Mr. Coats resides in The Woodlands, Texas with his wife and has two children. Mr. Coats was born in Abilene, Texas. Mr. Coats earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from The University of Texas at Austin and a Juris Doctorate from South Texas College of Law. Mr. Coats served as assistant note and comment editor for the South Texas Law Review. Mr. Coats served as a briefing attorney on the Texas Court of Appeals for the Sixth Judicial District. He also served as a judicial intern to Justice Raul Gonzalez on the Supreme Court of Texas and to the late Judge John R. Brown on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
Mr. Coats is licensed to practice law in Texas and admitted to practice in multiple federal court jurisdictions and has been admitted to practice pro hac vice in other states. Mr. Coats completed mediation training in 2010 with mediation pioneer Professor Kimberlee Kovach, the former chair of the American Bar Association’s Alternative Dispute Resolution Section and the State Bar of Texas ADR Section. He is a member of the State Bar of Texas, former officer of the State Bar Aviation Law Section, a member of the Texas Association of Defense Counsel, the Defense Research Institute, the Aviation Insurance Association, the NTSB Bar Association and the Lawyer-Pilots Bar Association.
Mr. Coats is the author of Saving the General Aviation Industry; Putting Tort Reform to the Test, 60 J. AIR LAW & COMMERCE 533 (1994-1995), and Foreign Plaintiffs Have an Absolute Right to Have Their Causes of Action Heard in Texas Courts; Dow Chemical v. Alfaro, 32 S. TEX. L. REV. 289 (1991). Mr. Coats authored and presented Defending the Self-Insured Aviation Client at the 38th Annual Southern Methodist University School of Law Air Law Symposium. Mr. Coats presented A Practitioners Guide to FAA Enforcement Actions at the 2006 State Bar of Texas convention. Mr. Coats also authored and presented the paper on aviation law during the transportation law seminar at the annual Texas Association of Defense Counsel meeting in 1999.
Mr. Coats founded and is past President and Chairman of the Houston Aeronautical Heritage Society, and is a past President of the Houston Aviation Alliance. Mr. Coats is a member of the Experimental Aircraft Association, the Seaplane Pilots Association, and is an Aircraft Owners & Pilots Association member and Legal Services Plan Panel Attorney. Mr. Coats is a recipient of the National Business Aviation Association’s Silk Scarf Award. Mr. Coats is a merit badge counselor for the Boy Scouts of America for the aviation and law merit badges, among others. Mr. Coats served as aviation legal editor for the American Pilot Magazine and has authored articles for Texas Flyer Magazine. He is an instrument-rated private pilot in single engine land and single engine sea aircraft, and in multi-engine land aircraft, and has over 2,500 flight hours. Mr. Coats is an aircraft owner and operator. Mr. Coats serves as a volunteer pilot for Angel Flight Southeast, Challenge Air for Kids & Friends, and Pilots for Patients.
Office: (281) 367-7732, extention 2
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Fax: (281) 367-8003