(Courtesy Art)
By Dan Henson
Reporter
He lives in Dallas now, but his legacy remains with Baylor.
Currently a successful lawyer in Dallas, 27-year-old Hunter Lewis liked Baylor so much he spent years here and remains involved as an alum.
Lewis earned a Bachelor of Arts in Communications from Baylor University in 2007, and graduated from Baylor Law School with a Juris-Doctor in 2010.
During his time as an undergraduate in the fall of 2005, Lewis helped found the Pi Kappa Phi fraternity Theta Kappa chapter at Baylor, making it the first chapter to be colonized after the centennial celebration of the fraternity.
“I wanted to be part of something new and different,” Lewis said, as he praised the fraternity’s social element, service-oriented, Christian background.
Thanks to his work, along with that of his fellow founding members, the Pi Kappa Phi fraternity Theta Kappa chapter now boasts over 70 members.
“He was a good ambassador for Pi Kapp and Baylor,” Ryan Ruska, fellow Pi Kappa Phi fraternity Theta Kappa chapter alumni and friend of Lewis, said.
Lewis was also a member of the Baylor Student Congress during his freshman and sophomore years, and after the organization’s name was changed to the Baylor Student Senate, he served as a student senator during his junior and senior years.
Lewis was also a member of the Baylor Ambassadors, who are responsible for assisting Baylor in lobbying its local, state and federal officials as well as hosting public officials that visit Baylor.
As a Baylor Ambassador, he lobbied the Texas Equalization Grant before both houses of the Texas State Legislature, to provide scholarship money for students in private schools.
After getting his undergraduate degree and beginning his career as a law student at Baylor Law School in the spring of 2008, he joined the Phi Alpha Delta Pre-Law Society.
After graduating law school and spending a few years working as a family lawyer in Dallas, he wound up at Kinser & Bates, L.L.P., where he currently practices matrimonial law exclusively. Kinser & Bates L.L.P. focuses on such family law matters as divorce, prenuptial agreements, and child support, among others.
Lewis has co-authored several articles in his professional career. Most notably, Lewis co-authored the “Evolution of Texas Property Law” with his boss Katherine A. Kinser. In this article, Lewis helped explain the evolution of property laws in Texas over the last 50 years, which saw many changes, including Texas becoming a no-fault state in divorce cases —a factor that affects his own practice.
In addition to his career as a lawyer, Lewis is an active member of several professional associations including the Dallas Bar Association, The Dallas Association of Young Lawyers, the Annette Stewart Inn of Court, The Dervish Club and the Royal Order of La Fiesta.
Lewis has made sure to stay very involved with Baylor as an alum as well. He often returns to Waco to watch football games and to reconnect with his friends in the Baylor community. Lewis and Ruska have season tickets to Baylor’s football games.
“We just have fun coming back,” Ruska said.
He is also still very involved with the Pi Kappa Phi fraternity. Lewis is the Chapter Advisor for the Pi Kappa Phi fraternity chapter at the University of North Texas, and he still comes back to Waco and works with the Pi Kappa Phi fraternity Theta Kappa Alumni chapter as a member of its Board of Directors.
“His passion for Pi Kapp and Baylor are unmatched by anyone I have ever seen,” Ruska said.
He was one of the founding members of the Baylor Law School Alumni Association Steering Committee in Dallas, which he described as a really good way to keep the Baylor Law community connected.
More recently, Lewis has joined the Baylor Young Professionals program in Dallas, with which he said that he is seeing a lot of promise. This program helps graduates from 10 to 15 years out of college mix, mingle and build connections.
“What we aim to accomplish network-wide is that every Baylor alum has a chance to plug back into Baylor,” Derek Stephens, Assistant Director of Young Graduates and Online Communities, said.
