The story of Linebarger Goggan Blair and Sampson

1976

Recent law school graduate Dale Linebarger and another attorney found a small tax collection firm,Calame Linebarger, in Austin.

1980

San Antonio attorney Oliver Heard and law school buddies Thomas Goggan and Steve Blair starttheir own tax collection firm -- Heard Goggan Blair.

January 1982

New Texas tax law takes effect, which allows private attorneys to collect delinquent taxes andcharge a 15% fee on top of what taxpayers already owe.

1984

Heard and other partners buy a nearly 2,000-acre hunting ranch and name it "3348 Ranch" afterpart of this new tax code.

February 1998

In a surprising twist, bitter rivals Calame Linebarger Graham Pena merge with Heard Goggan BlairWilliams to become the behemoth they are today (from now on, referred to as "Linebarger.")

Source: Houston Business Journal

January 2000

Heard passes away, and "scores of politicians" attend his funeral, according to a local news report.

2001

Expanding its reach across the country, Linebarger begins collecting debtshttp://brooklynatlantis.poly.edu/view_profile.php?userid=27933 for unpaid parking tickets forMiami-Dade County. The firm goes on to collect for everything from traffic citations to domesticviolence fines for many other Florida counties, charging up to a 40% fee. A similar law, in Texas,would allow the firm to tack on a 30% fee for the same kind of debts.

October 2002

Partner Juan Pena and a Linebarger lobbyist are indicted for allegedly bribing council members to

land a contract. Despite proclaiming his innocence in an email to clients, the firm drops Pena'sname, becoming Linebarger Goggan Blair Sampson. Pena eventually pleads guilty to bribery chargesand is sentenced to 30 months in prison.

March 2006

In a major win for the firm, Linebarger is one of three collectors chosen by the Internal RevenueService to go after federal back taxes. Linebarger had spent hundreds of thousands of dollarslobbying for laws -- including the one that allowed the IRS to begin using private collectors. But thecontract would be short-lived, ending around a year later.

IRS offices

Credit: Shutterstock

2006

Partners buy out five of the firm's founders and top partners for between $25 and nearly $60 million

each, according to a lawsuit and interviews with former partners.

July 2008

The Louisiana Supreme Court rules that the high fees charged by Linebarger and other firms thatwere collecting delinquent taxes for the City of New Orleans are unconstitutional.

Louisiana Supreme Court

Credit: Kimberly Vardeman/CC

February 2011

Former Linebarger partners sell 3348 Ranch for more than $1 million. Current owners saymementos from decades of entertaining clients were left behind, including shell casings, dozens ofliquor glasses, steak knives and ranch and client memorabilia.

2014

Top partner DeMetris Sampson retires from the firm. Her retirement comes months before thefederal indictment of Dallas County commissioner John Wiley Price on bribery charges. WhileSampson has not been accused of wrongdoing, her name was mentioned in an FBI search warrant ofPrice's home. Price has entered a not guilty plea and is awaiting trial. Efforts to reach Sampson wereunsuccessful, but her attorney said "her retirement had nothing to do with Price."

Note: Sources http://www.loc.gov/law/ include court records, firm information, media reports andinterviews with former Linebarger partners and others with knowledge of the firm.

http://money.cnn.com/interactive/pf/debt-collector/linebarger-history/