Texas Department of Insurance (“TDI”) General Counsel Sara Waitt is retiring after 24 years with the agency.
“Sara has been a valued friend and legal colleague for the past two decades,” said Texas Insurance Commissioner David Mattax, who met Ms. Waitt when he was working on insurance issues at the Texas attorney general's office. “She has served both the agency and state extremely well, and I wish her nothing but the best.”
Ms. Waitt joined TDI in 1987 as a law clerk in the liquidation division. She left the agency twice to work at a private law firm. She last returned to TDI in 1999 as the head of legal services and served as general counsel under three insurance commissioners.
TDI Chief Clerk Norma Garcia will become the commissioner's general counsel, and Associate Commissioner Stan Strickland will be the deputy commissioner over the TDI Legal Division.
Ms. Garcia has been a lawyer at TDI since 1998. Before that, she worked in the Office of the Attorney General's Financial Litigation Division. She has a bachelor's degree from Southern Methodist University and a law degree from the University of Texas School of Law.
Mr. Strickland joined TDI as a staff attorney in 1996 and has been serving as head of the legal section since 2011. He serves on the National Association of Insurance Commissioners' cyber security task force. He earned his bachelor's degree from Baylor University and his law degree from South Texas College of Law in Houston.