Texas Border Business
AUSTIN – Attorney General Ken Paxton has appointed Austin Kinghorn as Deputy Attorney General for Civil Litigation, Ryan Walters as the Deputy Attorney General for Legal Strategy, and Billy Cole as Principal Deputy Solicitor General.
“Austin Kinghorn, Ryan Walters, and Billy Cole have been indispensable members of my team for years and have spearheaded many of our important litigation matters,” said Attorney General Paxton. “They have helped deliver victory after victory for Texas and I am confident they will continue serving the people of Texas with excellence in the new roles.”
Austin Kinghorn, Deputy Attorney General for Civil Litigation
Mr. Kinghorn 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 D. Walters, Deputy Attorney General for Legal Strategy
Ryan Walters 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 Ohio State University and holds law degrees from the University of Michigan Law School and the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law.
Billy Cole, Principal Deputy Solicitor General
Mr. Cole joined the Office of the Attorney General in April 2021 as an Assistant Solicitor General and he promoted to Deputy Solicitor General in February 2024. During his time in the Solicitor General Division, he has successfully handled some of most consequential legal issues facing Texas. Mr. Cole has argued more than a dozen appeals, including in the U.S Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, the Texas Supreme Court, and soon the U.S. Supreme Court. Previously, Mr. Cole practiced in the Appellate & Constitutional Law and Class Actions practice groups at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP. He began his career clerking for the Honorable Edith H. Jones of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and obtained his J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School and his undergraduate degree from Pepperdine University.
