State Bar of Texas Blog : State Bar of Texas Blog : News & Features on Lawyers & Attorneys & Legal Professionals in Austin, Dallas, Houston & TX

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Transition to Practice — Read about the State Bar's new mentoring initiative for local bar associations. Also included is best practice advice from Texas lawyers for changing times.

Transition from Transitive — Robert Fugate advises translating Latin phrases as part of an article on defining terms of art in legal writing.

Seizing Life — Plano lawyer Jeff Bray recounts his battle with cancer and the life lessons he's learned in "Don't Assume You Have Tomorrow to Get the Big Things Done."

Profiles — Texas lawyers take their passions seriously, as you'll see from stories about Hans Heppe, who has helped create a German-immersion school in Dallas, and Roberta Shaffer, who has been appointed Law Librarian of Congress.

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The Texas Board of Legal Specialization (TBLS) will hold a hearing in Austin on Sept. 30, 2009, to gather public comment on proposed changes to certification standards covering personal injury trial law, civil trial law, and labor and employment law.

TBLS certifies attorneys and paralegals through a voluntary program which requires that they meet certain standards regarding length of practice, experience, and knowledge in their chosen practice areas. Those who meet the criteria are designated "board certified" by TBLS.

In the areas of personal injury trial law and civil trial law, proposed changes cover the definition of a "trial" in the standards and adjustments to the amount of trial experience an attorney must have to be certified. The labor and employment changes require that an applicant maintain a certain amount of his or her practice in Texas.

TBLS director Gary McNeil related that initial feedback regarding proposed changes to the trial standards involves concerns that trial experience is harder to obtain because fewer and fewer cases are tried before juries. After public input is received, the Texas Board of Legal Specialization is expected to submit final proposed changes to the Supreme Court of Texas late this fall.

Click here to read the proposed changes, and visit TBLS.org for more information about specialty certification.

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Legislative Update — Royce Poinsett provides an overview of the 81st Texas Legislature and how it may affect Texas lawyers, from the revised franchise tax to the fate of the "Pork Chopper Bill." For updates on specific areas of practice, from Criminal Law to Insurance Law, click here.

Lawyers, Laptops, and the Border — Odean Volker discusses electronic searches and seizures and their implications on attorney-client privilege. Learn what you should say if a customs official seeks to inspect electronically stored privileged documents.

Annual Meeting Coverage — Read how State Bar President Harper Estes nearly stole the show from musician Charlie Robison, Justice Antonin Scalia's linguistic pet peeves, and Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Doris Kearns Goodwin's awkward picnic with her former boss, LBJ.

Profiles — Texas lawyers are really into their hobbies, as you'll see from stories about Kent Durham, part of a three-generation trick-roping family, and Rick Evans, a telecommuting steamship captain.

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Yesterday the American Bar Association announced it had filed suit seeking to bar the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) from applying the Red Flags Rule to lawyers. The Red Flags Rule requires "creditors" and "financial institutions" with covered accounts to implement programs to identify, detect, and respond to warning signs of identity theft. There has been some confusion regarding which businesses the rule does and does not apply to.

In late July, the FTC delayed enforcement of the rule until Nov. 1, 2009, and indicated in a press release that it would soon provide additional guidance regarding how to determine whether the rule applies to a particular business.

The ABA claims that:

"the FTC has failed 'to articulate, among other things: a rational connection between the practice of law and identity theft; an explanation of how the manner in which lawyers bill their clients can be considered an extension of credit under the FACTA; or any legally supportable basis for application of the Red Flags Rule to lawyers engaged in the practice of law.'"

For more on the suit, see the ABA's press release and this report by the National Law Journal.

For details on the Red Flags Rule, see the FTC's How-To Guide for Business.

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"Scumbag Billionaire" is the title of the 24th Bar None variety show, where Dallas-area attorneys, judges, paralegals, and other legal professionals prove each year that the legal profession has plenty of humor and creative talent.

This year's show runs June 17-20 at the Greer Garson Theatre on the SMU campus. All proceeds benefit Sarah T. Hughes Diversity Scholarships at the Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law, for which Bar None has raised more than $1.1 million over the years.

For tickets, visit BarNoneShow.com

Check out these videos of past Bar None performances: 

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