Local attorney, David Starnes will be the keynote speaker for the annual Constitution Day conference scheduled for Tuesday, September 16, at 7:30 p.m. in the Lamar Institute of Technology Multipurpose Center auditorium. He is the lead attorney on the Kountze Cheerleaders’ case against the Kountze Independent School Board, which is pending before the Texas Supreme Court.

Starnes has been in private practice in Beaumont since 1984. He has concentrated his practice in the area of civil litigation with primary emphasis in personal injury and insurance disputes. He is board certified in both personal injury trial law and civil trial law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. He earned his bachelor of arts degree with a double major in political science and business administration from Austin College in 1981, and his doctor of jurisprudence from Texas Tech University School of Law in 1984. He served as an associate editor of the Texas Tech Law Review and a member of the Board of Barristers.

Starnes is admitted to practice before the U.S. Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit, and the U.S. District Courts for the Eastern, Southern, Northern, and Western Districts of Texas. He served as chair of the Board of the Texas Young Lawyers Association and on the Administration of the Rules of Evidence Committee of the State Bar of Texas. He is a life fellow of the Texas Bar Foundation.

He is married to lifelong Beaumont resident, Peggy Shelton Starnes. Together they have three daughters, two of which are cheerleaders.