Mitchell Katine is a founding partner with the law firm of Katine Nechman McLaurin LLP Over the course of his career, Mitchell has not only distinguished himself as an outstanding professional with unique talents and expertise in a myriad of legal fields, he has also been a community leader and advocate for many of the most marginalized in our society. He is perhaps best known as having served as local counsel for John Lawrence and Tyron Garner in the landmark United States Supreme Court case of Lawrence v. Texas, which created new paradigms in U.S. privacy law jurisprudence.
After 20 years, including 11 as partner, at the prominent Houston firm of Williams, Birnberg & Andersen, L.L.P., Mitchell decided to start his own practice with his new law partner, John Nechman. He continues to concentrate on the areas of real estate, with a special emphasis on real estate litigation, homeowner association law, title insurance matters, landlord-tenant disputes, and adjoining landowner issues. He also handles employment and HR matters, estate planning and probate, general and business litigation, as well as insurance, adoption, and disability (including HIV and AIDS) matters.
Mitchell was born in Miami, Florida and received his bachelor’s degree in mass communications and public relations at the University of South Florida in Tampa. In 1982, he moved to Houston, where as a student at South Texas College of Law, he served on the school’s law review, made the Dean’s List every semester, and graduated summa cum laude with the 4th highest G.P.A.in his graduating class.
While at Williams, Birnberg, & Anderson, L.L.P., Mitchell quickly forged a reputation as an attorney of formidable skills. He also became a certified mediator, a publisher of numerous law-related articles, and nationally-known speaker and Continuing Legal Education presenter on numerous topics. In 1993, Texas Governor Ann Richards appointed him to the Texas Real Estate Commission, where he served as a Commissioner for 6 years.In 1994, he became an adjunct professor at South Texas College of Law, and in 2001, he took on the same role at the University of Houston Law Center, teaching “HIV & The Law.” He has also served on the State Bar of Texas’s Grievance Committee Panel as well as the Disability Issues Committee.
Since the early days of the HIV/AIDS crisis, Mitchell has been a stalwart leader in the battle to help those with HIV/AIDS.He has also helped create numerous GLBT legal organizations in Houston and Texas, and he regularly appears on local and national television and radio programs where issues such as same-sex marriage, gay and lesbian adoption, HIV/AIDS, and civil rights are discussed and debated. He is particularly proud of his role as local counsel in the Lawrence case, in which the Supreme Court overruled the case of Bowers v. Hardwick and overturned all sodomy statutes in the country.
Among his many awards, Mitchell has received the Humanitarian Award from the Houston Conference on AIDS in America, the Advocacy Award from the Bar Association for Human Rights of Greater Houston, the State Bar of Texas’s Frank J.Scurlock Award and Judge Norman Black Award, a Community Service Award for Outstanding Citizenship from Houston’s ABC affiliate Channel 13, an award as “Top Attorney” from H Magazine, the John Walzel Political Equality Award from the Human Rights Campaign, and an award as Outstanding Civil Rights Attorney from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and he was named a Texas Monthly Magazine “Super Lawyer” 4 years in a row.
Mitchell and his partner, Walter, have fulfilled a lifelong dream of having a family by adopting two children, Sebrina and Sebastian.