of Fame recognizes distinguished judges, attorneys, and court personnel who have made unique contributions to the practice of appellate law in Texas from the mid-1850s to the present.” Marvin became only the fourth private practitioner named to the Hall, joining such notables as United States Supreme Court Justice Tom Clark and longtime Texas Supreme Court Chief Justices Robert Calvert and Joe Greenhill.

In his 58-year career, Marvin appeared scores of times before the Texas Supreme Court and the intermediate appellate courts of Texas and of the United States. He argued twice before the United States Supreme Court, winning both times. Marvin was asked by the judges of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals to help form the Fifth Circuit Bar Association and became its first president. He also served as Chairman of the Appellate Practice and Advocacy Section of the State Bar of Texas, as well as Chairman of the State Bar’s Corporation, Banking, and Business Law Section.

Marvin was a man of many interests, most of them intense, and he loved to debate the finer points of everything around him. His curiosity led him to carefully study and gain mastery of a variety of subjects, including camping, fishing, hunting, carpentry, jazz of the 1920s and ‘30s, and the art of a good joke. In everything, Marvin sought the best and to be the best. A significant point of pride was his single-handed construction, board-by-board and nail-by-nail, of a hexagonal country home outside of Winnsboro, Texas, referred to as “Homebrew”—a creation in which he took as much joy and pride as in any brief he ever wrote.

Marvin brought to the practice of law a remarkable combination of intelligence, wit, humor, superb analytical and writing skills, attention to detail, and commitment to excellence. Those qualities, and his willingness to share them with young lawyers along the way, rightly led to his inclusion with other appellate pioneers in the Texas Appellate Hall of Fame. In support of Marvin’s nomination, Fifth Circuit Judge Carolyn King wrote, “in a circuit in which we are blessed with many excellent appellate lawyers, he was the best, a real gift to us and to his clients.” And, we would add, to his colleagues.
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