Frisco-based Strasburger & Price LLP has appointed Kim Moore as partner in charge of the firm’s Collin County office.
Moore, who has spent her entire career at Strasburger, is a board-certified employment lawyer who will lead almost 40 lawyers in the growing area of Collin County. She holds a law degree from the Texas Tech University School of Law and an MBA from Southern Methodist University’s Cox School of Business.
Moore’s appointment was announced Jan. 3.
With 25 years of experience as a labor and employment lawyer, Moore is one of the first women to hold this position at a North Texas law firm and is the second at Strasburger. She previously was chairman of Strasburger’s Labor & Employment Law Team for 13 years.
With more than 200 attorneys, Strasburger & Price also has offices in Austin, Beaumont, Dallas, Houston, New York, San Antonio, Washington, D.C., and Mexico City.
Moore is known for her experience in and out of the courtroom, the firm said, which allows her to assist clients nationally in matters including non-competes, theft of trade secrets, discrimination and harassment, retaliation and wage and hour matters.
Outside the firm, she serves in ALFA International, a global network of independent law firms, as a member of the board of directors. Previously she was chairman of ALFA’s labor and employment practice group and chairman emeritus of its women’s initiative.
Moore has been chairman of the Plano Chamber of Commerce and board member of the Collin College Foundation, Leadership Plano and the Children’s Advocacy Center of Collin County.
Moore has been named in Best Lawyers in America specializing in labor and employment by Best Lawyers, a peer-review organization, and in Best Lawyers in Dallas by D Magazine.
Moore and her husband married on Oct. 14, creating a blended family that includes her 17-year-old son who is a senior at Plano West High School, a 20-year-old daughter attending Texas Tech University, a 29-year-old stepson and a 32-year-old stepdaughter.
Moore, who calls herself a “lifer” at Strasburger, joined the firm in 1992 as a general litigation lawyer and later specialized in employment law.
Moore spoke with the Fort Worth Business Press about her new assignment.
What is your favorite part about your new role?
My favorite part so far has been the opportunity to interact with more of the folks in my office. We are going to do some new things, [and do] some things differently. It gives me some chance to implement some strategic initiatives and work with folks at all levels in a more strategic manner and inject some of what I’m going to call new energy into some of the things we’re doing, and to rethink how we were doing some of the things that we’ve been doing.
Like in anything, you get used to doing things one way, and sometimes that’s comfortable, and it’s giving us the opportunity to say, “Let’s take a moment and pause and be thoughtful about how we are spending our time and money,” and also, “Can we put together a strategic plan and work together more and be a little more collaborative.”
How is this role different your previous work?
I’m still the industry team leader for Labor and Employment. We still do our things together as an industry team and that’s a group of employment leaders in different offices. That’s a great fun group also, but this is focused on lawyers in one office. What’s different about that is that instead of a group all doing one kind of law, one thing where we can kind of plan seminars around, with the one office, everybody is doing different things. It’s a way to work with folks differently, but not just the lawyers. I get to work with all different kinds of staff, so it’s just a little bit more of a diverse role.
How have you seen the legal industry in North Texas progress in diversity since you began practicing law?
I started in 1992 when there were certainly women and great women mentors, but at that time women didn’t wear pantsuits to work. I remember that vividly. Now, there are at least as many women as men attorneys in our offices. I have as many female clients as I do male clients. The diversity has become an amazing transformation to see, and not just male-female diversity, but all kinds of diversity, and it is a wonderful thing because it makes us all better.
How does it feel to be named one of the best lawyers in America and Dallas?
I always feel very blessed and grateful when others think I am good at my craft. I wanted to be a lawyer since I was in a mock trial in high school, and so I feel quite honored that I still get to do this.
I was just in a government class in high school and [my teacher] sent us to the SMU law school to do research. Only four of us did it in that class and three of us became lawyers, so I think he must have known, “These guys are sort of destined for this.”
How does it feel to be one of the first women in North Texas in your position as partner in charge and the second at your firm?
I hope gender is not an issue. I’m certainly honored to get this opportunity within the firm and I hope others are selected in their firm, but I hope that gender doesn’t make it so that I get the opportunity or so someone doesn’t get the opportunity. I want that to stop being a factor.
Any advice for aspiring lawyers?
I would say, if it’s what you want to do, then absolutely go for it.
It’s one of those things where when that sort of clicked for me, I was sort of relentless and that was a passion that I found and I’m really glad I followed it because, like with anything that you want, sometimes it becomes difficult. But … I would still encourage people that if that’s what they want to do, they should pursue it.
One thing I would say is I had some great mentors. And I would say for people to find some great mentors, both male and female. They really, really inspired me and lit the way and enabled me to do this and made this such a happy journey.
Any other comments?
I’m so blessed that I get to work in a great place with great people. It’s because of these other people that have boosted me up and taught me things I didn’t know that [I’m where I am]. And maybe it’s because I feel like I was never the smartest and I had to work hard. But it was because people believed I could do it, and that just feels so good, because I know some places aren’t like that.