When Macey Reasoner Stokes showed up in 1993 to interview for a clerkship with Tom Phillips, the then-chief justice of the Texas Supreme Court already knew who she was.

Stokes, 47, is the daughter of former Vinson & Elkins managing partner Harry Reasoner and granddaughter of noted University of Texas law school professor Gus Hodges. But that’s not exactly why Phillips took notice of Stokes.