Nina Cortell currently serves as a Partner at Haynes and Boone LLP, an international corporate law firm. For almost four decades, Nina has represented corporations, public entities and individuals in cases that have put her at the forefront of the Texas litigation practice. Chambers USA (Chambers & Partners 2016-2018) notes her “superlative reputation” and ranks her among the top appellate lawyers in Texas and Benchmark Litigation notes her expertise “as it relates to trial, appellate, and crisis management,” quoting a competitor who calls her “one of the top two or three in the state.”  She has also been named several times as one of the top ten lawyers in Texas by Texas Super Lawyers, and by Texas Lawyer as one of twenty “Winning Women” across Texas who “have achieved significant recent victories as well as a track record of wins in which they prevailed in high-stakes cases.”

Nina’s record includes significant victories in both state and federal appellate courts, as well as in trial courts. Recent examples include the voiding of a $29 million liquidated damage provision in the Texas Supreme Court, affirmance of $3.6 billion plan of reorganization in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, reversal of a highly contested venue order in the Dallas Court of Appeals, and dismissal of a shareholder derivative suit in the trial court.

Cortell also places a high priority on community service. She is proud of her role as a co-founder of the Center for Women in Law at the University of Texas School of Law. Nina works actively with the judiciary to improve the judicial process. Her current work includes her service on the prestigious Texas Supreme Court Advisory Committee, which is comprised of judges and attorneys from across the state and advises the Court in connection with its rule-making authority. Nina previously served as President of the Alumni Association and President of the Texas Law Review Association.

For her community service and legal success, Nina is honored to have received the 2016 Greg Coleman Outstanding Appellate Lawyer Award from the Texas Bar Foundation, the 2013 Jack Pope Professionalism Award from the Texas Center for Legal Ethics (given annually to one lawyer who personifies the highest standards of professionalism and integrity in the field of law), the 2012 University of Texas School of Law Distinguished Alumnus Award for Community Service, and the 1999 Louise B. Raggio Award for significant contributions toward the advancement of women in the legal profession.

She is married to Dr. Robert L. Fine and has three daughters, Dr. Lauren Cortell Fine, Rachel Moreland, and Rebecca Fine (UT Law ’16).