Kent serves as the chair of the Section and Division Council. He is a past national president of the Federal Bar Association (2002-03) and a founding partner of Brown & Hofmeister L.L.P. in Richardson, Texas, where he is actively engaged in a state and federal litigation practice with a primary emphasis in local government law. He received both his degree in journalism (B.F.A., 1973) and his law degree (J.D., 1976) from Southern Methodist University. Before entering private practice, Kent was an assistant city attorney for the Dallas City Attorney’s Office from 1977-86, the last five years of which he served as the chief of the Federal Litigation Division.
He has served as lead counsel or co-counsel at trial or on appeal in cases that have resulted in more than 30 published opinions at both the state and federal levels, and he is the co-author of Praprotnik, Municipal Policy and Policymakers: The Supreme Court’s Constriction of Municipal Liability, 13 S. Ill. U.L.J. 857 (Summer 1989), cited by the U.S. Supreme Court in Board of County Comm’rs of Bryan County, Okl. v. Brown, 520 U.S. 397 (1997). In May 2003, Kent offered remarks and presented the FBA/ABA 2003 report on “Federal Judicial Pay: An Update on the Urgent Need for Action” to Chief Justice of the United States William H. Rehnquist and Associate Justices Stephen Breyer, Anthony Kennedy, and David Souter at a ceremony held at the U.S. Supreme Court.
Away from the office, Kent enjoys playing guitar and singing in his 1960s rock and roll band, the Catdaddies, which performs around the state of Texas at many bar-related functions.