Practice

Marvin (Marty) W. Jones is an attorney with Sprouse Shrader Smith PLLC in Amarillo, Texas. He graduated from Baylor University School of Law with honors in 1977 where he served as editor-chief of the Baylor Law Review. He is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, and has been Board Certified in Civil Trial Law by Texas Board of Legal Specialization since 1986. In 2009, he was appointed by the Texas Supreme Court to serve on the statewide Texas Board of Disciplinary Appeals. He was re-appointed in 2012 and finished his term as its Chair. From 2009 to 2013, he served as a member of the Board of Directors of the College of the State Bar of Texas. His practice includes litigation in a wide range of substantive areas, including personal injury, wrongful death, products liability, oil and gas, takings claims, and groundwater law. Over the past 45 years, he has tried over 100 jury cases to verdict. He has been recognized as a Texas Super Lawyer and by The Best Lawyers of America for his work in civil litigation. He has served on the faculty at the Baylor Academy of the Advocate, School of Trial program at St. Andrews, Scotland since 2014.

Marty has extensive experience in groundwater issues, beginning in 2004 with the representation of Quixx Corporation, the owner of 100,000 acres of groundwater rights in the Texas Panhandle. He transitioned to representing T. Boone Pickens when Pickens bought those same rights, handling issues with permitting of those rights before the Panhandle Groundwater Conservation District, the Texas Water Development Board and the TCEQ. That representation evolved into representing a large number of groundwater owners from the top of the Panhandle to Reeves County in West Texas, Victoria County in South Texas and Montgomery County on the Gulf Coast. Along with his son C. Brantley Jones, he has successfully prosecuted groundwater cases before the Texas Supreme Court and the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans. The decisions in Coyote Lake Ranch v. City of Lubbock and Stratta et al v. Brazos County Groundwater Conservation District have been repeatedly cited and relied on by groundwater rights attorneys across the state. He is a frequent speaker and author on groundwater ownership, permitting and related subjects.

Practice Areas

• Complex Commercial Litigation
• Power & Utilities
• Water
• Oil & Gas
• Trial & Appellate

Certification / Specialization

Memberships/Organizations

• Board of Disciplinary Appeals
• College of the State Bar of Texas, Board of Directors
• Texas Landowners Council, General Counsel
• Fellow of the Texas Bar College
• American College of Trial Lawyers

Presentations/Publications

• “The Evolving Legacy of EAA v. Day: Toward an Effective State Water Plan,” Baylor Law Review, Volume 68, Number 3 (2016)
• “A Streetcar Named Disaster,” 2016 Water Law Fundamentals and Texas Water Law Institute (November 4, 2016)
• “Surface and Groundwater Regulation,” 10th Annual John Huffaker Course, Agricultural Law (May 26, 2016)
• “Ethics – For Water Law Practitioners,” 25th Annual Texas Water Law Conference (October 5, 2015)
• “Fair Share: What does that mean,” Texas Alliance of Groundwater Districts, Texas Groundwater Summit (August 25, 2015)
• “Correlative Rights: Meaning and Implications,” 6th Annual Texas Water Law Conference (April 9, 2015)
• “Comparison of Groundwater Law and Oil and Gas Law,” 16th Annual Changing Face of Water Rights (February 26, 2015)
• “A New Day in Texas: The implications of Day v. Edwards Aquifer Authority” – Bloomberg BNA – Daily Environment Report (2013)
• “A Synopsis of the Bold Legislative Actions of 2011,” Changes to the DFC Appeal Process (September 2012)
• “Dealing with Ground Water Districts,” The Shifting Sands of the Water Law Practice (July 7, 2011)
• 2011 Judicial College Paper: “Walking on Water” (April 14, 2011)
• “The Consequences of NOT Altering “Geographic Area” Language in the Definition of DFCs” (January 2011)
• TWCA Seminar: “Appealing DFCs” (January 27, 2011)
• Public Policy Foundation, 9th Annual Policy Orientation (January 13, 2011)
• “Challenging DFCs” (September 17, 2010)
• HNRC Presentation (April 15, 2010)
• 11th Changing Face of Water Rights Course: Overview of GMA Process (April 8, 2010)
• Challenging DFCs Seminar Paper (January 20, 2010)
• “Ownership of Groundwater: A Primer”
• UT Water Law Seminar Paper (December 2009)
• “The Ownership of Groundwater in Texas: A Contrived Battle for State Control of the Groundwater,” Baylor Law Review (2009)
• Baylor Law Review, Editor-in-chief, 1977

Admissions

• Texas State Courts, 1977
• United States Supreme Court
• United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth, Tenth and Eleventh Circuits
• United States District Court, Northern District of Texas
• United States District Court, Southern District of Texas
• United States District Court, Western District of Texas
• United States District Court, Northern District of California
• United States District Court, Northern District of Colorado

Education

• Baylor University School of Law, with honors, 1977
• Baylor University, with honors, 1973

Memberships

• Texas Association of Defense Counsel
• Defense Research Institute
• American Board of Trial Advocates