Tempesta, Deborah

Dana Kirkpatrick received her law degree from the University of Houston Law Center with honors in 1995 and a B.B.A. in Finance from the University of Houston Central Campus in 1988.

Dana is a business lawyer with more than 15 years of diverse legal experience gained from her roles in private and corporate practice.  During her varied career, she has assisted her clients with their commercial transactional and litigation needs.

Dana served as General Counsel for a small publicly held information technology company. In this role, she managed all aspects of the legal function for the company and its wholly owned subsidiary. Among her accomplishments, she structured and standardized policies and agreements, handled acquisitions and divestitures, and reviewed and drafted contracts including employment, lease, master services, and other agreements.  As the company’s first General Counsel, Dana also developed and maintained the corporate structure and served as the corporate secretary. She supervised outside counsel and advised the executive management team to ensure that the company’s legal rights were maintained. 

Dana began her legal career as an associate with Hirsch, Robinson, Sheiness & Glover, PC as a commercial litigator.  When the firm dissolved, Dana accompanied several shareholders and associates to Chamberlain, Hrdlicka, White, Williams and Martin where she continued to gain valuable experience as a commercial litigator and transactional attorney.  Her transactional experience included drafting security agreements for an asset-based lender in business-related loans, reviewing security agreements for compliance with federal and state credit laws, drafting original and amended articles of incorporation, director and shareholder resolutions, bylaws, lien notices, and lien releases, and representing medium-sized corporate clients with corporate organizational matters.  Her litigation experience included drafting petitions and motions for commercial and bankruptcy related proceedings including motions for summary judgment, motions to remove, motions to lift stay, and objections to discharge; preparing discovery requests, objections and responses. Dana authored a federal appellate brief regarding Texas contract construction with respect to notes and guaranties to a successful outcome for her client.

Dana also served as an intern to the Honorable William Greendyke in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas, Houston Division.

Dana currently serves as the de facto outside general counsel for a variety of small to mid size emerging and privately held entities handling all their business transactional and litigation needs.  Dana’s litigation background provides invaluable insight to her transactional practice.    Most recently, Dana is engaging in small estate planning, will drafting and probate.

Dana is married and has three children.  Dana is an active volunteer at school, church and the community, and she currently sits on the board of two non-profit companies.