 | J. Kent FriedmanChairman of the BoardJoint Appointment - City and CountyOriginally appointed 08/31/2003 Term expires 08/31/2011 |
J. Kent Friedman is the Managing Partner of the Houston office of the law firm Kelly, Hart & Hallman. He also serves as Vice Chairman of the Board and General Counsel of MAXXAM Inc, a diversified, publicly traded holding company with extensive interests in various businesses. He grew up in Biloxi, Mississippi, where he was President of the Mississippi Association of Student Councils. He attended Tulane University, receiving a B.B.A. degree in 1966 and a LL.B. degree in 1967. In addition, he received a LL.M. degree in Taxation from Boston University in 1968. He is married to Dr. Ann Friedman, and has five children, Beth, Alison, Brent, Andrew and Ryan.
Between 1968 and 1982, Kenny practiced law with the firm of Butler, Binion, Rice, Cook & Knapp. On February 1, 1982, he joined with several friends to form the firm formerly known as Mayor, Day, Caldwell & Keeton, L.L.P. He was the firm's managing partner from its formation until 1992. His practice has been primarily in the corporate and tax areas, and he has represented a number of highly successful entrepreneurs. When former Mayor Bob Lanier was elected in 1992, Kenny was the Trustee of the blind trust he established to hold his assets, and for the six years Bob Lanier was the Mayor of Houston, Kenny was in charge of running his various business interests.
He is Chairman of the Board of the Harris County-Houston Sports Authority, which built and is the landlord for the city's three state-of-the art sports venues: Minute Maid Park, Reliant Stadium and the Toyota Center. He is also the President of the Mickey Leland Kibbutzim Internship Foundation, which sends 10 inner-city students to the Holy Land each summer. In addition, he serves on the Advisory Board of the Hermann Park Conservancy, and the Boards of the Harris County Precinct One Street Olympics, the Texas Bowl, and the Leo Baeck Educational Center Foundation. He is a member of the American, Texas and Houston Bar Associations, and a Fellow of the Houston Bar Foundation.
He has previously served as a member of the Board of Regents of Texas Southern University and as a member of the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors of the Houston Symphony. In addition, he has served as Chairman of the Board of Hermann Park Conservancy, Co-Chairman of the Great Houston Inner City Games, President of the Foundation for Jones Hall, President of the Southwest Region of the American Jewish Committee, and Chairman of the Community Relation Council of the Jewish Federation of Greater Houston. He has also served on the Boards of the Houston Area Women's Center, Houston Interfaith Ministries, Anti-Defamation League and Houston Proud.
Among various awards and honors he has received, The Houston Bar Association Auxiliary in 1999 presented Kenny with the "Leon Jaworski Award", which is given annually to that member of the Houston Bar Association who is deemed to have made the most significant contributions to the civic and cultural life of Houston, and the American Jewish Committee has awarded him the "Max Nathan Award", given to a member of the Jewish community who has succeeded in both strengthening the Jewish community as well as building bridges to the larger Houston community.
