South Texas College of Law Houston recently announced the addition of five new members to the board of directors of Houston’s oldest law school.
Joining the board are Michael E. Cokinos and STCL Houston alumni Aparna Dave ’02, Ephraim del Pozo ’97, Mary-Olga Lovett ’93, and Aaron M. Reimer ’07.
“We are proud to welcome five exceptional new board members to South Texas College of Law Houston,” said STCL Houston President and Dean Michael F. Barry. “The new board members bring a wealth of business and legal experience to their leadership roles at our nearly 100-year-old law school. From expertise in domestic and international energy, to corporate law, finance, intellectual property litigation, and family law, these new members of the STCL Houston family ideally are positioned to support the law school’s strategic plan leading into our centennial celebration in 2023.”
Cokinos is president and CEO of Cokinos Energy Corporation, a privately held domestic and international oil and natural gas trading and marketing company, which he founded in 1982. He brings more than 30 years of experience in the domestic and international energy business to his new role at STCL Houston. In 2017, Texas Gov. Rick Perry appointed Cokinos to the Texas Medical Board, where he serves on the Executive Committee as secretary and treasurer. A licensed real estate broker, he is a former mayor pro tem and city councilman of Hunter’s Creek Village in Houston, and past chairman and police commissioner of the Memorial Village Police Department. Cokinos is a former chairman — and current member — of the Texas A&M University-Galveston board of visitors.
Dave is managing counsel in the Houston office of Wells Fargo Bank, which she joined in 2006. She currently leads a legal team responsible for protecting and rebuilding the company’s $35 billion global brand through intellectual property, consumer protection, and crisis communications. She is an award-winning lawyer, recognized for her commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion within the company, legal industry and community. Dave has served on the legal department’s DEI Council and Pro Bono Committee and for over a decade, provided service and leadership on the Texas Minority Counsel Program, one of the state bar’s premier programs to increase racial, gender and LGBTQ diversity in the legal profession. She also serves on the board of the National Park Trust, the Advisory Board of Practice Pro’s Diversity Scholar Program and is a 2015 Fellow of the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity.
Since 1998, del Pozo has been an attorney at Porter Hedges LLP in Houston. His practice focuses on energy finance and includes a broad range of corporate transactions, including commercial lending and acquiring and disposing of energy-related assets and companies. Since 2015, del Pozo has received recognition as one of the Best Lawyers in America in banking and finance law. He is the former president, and current director, of the Mexican American Bar Association of Houston; a former director, and current member, of the Hispanic Bar Association; and a member of the State Bar of Texas. He is a former president of the Alumni Association at South Texas College of Law Houston, from which he graduated in 1997.
Lovett is senior vice president of Greenberg Traurig LLP, with operational responsibilities for the firm’s Texas offices, and she serves as a member of the firm’s Executive Committee. She is a proven first-chair trial lawyer who concentrates her practice in intellectual property and commercial and complex litigation. Lovett has served as national trial counsel for Fortune 500 companies in a broad range of industries, including entertainment, software, hardware, energy, hedge funds and financial institutions, health care, oilfield services, medical devices, pharmaceuticals, and automotive components. She has been recognized among The Best Lawyers in America in commercial litigation since 2012, she currently is listed as one of the Top 50 Women Lawyers in Texas and one of the Top 100 Attorneys in Houston by Super Lawyers Magazine/Texas Monthly, and she was named among the Top 100 Lawyers in Texas in 2016.
Reimer is a partner at Jenkins & Kamin LLP in Houston. Board certified in family law, he practices both family law and appellate law. In addition to representing parties in complex divorce litigation, he represents clients in negotiation of premarital agreements and partition agreements. Reimer holds an LL.M. in taxation, which provides him with an added depth of knowledge when handling complex property issues for clients, and makes him an invaluable asset to the firm’s marital property team. Reimer recently began his two-year tenure as president of the Alumni Association board of directors at South Texas College of Law Houston, where he earned his law degree in 2007. He has served STCL Houston as a contributing member of the Alumni Association board of directors and Young Alumni Council since 2014. Super Lawyers Magazine/Texas Monthly has recognized Reimer as a Super Lawyer since 2019, and Houstonia Magazine has named him a Top Lawyer in marital and family law since 2018. Reimer was named by The Best Lawyers in America for his work in family law in 2021.
