Patrick Keel has mediated and arbitrated hundreds of disputes, including those
involving commercial contracts, family law, construction contracts, employment law,
trade secrets, real estate, class actions, administrative law, probate, defamation,
and personal injury claims.  He is also a lecturer on Advanced Civil Litigation at the
University of Texas School of Law.

Keel served as Judge of the 345th District Court of Travis County from January 2003
to December 2004.  Before his appointment to the court, Keel practiced commercial
litigation for thirteen years with Baker Botts L.L.P. in Austin, where he was a partner
in the firm's trial department.  As a litigator, Keel represented a variety of individual
and corporate clients in numerous trials, hearings, mediations, arbitrations, and appeals,
including a case before the United States Supreme Court, in which his client prevailed
on a 5-4 vote.

Keel is a member of the State Bar of Texas, the Austin Bar Association, and the
American Bar Association.  He is also a Life Fellow of the Texas Bar Foundation,
a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation, a Founding Life Fellow of the Austin Bar
Foundation, and master and former president of the Robert W. Calvert American
Inn of Court.

Keel is a director and immediate past president of the Dispute Resolution Center,
an independent, non-profit organization that provides dispute resolution services in
central Texas, and is a director of the Texas Lyceum Association, a bi-partisan,
non-profit organization devoted to developing the next generation of leadership in
Texas.

As a lawyer and as a mediator, Keel has been active in Volunteer Legal Services
of Central Texas, a non-profit organization that provides legal services to low-income
persons.  Since 1995, Keel has served as an advisory director to People Against
Violent Crime, a non-profit agency that assists crime victims and their families.  He
currently volunteers as a reader for Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic.

In 1995, then-Governor George W. Bush appointed Keel to the Texas Commission
on Jail Standards, the state agency responsible for setting and enforcing minimum
standards for county jails.  After confirmation by the Texas Senate, Keel served as a
Commissioner for seven years.

Keel obtained his B.A. degree in Economics from the University of Texas at Austin in
1986.  He graduated from UT School of Law in 1989, with honors.  During college,
Keel was elected to the Lake Travis ISD Board of Trustees, where he served until 1988.

In addition to the state courts of Texas, Keel is admitted to practice before the
United States Supreme Court, the U.S. Court of Appeals of the Fifth Circuit, the
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, and the U.S. District Courts for the
Western and Southern Districts of Texas.

Keel was born in Austin in 1964.  He is a fifth-generation Austinite and sixth in a family
of seven children.