John Simpson III, was born in Tifton, Georgia on February 9, 1949. He was admitted to the State Bar of Texas in 1974 after graduating from Texas Tech University School of Law. He also received his bachelor's degree at Texas Tech.

In addition to admission to the State Bar, he was also admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court, U.S. Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit, U.S. Court of Federal Claims, and the U.S. District Court, Northern and Western Districts of Texas. In 1981, he received board certification in Civil Trial Law and Personal Injury Trial Law from the Texas Board of Specialization.

He was appointed to the Board of Law Examiners by the Supreme Court of Texas, 2003-2004. John is an alumnus of Phi Alpha Delta and a past-president of the Lubbock County Bar Association, the Lubbock County Young Lawyers Association, and the American Board of Trial Advocates Panhandle/South Plains Chapter. He is a past chair of the Litigation Section of the State Bar, a life fellow of the Texas Bar Foundation and a member of the American College of Trial Lawyers. Click for more information about John Simpson.

Thomas E. Pitts, was born in Paris, Texas on June 28, 1947. He was admitted to the State Bar of Texas in 1983 and has also been admitted to practice before the U.S. District Court, Northern District of Texas.

He earned his bachelor's and master's degrees at Texas Tech University. He graduated from the Texas Tech University School of Law. He currently serves on the Supreme Court's Board of Disciplinary Appeals. He served on the State Bar District 16 Grievance Committee for six years, the last two as chairman. Click for more information

John H. Splawn, Jr. (1914-1988), was born in 1914 in Greenwood, Texas. He graduated from Richardson High School near Dallas, Texas College of Arts and Industries in Kingsville, and George Washington University Law School in Washington, D.C.

During World War II, Mr. Splawn served in the United States Army and attained the rank of major after serving in five major battle campaigns including the Battle of the Bulge and the Rhine River crossing, while serving on the staff of General George Patton. He was separated from the service in 1946 and was elected County Judge of Wise County, Texas. After serving one year as director and dean of the Liberal Arts College, a branch of the University of Hawaii, in Hilo, he returned to West Texas, where he served one term as Dawson County Attorney in Lamesa. In 1952, he moved to Lubbock, where he was engaged in trial practice in the field of personal injury litigation until his death in 1988.

While serving occupation duty in Czechoslovakia during the war, Mr. Splawn met Margaret Valasta Kopecky, daughter of a mechanical engineer. With her brother, Anthony, she served in the underground movement, working against the Nazi occupation forces until 1943. Her brother was captured by the German Gestapo and executed. Margaret escaped the German dragnet, and after the American Liberation of Czechoslovakia, worked as an interpreter for the Judge Advocate General, helping process-displaced persons. Fluent in five languages, she has taught in the language department at Texas Tech University and helped operate a travel agency. John and Margaret were married in Denton, Texas in 1946 and had two children, Mike and Robert.