Brief Background: Ed Ishmael is an honors graduate of The University of Texas at Austin with a BA in Education, and attended Texas Tech School of Law where he was on the Law Review and graduated with honors. He then moved to Dallas where he worked for 2 years with Vial, Hamilton, Koch, and Knox in their fidelity and Surety Section, then was hired by Baker and McKenzie, at that time the world’s largest law firm, where for 10 years he practiced international business litigation and insurance defense (Lloyds of London were his primary clients). In 1998, he started a real estate title operation in Dallas that spread to Austin in 2006.