University of Houston Law Center graduate Matt Bracy ’92.
Sept. 4, 2019 — Matt Bracy has held a variety of titles since graduating from the University of Houston Law Center in 1992, including commercial litigator, government relations manager, general counsel and corporate attorney.
“I continue to enjoy the intellectual challenges of commercial and business law,” he said. “What I really enjoy most is working with entrepreneurs and business leaders. I appreciate their spirit and nerve, and the desire to build something bigger than themselves.”
Bracy is currently a partner at Scheef & Stone, LLP in Frisco where he specializes in corporate law, contracts and negotiations, mergers and acquisitions, finance, and outsourced general counsel services.
Raised by a single mother who never finished high school, Bracy was a first-generation college student who initially believed receiving an undergraduate degree would be the extent of his academic career.
“After working for a year after college, I found my job lacking any real challenge,” he said. “I wanted more, and really took the LSAT just to see if I had what it took to make it in law. A good friend’s dad told me that if I wanted it, I would find a way — and I did.”
After a professor from the University of Houston visiting in the political science department of Bracy’s undergraduate alma mater, the University of California, Irvine, spoke with him about the Law Center, Bracy was eager to attend.
“UH was at the top of my list, because it was and is highly regarded, and, frankly, more affordable than many other schools,” he said. “I was excited to be accepted. I had never met a lawyer, and had never been in Texas before, but I put my head down and did my best.”
Bracy found great inspiration in the late Professor Stephen Zamora, who was his 1L Contracts professor.
“He was very kind and nurturing,” Bracy said. “He was also extremely bright and knowledgeable. I found that I appreciated the complexity and intricacies of contracts and business related classes very much.”
Bracy also values the opportunities he had to participate in extracurricular activities, like mock trial, being a student teacher in Legal Research and Writing, serving as chief judge of the honor court, and as the elected law school representative on the UH Student Senate.
“All of these allowed me to work more closely with my colleagues and form great friendships that last to this day,” he said.
Bracy said attention to detail and a drive for excellence are two lessons the Law Center instilled in him. He is grateful for the array of experiences he had as a law student and the way faculty and staff dispelled his initial anxieties.
“On orientation day, one of the deans told us, ‘You got into this school, and we want to keep you here,’” Bracy said. “That meant so much. I am very proud to be a University of Houston Law Center alumnus.”
