Adjunct Faculty and Distinguished Lecturers

Adjunct Professor George McCall Secrest, Jr. has taught several courses since joining the Adjunct Faculty and Distinguished Lecturers at the Law Center in 1990. Among the courses he has taught are Appellate Advocacy, Trial Advocacy, Criminal Procedure, and Texas Criminal Procedure.

He is in private practice as a named partner in the Houston criminal defense firm of Bennett and Secrest. In 1998, he was named the Criminal Defense Lawyer of the Year by the Criminal Justice Section of the State Bar of Texas. He served as an Assistant Federal Public Defender for the Southern District of Texas from 1981 through 1983 and as an Assistant District Attorney for Harris County, Texas from 1978 through 1981. From 1977 through 1978, Prof. Secrest was employed as a Briefing Attorney for the Honorable Wendell Odom on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.

Prof. Secrest is the author of Jury Selection and Criminal Law; Texas Criminal Jury Practice (Texas Practice Guide, 2nd Ed. 1983); Fifth Circuit Survey, Criminal Law (Texas Tech Law Review 1995); and O’Connor’s Criminal Codes Plus (1997-2003 eds.).
Prof. Secrest is licensed to practice law in Texas. He has been admitted to practice in the Fifth, Sixth, and Eleventh Circuits, and numerous U.S. District Courts. He received his law degree from St. Mary’s University School of Law where he graduated with distinction in 1977.

Distinguished Lecturer Brent E. Newton teaches Remedies, Federal Jurisdiction, Criminal Procedure II and Criminal Litigation. He was named a Distinguished Lecturer at the University of Houston for the academic year 2003-2004. Prof. Newton has served an Assistant Federal Public Defender in Houston since 1996 and handles federal trials, appeals and habeas corpus cases. Prof. Newton is licensed in Texas, Georgia and Florida. He is a Contributing Editor for the Journal of Appellate Practice & Process ( Univ. of Arkansas), in which he has published six articles. He is the author of a text book entitled Criminal Litigation and Legal Issues in Criminal Procedure (NITA 2004). He has also authored a new horn book entitled Practical Criminal Procedure: Applying Constitutional Rules of Criminal Procedure in Criminal Litigation (forthcoming N.I.T.A. 2005).

Prof. Newton represented death row inmates in Texas and Florida while working for the Texas Capital Defense Resource Center and the Dade County, Florida Public Defender’s Office from 1993 through 1996. From 1992 through 1993, Prof. Newton clerked for Circuit Judge Carolyn King of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Prof. Newton received his law degree from Columbia Law School where he was a Kent Scholar and Senior Editor of Columbia Law Review.

Adjunct Professor John A. “Jack” Townsend has taught Tax Procedure and Tax Fraud and Money Laundering from 1982-88 and 1993 to the present. He is a partner in the Houston law firm of Townsend and Jones, L.L.P. His practice focuses principally on tax controversy and tax litigation matters. He has been listed since 1997 among Houston’s top tax lawyers in The Best Lawyers in America and as one of Texas’ top 5 lawyers in the Texas Lawyer’s “Go-to Guide.” Prof. Townsend is a regular participant in tax seminars and tax professional groups. His numerous scholarly publications include criminal tax articles in leading tax journals.

Before going into private practice, Mr. Townsend served as a Trial Attorney in the Tax Division of the United States Department of Justice, Washington, D.C. from 1969-1977. In recognition of his work with the Justice Department, he received the Special Commendation Award at the Attorney General’s Awards Ceremony and the Justice Department Tax Division Meritorious Service Award.

Prof. Townsend received his law degree from the University of Virginia in 1967 and his Master of Laws in Taxation from New York University in 1969. He is licensed in Texas and South Carolina and is Board Certified in Tax Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization.