Commissioners Court Moves Civil Legal Work Out of County Attorney’s Office and Under Its Own Control
The Republican majority on Commissioners Court isn’t getting the legal advice it wants from the County Attorney’s office, so it’s building its own. Commissioners Court voted Thursday to create a new Legal Department – Civil Division, answerable solely to Commissioners Court, moving attorneys, staff and budget out from under County Attorney Bridgette Smith-Lawson, an office that has operated in its current form for 37 years.
The vote passed 3-0, with Interim County Judge Wong, Commissioner Meyers and Commissioner Morales voting in favor.
Outside Counsel Takes Center Stage
Since Republicans gained control of Commissioners Court, outside attorneys have assumed an increasingly prominent role in county government.
In 2025, Commissioners Court voted 3-2 to hire the Randle Law Office to evaluate the authority of Smith-Lawson’s office. Democrats opposed the move, arguing the county was paying private attorneys to examine the authority of an independently elected official despite already maintaining a County Attorney’s Office.
Attorney J. Grady Randle has since become a central figure in several of the county’s highest-profile legal disputes. During recent debate over revisions to Commissioners Court’s Rules of Procedure and a new artificial intelligence policy, Wong repeatedly cited Randle’s legal advice while defending the proposals.
The pattern showed up again this week. When Meyers and Morales needed representation at Wednesday’s TRO hearing, both turned to Randle. Commissioners Prestage and McCoy appeared at the hearing without counsel though reportedly both believed Randle would also represent them. Critics say that pattern, reaching for outside lawyers whenever Smith-Lawson’s advice runs counter to what the majority wants to hear, is exactly what the new department would formalize.
The vote came after a district judge cleared the way for it that morning. District Court Judge Mark Hanna denied Smith-Lawson’s emergency application for a temporary restraining order, which had sought to block the harm she argued would result from the vote on agenda item 30B. Hanna issued the ruling without comment.
The Motion
Meyers, on behalf of the Republican majority, moved to establish the Legal Department Civil Division as a separate county department under Commissioners Court’s authority, effective October 1, 2026. The motion transfers salaries, benefits, funding, equipment and resources for attorney and support-staff positions out of the County Attorney’s budget and into the new department, without interrupting county employment, compensation, benefits or accrued leave for the employees moved. The department will be run by a lead attorney or other person designated by Commissioners Court, reporting directly to the court, and is limited to civil litigation rather than representing the county or its officials.
Nearly Two Hours of Public Comment, Most Opposed
Commissioners Court heard nearly two hours of public comment Thursday afternoon on agenda items 30A and 30B, with most speakers opposing both.
Vicki Kaufman told commissioners the move looked like an attempt to sidestep independent legal advice. “I see you appear to have grown tired of taking the trouble to go out and find and buy legal advice that suits you, so you are proposing to move it in house.,” she said, calling it “yet another poke in the eye to voters.”
LaNetra S. Lary, chief of the General Counsel Division for the County Attorney’s Office, warned against politicizing the office. “The law should not be hijacked by any political party, any administration, because once we lose that rule of law, we lose democracy,” she said. “You create loyalties instead of impartial experts, because that’s what we are.”
Marquette Greene-Scott, an attorney who practices in Fort Bend County and the Democratic nominee for Congressional District 22, framed the move as an attack on elected authority. “We are witnessing a trend where, if the majority of the body doesn’t like the person the voters elected, you override the will of the voters by stripping the elected official of powers bestowed on them by the Texas Constitution,” she said, urging commissioners not to “create this parallel legal office.”
Anna Lykoudis noted Smith-Lawson has now been elected twice, running unopposed the second time, and argued the office’s statutory authority over civil matters is not the commissioners’ to take. “The commissioner’s court does not have the authority to defund the office of the county attorney or interfere with the performance of her statutory duties,” she said, calling the new department a “cherry-picked shadow legal department” that would answer to commissioners instead of the public. “We are watching what workplace retaliation looks like in real time.”
Smith-Lawson’s Objection
Before the vote, Smith-Lawson objected on the record. She said she didn’t learn of the proposal until it was already public, that an email she sent commissioners seeking clarification went unanswered, and that no one had offered data or rationale for the change. “No one has explained to me the justification of this, and no one has given me any data or any rationale for materially altering an office that is 37 years old,” she said. “I object to the vote.”
Michelle Turner, First Assistant County Attorney, told press after Hanna’s ruling that the office is “considering all options.”