Newly Elected Austin Bar Association Board Members

These Smiling Faces Have a History of Serving the Judicial and Legal Communities

ABOVE: (from left) Beck, Boykin, Denton, and Judge Guerra Gamble.

The Austin Bar Association held its board member election for the upcoming year. Four members were selected. These individuals are already hands-on and making a difference through their involvement in programs and initiatives such as Leadership Academy, Bench Bar, Lawlapalooza and more. The Austin Bar congratulates each of you!

Elliott Beck

Elliott Beck has served as the staff attorney for the 345th District Court since 2017. He is in his second year as a co-chair for the Austin Bar/AYLA Leadership Academy, graduated from the 2018 Leadership Academy class, and has been a member of the Austin Bar and AYLA since he graduated from Baylor Law in 2011. Beck previously served on the Austin Bar Gala and Bench Bar committees, and presented at the 2020 Bench Bar Conference. Beck is a precinct chair and the chair of the rules committee for the Travis County Democratic Party, and previously served as the chair of the LGBT Law Section of the State Bar of Texas and the president of the former Austin LGBT Bar Association.

Leslie Boykin

Leslie Boykin practices criminal defense law and started her solo firm in July 2005. Since then, she has represented over 2,500 individuals charged with crimes in seven different counties in Texas, as well as in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas. Boykin has focused her client base on those who suffer with mental illness and was one of the few court-assigned attorneys appointed by Travis County to start its mental health specialty docket program back in the early 2000s. She has given presentations about people who suffer with lasting brain injury (TBI), and how they become trapped in the criminal justice system, as well as ways that we can help them rise out of it.

Sam Denton

Sam Denton serves as Associate Corporate Counsel at University Federal Credit Union. He has previously worked as an attorney with the Special Prosecution Unit and also co-founded Denton & Fahring, PLLC. Prior to assuming his role at UFCU, Denton worked as staff attorney for the 459th District Court. Denton is a co-chair of the Austin AYLA/ Bar Leadership Academy and a Life Fellow of the Texas Bar Foundation, and has served in several volunteer bar and legal-related roles. Beginning in 2003, Denton served in the Active Duty and Reserve components of the U.S. Army, both as a Military Intelligence Officer and as a Judge Advocate (JAG) Officer. His time in the military included a deployment to Iraq.

Judge Maya Guerra Gamble

Judge Maya Guerra Gamble was elected to the 459th District Court bench in 2018. Her varied career prior to taking the bench included a solo practice representing children and parents in child protective services cases; representing whistleblowers at O’Connell & Soifer; prosecuting child pornography and child exploitation cases for the Texas Attorney General; suing companies committing fraud against the United States for the Department of Justice; and clerking for Judge Richard Cudahy on the 7th Circuit. She was elected as a director on the Austin Bar board for the 2020- 22 term and appointed as the chair of the Equity Committee. In that position, Judge Guerra Gamble oversaw the Austin Bar’s inaugural Equity Summit. AL