James Blake Covington Norvell

Blake C. Norvell is an attorney and mediator whose practice areas include litigation, transactional, and appeals. He is admitted to the State Bar of California and the State Bar of Texas, where he is a member of the Texas Bar College.

He has authored numerous articles that analyze significant legal and public policy issues. His articles have been published in law journals throughout the country, including Yale, USC, and Temple. He has been a frequent guest on the radio program Legal Beagle and has been interviewed by news stations to comment on a wide variety of topics such as national security and civil liberties in the post 9/11 era, the influence of free trade and NAFTA in the closing of textile mills in North Carolina, Texas Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst's bid for the US Senate, and former Florida Governor Jeb Bush's potential presidential campaign in 2016. In September 2015, he was interviewed at Donald Trump's speech and political rally in Dallas about Donald Trump's chance of securing the Republican nomination for President and his ability to win the general election.

Norvell was a featured speaker at Southern Methodist University's Founders' Day (SMU's spring homecoming), delivering a speech entitled "NSA Wiretapping: A Fourth Amendment Violation?" to faculty, alumni, and students. He is also a member of the Lawline Faculty, the nation's largest provider of continuing legal education for attorneys. He is an author for the Buffalo Gap newspaper, with over 75 published articles on various topics.

He joined the Rotary Club of Abilene in May 2014, sponsored by Dr. Bob Hunter, and has served as a director. His favorite hobby, when he is not working, is traveling to new places. He enjoys spending time with his four-legged best friend and has always been fond of dogs, particularly Beagles, English Pointers, and Old English Bulldogs. Cats are not excluded from his company.

The highlight of Norvell's career came in September 2014 when he spent a month studying with renowned trial lawyer Gerry Spence at his ranch in Dubois, Wyoming. During that time, Norvell and fifty other trial lawyers from across the United States honed their trial skills by working with and learning from Gerry Spence, the most successful trial lawyer of our time. In honor of Gerry Spence, Norvell composed a poem entitled "My Friend Gerry." At an event honoring Gerry Spence, he recited and performed his poem for Gerry Spence and the audience. Norvell also sang "Amarillo by Morning."

As a graduate of Gerry Spence's Trial Lawyers College, Norvell is dedicated to preserving the right to trial by jury and fighting for and protecting the rights of ordinary people. He is an innovative legal thinker who has the ability to be creative with the law to develop novel legal theories that win difficult cases. In addition to the practice of law, Norvell also worked with Governor Rick Perry in the Texas Enterprise Fund persuading businesses to relocate to Texas.

Norvell received his J.D. from the UCLA School of Law, where he was a member of the Moot Court Honors Program and a managing editor of the UCLA Entertainment Law Review. He received his B.A. from Southern Methodist University, where he graduated summa cum laude and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. At SMU, he served in the student senate for four years and was a member of the honor council, the senior class council, and Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity. He was sponsored by his university to compete for the Rhodes Scholarship.

Norvell is from Abilene and is a graduate of Abilene Christian High School, where he served as student body president and was salutatorian of his class.