BRENT WEBSTER: First Assistant Attorney General
Brent Webster was appointed by Ken Paxton to be First Assistant Attorney General in 2020. Brent brings leadership experience and an aggressive and strategic approach to litigation.

Prior to joining the Attorney General's Office, Webster served as a criminal prosecutor in Texas for 10 years, also serving as the First Assistant District Attorney in Williamson County. As a Williamson County Assistant District Attorney, he was awarded the “Crime Victim Advocate Hall of Fame Award” for outstanding service to crime victims.

Since leaving the Williamson County District Attorney’s office, Webster has served as a civil litigator and as a criminal defense attorney in private practice. He also served as Chief Operations Officer and General Counsel at a start-up in Austin, rapidly scaling the business.

Webster received his undergraduate education at Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas graduating in 2003, and received his legal education at University of Houston Law Center in 2005. He is licensed to practice law by the state of Texas and is admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court, and the federal district courts in the Western, Southern, and Northern districts of Texas.

RALPH MOLINA: Deputy First Assistant Attorney General 

Ralph Molina was appointed Deputy First Assistant Attorney General. He most recently served as Deputy Attorney General for Legal Strategy, managing the Legal Strategy Division and the Special Litigation Division. In this role, he provided critical guidance and oversight over the most important litigation to the State of Texas. During law school, Mr. Molina clerked in both the General Litigation Division and the Administrative Law Division. After graduating from Yale University and the University of Texas School of Law, he joined the OAG permanently in August 2019, serving in the Special Litigation Division and the General Litigation Division before joining Attorney General Paxton’s executive team as Special Counsel to the First Assistant Attorney General.

LESLEY FRENCH: Chief of Staff

Lesley French, formerly General Counsel and Chief of the General Counsel Division, came to the OAG in 2019 after serving as Deputy Executive Commissioner at the Texas Health and Human Services Commission where she oversaw 40 health programs for the state. She also previously served as legislative director, committee director, and general counsel to several members and committees of the Texas House of Representatives. Lesley graduated from the University of Texas at Austin and earned her law degree from Regent University School of Law.

AARON NIELSON: Solicitor General

Aaron Nielson was appointed by Attorney General Paxton as Solicitor General. Mr. Nielson is taking a  leave of absence from Brigham Young University to serve in this role. Before joining the BYU Law faculty, Mr. Nielson was a partner at Kirkland & Ellis LLP. He also has served as a law clerk to Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr. of the U.S. Supreme Court, Judge Janice Rogers Brown of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, and Judge Jerry E. Smith of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in Houston, Texas.  Mr. Nielson received a J.D. from Harvard Law School, an LL.M from the University of Cambridge, and and an undergraduate degree from the University of Pennsylvania. 

Austin Kinghorn, Deputy Attorney General for Civil Litigation

Austin has been appointed as the Deputy Attorney General for Civil Litigation. Having been with the Office of the Attorney General for more than six years, he previously served as Deputy Attorney General for Legal Strategy, Associate Deputy Attorney General for Legal Counsel, and Chair of the Opinion Committee. Additionally, he acted as the OAG's General Counsel and as a litigator in the Healthcare Program Enforcement Division. Mr. Kinghorn has also served as a staff attorney to two Texas Supreme Court justices and was a commercial litigator in Houston following his service as a law clerk to Justice Jeff Brown, now a U.S. district court judge. Mr. Kinghorn received his J.D. from Baylor Law School and his undergraduate degree from the University of Texas at Austin.

Ryan Walters, Deputy Attorney General for Legal Strategy

Ryan has been promoted to Deputy Attorney General for Legal Strategy. He most recently acted as Associate Deputy Attorney General for Civil Litigation. For the previous four years, Mr. Walters served in the Special Litigation Division—as Special Counsel, Deputy Chief, and eventually Chief. In those positions, he led the Attorney General's most significant litigation against the Biden Administration, including successful challenges to federal rules weakening immigration enforcement and those imposing gender-identity mandates on Texas's workplaces, schools, and hospitals. Prior to his tenure in the Office of the Attorney General, Mr. Walters served as an attorney with the Texas Public Policy Foundation, as an Assistant Attorney General in the Ohio Attorney General’s Office, and as a commercial litigator at two international law firms. He is a graduate of The Ohio State University and holds law degrees from the University of Michigan Law School and the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law.

JOSH RENO: Deputy Attorney General for Criminal Justice

Josh Reno, is a graduate of the Texas Tech School of Law, and serves as Deputy Attorney General for Criminal Justice. Mr. Reno has served as an Assistant District Attorney in Williamson and Lubbock County and, during his time as a Prosecutor, he built a record of outstanding litigation and was awarded Lubbock County District Attorney’s Prosecutor of the Year in 2010. While recently serving in the Travis County District Attorney’s Office with the White Collar Crimes Unit, Mr. Reno was hand-selected to create the Criminal Enterprise and Trafficking Unit. Across the entire state, he has been a strong voice for victims in presenting their cases to juries and prosecuted several cases involving human trafficking, capital murder, sexual assault of a child, and a plethora of other serious crimes.

D. FORREST BRUMBAUGH: Deputy Attorney General for Legal Counsel

Forrest Brumbaugh joined the Texas Attorney General’s Office in July 2022.  Forrest has over 28 years of experience in the private sector. He was named shareholder at one of Texas’s leading law firms, Winstead Sechrest & Minick less than seven years after graduating law school.  In 2004, he became a partner at Fulbright & Jaworski, now Norton Rose Fulbright, one of the 15 largest law firms in the world.  Forrest graduated from University Evansville and earned his J.D. from the University of Virginia.