RICHMOND, Texas – Fort Bend County Commissioners Court is expected to have the votes Thursday to create a new “Legal Department, Civil Division” under its own direct authority, a move that would transfer non-litigation legal work, along with attorney and support staff positions and their associated funding, out of County Attorney Bridgette Smith-Lawson’s office.
The proposal, listed as Item 30B on Thursday’s agenda, asks the court to “take all appropriate action for Fiscal Year 2027 to establish a Legal Department, Civil Division, as a separate County department under the authority and direction of Commissioners Court to provide non-litigation civil legal services and support to Fort Bend County,” and to “transfer attorney and support staff positions and associated funding and resources” to the new department.
The measure is the latest turn in a monthslong power struggle between the Republican-controlled Commissioners Court and Smith-Lawson, the county’s independently elected top civil and criminal attorney, that has already produced dueling lawsuits, a quo warranto challenge to Interim County Judge Daniel Wong’s authority to hold office, and a 2025 decision by the court to pay outside counsel to evaluate the limits of Smith-Lawson’s authority.
What the item would do
According to county officials familiar with the reorganization, creating a separate civil division under Commissioners Court’s direct control would mean the budget tied to those functions moves with them. Should the court transfer everything eligible for transfer, the County Attorney’s Office would be left primarily with Smith-Lawson herself and the attorneys who handle litigation, the office’s courtroom function, rather than its broader advisory and non-litigation civil work.
Supporters of the change note that Fort Bend would not be the first Texas county to structure its legal services this way. Williamson County shifted non-litigation civil legal work out of its county attorney’s office years ago, and in a number of Texas counties, the county attorney has never handled those functions at all, and in many of those counties, the county attorney does not regularly appear before Commissioners Court.
The legal backdrop
The push follows Texas Attorney General Opinion KP-0504, issued after state Rep. Gary Gates asked whether Commissioners Court had authority to hire outside counsel for election-precinct redistricting rather than relying on the County Attorney’s Office. The opinion concluded that the court could do so because redistricting under Chapter 42 of the Election Code is a legislative function, not litigation, a distinction Republicans on the court have since pointed to more broadly in arguing that non-litigation civil matters fall within Commissioners Court’s authority rather than the county attorney’s.
That reasoning has already shaped county business. Commissioners Court voted 3-2 in 2025 to hire attorney J. Grady Randle to evaluate the scope of Smith-Lawson’s authority, and Wong has since cited Randle’s advice in defending revisions to the court’s rules of procedure and a new countywide artificial intelligence policy. Democrats on the court, including Commissioners Dexter McCoy and Grady Prestage, have questioned that reliance on outside counsel, and McCoy has argued some of the resulting measures may run afoul of the Texas Open Meetings Act.
Smith-Lawson has said her office is fully equipped to handle the county’s legal work, noting it employs 22 attorneys, and has questioned why taxpayers should fund outside counsel for work her office already performs. She is also currently pursuing a quo warranto action challenging Wong’s authority to serve as interim county judge, a case that grew out of the same 2021 redistricting dispute that has divided the court along partisan lines since Republicans won a 3-2 majority in 2025.
Smith-Lawson calls proposal “political retribution”
Smith-Lawson issued a statement Monday after learning of the item, calling it retaliation rather than an administrative change.
“This is not an administrative change – its blatant political retribution. The County Attorney’s Office exists to provide independent, professional legal advice to Fort Bend County and its elected officials,” Smith-Lawson said. “As soon as I discovered the proposed Commissioners’ Court action, I contacted the all the Commissioners and Interim Appointee Daniel Wong requesting more details and information as none had been shared with me. I have not received an answer or response.”
Smith-Lawson said she believes the proposal is connected to her office’s role in the ongoing dispute over Wong’s authority to serve as county judge.
“I am deeply concerned that this proposal is being advanced in retaliation for my office’s obligation to provide an independent legal opinion regarding the authorities of the County Judge,” she said. “My responsibility is not to provide legal advice that is politically convenient. My responsibility is to provide sound, impartial legal guidance based on the law.”
She noted the office’s statutory history, saying it was “created by statute 37 years ago in its current construct,” and warned that stripping its staff and resources over unwelcome legal advice “sets a dangerous precedent for every elected official, County employees, and every resident of Fort Bend County.”
Smith-Lawson also tied the timing of the proposal to the pending litigation over Wong’s authority.
“This proposal also comes at a time when questions surrounding Mr. Wong’s authority and role in county government remain the subject of active litigation. That makes transparency and adherence to established law more important, not less,” she said. “Fort Bend County residents deserve a government that respects the law, respects the voters who elected their officials, and welcomes independent legal advice, even when that advice is difficult or inconvenient.”
She called on Commissioners Court “to reject any effort to undermine the independence of the County Attorney’s Office and to ensure that any changes to county government are considered openly, transparently, according to the law, and in the best interests of the people we serve.”
Opposition frames the fight in civil rights terms
The proposal has drawn a pointed response from attorney J. Goodwille Pierre, who circulated an open letter this week calling for national attention to the issue. Pierre noted that Smith-Lawson made history in 2020 as the first Black woman elected county attorney in Texas and was reelected without opposition in 2024.
Pierre wrote that if the new division is approved, the restructuring “could substantially strip the elected County Attorney’s Office of personnel, resources, and authority,” leaving Smith-Lawson, in his words, with the title but not the institutional power to serve the public. He framed the dispute as a matter of “democratic accountability, the independence of elected officials, and the treatment of Black women in public leadership,” and called on the media, civil rights leaders and the legal community to press the court for answers on what would be transferred and whether Texas law allows it.
Smith-Lawson sues to block Thursday’s vote
Smith-Lawson has since escalated her opposition from public statements to litigation. She has filed suit against all four Fort Bend County commissioners, seeking to block Thursday’s vote on the new legal department outright.
The lawsuit argues the proposal violates Texas law and cites four decades of court precedent against similar attempts to sideline a county attorney’s office. A hearing on Smith-Lawson’s request for a temporary restraining order is set for Wednesday, one day before commissioners are scheduled to take up Item 30B.
The outcome of Wednesday’s hearing will determine whether Thursday’s vote goes forward as planned. If Smith-Lawson wins a restraining order, the court’s expected majority to approve the new civil division would be put on hold pending further litigation. If she does not, Commissioners Court is expected to proceed with the vote, and the scope of Smith-Lawson’s office heading into Fiscal Year 2027 would remain largely dependent on what the court chooses to transfer.