INSIDERS

Harriet E. Miers

The Attorney



From high atop the 36th floor of RepublicBank Tower, Harriet Miers pores over stacks of papers concerning the details of various clients who are involved in commercial litigation. She admits that the work can be tedious, but she says it’s always interesting. In one case, she learned everything she ever wanted to know about the meat-packaging industry. On other occasions, she’s studied real estate or oil and gas.

The 1970 graduate of Southern Methodist University Law School is soft-spoken and rather modest about her accomplishments as the first woman attorney ever hired by the law firm of Locke, Purnell, Boren, Laney & Neely in 1972. And after her 12th year with the Dallas Bar Association, she’ll be the first woman to be president of the 5,000-member organization next year.

“I’ve been really encouraged by everybody’s response. People are excited that I’m going to be doing this. That’s neat for me personally. The bar association is a wonderful organization, and, obviously, to be its president is quite significant to me,” Miers says. “I go across the country to state and American Bar Association meetings and frequently hear comments that the Dallas Bar Association is well-recognized as an active, successful organization.”

Although Miers, 39, has held every position on the board of the bar association and has been a member of several sub-committees, she says that educating the public about the law is where she hopes the bar will continue to excel.

“If people understand the system, then they will have a better appreciation of why things are the way they are and why they have to be the way they are,” she says. “Those programs begin in grade school and continue through high school. We are beginning some activities in the area of adult education, but I’d like to see us do more.”

Interestingly, Miers makes light of the fact that she will be the first woman to head the Dallas Bar Association. She says it’s becoming less and less significant to note whether a lawyer is a man or a woman. “Now it’s a frequent occurrence that three of the four parties [in court] will be represented by women lawyers. That’s exciting, but I really don’t make note of it. You may still have a comment made once in awhile, but it’s very infrequent.”



David L. Boyett

The Beer Distributor

David L. Boyett used to spend his high school summers working at S.H. Lynch & Co., a mercantile business that handled everything from Edison phonographs to English china and Rolls-Royce automobiles. His grandfather, Silas H. Lynch, started the company in 1932 and later added beer (Grand Prize and Schlitz) to his list of products.

It really never entered Boy-ett’s mind that he might someday come back to the business as its president. “I knew I wanted to be in Dallas, but I was concerned about having to work in a family business and having the pressures and self-doubts that are put on you. My biggest question was whether I would have accomplished what my grandfather accomplished in his business on my own. So I spent eight years doing other things. What necessitated my coming back here was my grandfather’s death, and there really wasn’t anybody else in the business who is part of the family to be involved here. We had this asset, and as a distributorship, it’s fragile. Your assets are the products that you carry and your relationship with your manufacturers.”

After graduating from Southern Methodist University with a degree in marketing, he worked for the New York advertising firm of Wells, Rich & Greene. He later returned to Dallas to join The Richards Group of Dallas. During that time, Boyett had become familiar with developing marketing plans for several products, including beer.

When Boyett did come back, the transition was easier than he thought it might be. The company he left as a young man had grown quite a bit when he returned in 1980. The offices and warehouses of S.H. Lynch are at the corner of Gaston and Oakland streets in Deep Ellum. Now, the company primarily distributes beer, including Stroh’s (The Stroh Brewing Co. purchased the Jos. Schlitz Brewing Co. in 1983), Schlitz, Schaeffer, Heineken, Moosehead, Old Milwaukee, Carta Blanca, Cerveza Tecate, as well as Adidas sportswear.

Some people have an image of Boyett taking a few laps around the track in his Adidas tennis shoes and then trekking back to the house to pop the top on his favorite cold brew. “People do tease me about the beer and tennis shoes,” he says with a smile. “I do run. I run in Adidas, and I drink beer. But I I think the reason we diverted, if you will, from the beer path is that our beer business was doing fairly well and we had an opportunity to get into the Adidas business. It has been fun and different, but it has a lot of drawbacks. With the beer, we load the trucks up, deliver the beer and get paid in cash. The feedback is immediate.”

Boyett says he’s going to concentrate on increasing his distribution of Stroh’s beer, since the competition in Dallas is tough. But he doesn’t let that interfere with his civic duties. Boyett, 34, is vice president of Hope Cottage, a board member of the Dallas Restaurant Association, a member of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra Guild and a past participant in Leadership Dallas.

Anita Nanez Martinez

The Volunteer

It’s been 11 years since Anita Nanez Martinez left her seat on the Dallas City Council. But it hasn’t been so long that Dallas-ites have forgotten that in 1969 she was first Hispanic on the Council-and the only woman.

Martinez was known as a doer. Her reputation hasn’t changed. From 1973 to 1975, she served on the National Voluntary Service Advisory Council and helped evaluate overseas Peace Corps programs. In 1979, she was appointed by former Gov. Bill Clements to serve on the Texas Hispanic Business Leaders Committee. Last year, she was a Texas candidate for the position of U.S. treasurer. She recently served as president of the Walnut Hill Homeowners Association and continues to raise funds for TACA, which benefits the performing arts of Dallas. In August, she was awarded a certificate of appreciation for her volunteer efforts from Gov. Mark White.

All of these commitments have kept Martinez, 59, busy, but none so much as the one dearest to her heart. She is founder and president of the Friends of Anita Nanez Martinez Recreation Center Inc., which raises funds for West Dallas park projects in low-income neighborhoods.

The center’s focus is on the Folklorico Dancers, a group of young people who study native Hispanic dances and perform throughout Texas, the Southwest and Mexico. Martinez says that the development of programs at the 10-year-old recreation center and the promotion of the Folklorico Dancers is a full-time volunteer job.

Last July, she led a 25-mem-ber group (including 17 Folklorico Dancers) to Mexico City to perform in the Guelaguetza, a celebration which means “deep friendship.”

The event drew 85,000 spectators who watched the Fblldor-ico Dancers and seven other groups perform dances depicting the culture, history and geography of the Mexican region. The Folklorico Dancers were also invited to appear on Hoy Mismo (Mexico’s version of the Today Show). “It was wonderful for the children to experience being on the program, since they were working with real professionals,” Martinez says. “We came to Mexico to tell them we are very proud of our heritage and that we are continuing the traditions with our dances. And now we want them to come to Dallas.”