Baker, James P.

Bruce D. Bain, shareholder, is a board certified specialist in Family Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization, and a member in the Texas Academy of Family Law Specialists. Bruce received his Juris Doctorate from South Texas College of Law in Houston, and his B.B.A. from the University of Mississippi-Oxford. He limits his practice solely to complex family law issues which range from complicated custody and conservatorship issues to complex property concerns relating to property characterization and reimbursement. Bruce also handles multi-state jurisdictional issues for out-of-state litigants and foreign nationals as well as grandparent access and custody.

Bruce is a regular writer and presenter providing continuing legal education to fellow attorneys. The issues have ranged from discovery rules and procedures to new legislation regarding reimbursement on properties to modifications and enforcement of custody issues.

Bruce is currently a Board of Director of the Family Law Council of the State Bar of Texas - one of only 25 board members for the entire state. He previously served two terms as a member of the Texas Pattern Jury Charge Committee for family law issues, served as a Director for the Texas Academy of Family Law Specialists, and served on the State Bar of Texas' Form Book Committee for the Texas Family Law Practice Manual. Bruce is a sustaining life member of the Texas Family Law Bar Foundation and a member of the Texas Bar Foundation.

Not only involved in statewide bar politics, Bruce is also a founding member of the Smith County Bar Association's Family Law Section, and he is a former President of both the Smith County Bar Association and the Smith County Bar Foundation. Bruce donates some of his time through East Texas Legal Services providing pro bono services for indigent clients. Bruce was a board member of the Alzheimer's Alliance of Northeast Texas, Inc., and served as President for a term.

Married to Martha for 19 plus wonderful years and a full-time father of three great boys as multiple sports assistant, homework helper, diorama assistant, reader, listener, video game time arbitrator with binding unappellable authority, he finds himself being an outdoorsman more and more as the boys grow and learn.

Bruce's office is in Tyler, Texas, the county seat of Smith County, but he regularly practices all over East Texas. He makes regular court appearances in Longview, Gregg County; Palestine, Anderson County; Rusk, Cherokee County; Henderson, Rusk County; Quitman, Wood County; Athens, Henderson County; and Canton, Van Zandt County. He also takes cases in Rains County, Hopkins County, Franklin County, Camp County, Upshur County, Panola County, Angelina County, Houston County, and Freestone County.