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

For Random Profiles, we randomly pick one of our 80,000-plus attorneys, call them, and do a Q&A. We've found that every Texas lawyer has an interesting story. Will yours be next?

Most important career lesson: Integrity matters. Be the same person at home, at work, and in the world. Be consistent.

Bet you didn’t know: I married my high school sweetheart, who was the homecoming queen. We’ve been dating, going steady, broken-up, engaged, or married since she was a sophomore and I was a junior in high school.

Another little known fact: My daughter was homecoming queen 31 years later.

Current Project: Surviving a kitchen remodel.

Favorite TV program: Daily Show

When you are not practicing law, what do you like to do? Drive my Miata, ride my motorcycle, make sawdust.

What do you think is the biggest challenge facing attorneys today? Overcoming the image that we will lie and misrepresent in order to serve our clients.

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 The National Pro Bono Celebration is Oct. 25 to 31, 2009. Each weekday in October, Texas Bar Blog will feature a Texas attorney who provides pro bono services in the community. Without lawyers like these, too many of our most vulnerable citizens would go without legal representation. For more on the national celebration, visit CelebrateProBono.org.

Jim Hunter knows how fortunate he is. As a volunteer with the Cameron County Community Justice Program, he takes on family law cases. A current client is a terminally ill woman whose husband abandoned her and their three children. “When I look at the problems she has, I know that mine pale in comparison,” says Hunter, a partner in Royston Rayzor in the Rio Grande Valley. “As attorneys, we have been blessed with law degrees and great careers — we have a duty to help people.”

Hunter, who practices maritime, commercial and injury litigation, is serving as the 2009–10 president of the Cameron County Bar Association. He says he is using his presidency as a way to get more attorneys in Cameron and Willacy counties on board to do pro bono work. “My mantra this year is to get lawyers to understand how fortunate we are and that we have an obligation not only to our clients and to the public, but to our profession, to improve the perception of lawyers.”

Hunter plugs pro bono wherever he goes and has been successful in recruiting many attorneys to participate in the Community Justice Program. The beauty in the program, he says, lies in the resources offered to volunteer attorneys not familiar with family law. “The nice things about the program is that we have mentors,” he says. “They make it as easy as possible. We have had lawyers who have never taken a family law case and they end up taking more because they have such a wonderful experience in the program.”

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The National Pro Bono Celebration is Oct. 25 to 31, 2009. Each weekday in October, Texas Bar Blog will feature a Texas attorney who provides pro bono services in the community. Without lawyers like these, too many of our most vulnerable citizens would go without legal representation. For more on the national celebration, visit CelebrateProBono.org.

“It feels strange to be recognized for doing something that you should already be doing,” says David Grenardo. “Not much prodding needs to be done. We all just want to help people.”

When Grenardo graduated from Duke Law in North Carolina, he wanted to help people. So, when he began practicing in Los Angeles, he started doing pro bono work with the L.A. County Bar Association. He also worked for The Alliance for Children’s Rights, San Diego Volunteer Lawyer Program, and Harriett Buhai Center for Family Law.

Grenardo is now a senior associate with King & Spalding LLP in Houston and works from Houston with the Texas Civil Rights Project (TCRP) in Austin. He is on the TCRP board, which works with attorneys in private practice on pro bono cases and is currently targeting law firms to get involved. He has received numerous awards for his pro bono efforts, including Texas Civil Rights Project Pro Bono Champion, the State Bar of California Wiley W. Manuel Award, the San Diego Volunteer Lawyer Program Distinguished Service Award, and Harriet Buhai Center for Family Law Pro Bono Panel Volunteer of the Year.

An ex Rice University football player, Grenardo is also on the board of The “R” Association, which helps mentor student-athletes. He tells athletes thinking about becoming attorneys that they have an obligation to help people who can’t help themselves.

Grenardo believes that “what is most important is to do something you’re passionate about – and if you are passionate about something, you can find a way to make it work.” He is passionate about civil rights and first amendment type cases. “Anytime you’re standing up for people who can’t stand up for themselves, that’s a great opportunity. It’s amazing.”

When Grenardo works on his pro bono cases, he feels he is “changing peoples’ lives.” “It’s in the fight; it’s not if you win or lose,” he says. "You take the good, the bad, and do everything you can to help these clients.”

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The National Pro Bono Celebration is Oct. 25 to 31, 2009. Each weekday in October, Texas Bar Blog will feature a Texas attorney who provides pro bono services in the community. Without lawyers like these, too many of our most vulnerable citizens would go without legal representation. For more on the national celebration, visit CelebrateProBono.org.

For Amarillo attorney Chris Wrampelmeier, pro bono work is an imperative. “When you’re given certain blessings, it’s incumbent on you to use them wisely and help other people,” he says.

Wrampelmeier is a family lawyer with Underwood, Wilson, Berry, Stein & Johnson, P.C., where he is a shareholder and responsible for guiding the firm’s associates as they begin their careers. To that end he involves associates in a local legal aid clinic that the firm sponsors, where they gain experience outside their regular practice areas. “I have been pleasantly surprised how, to the man and woman, they thoroughly enjoy working at the clinics and are willing to do it again and again,” he related.

Early in his career, Wrampelmeier became active in the State Bar of Texas Family Law Section, serving as a course director, committee member, and now council member. He combines that service with local pro bono work, including legal clinics where attorneys earn CLE credit by agreeing to take pro bono cases. He says he loves family law, even though he once vowed it was the one area of law he would never practice. “What makes is great is that the people who do family are wonderful, both in Amarillo and around the state,” he says.

Throughout his career Wrampelmeier has handled pro bono cases through Legal Aid of Northwest Texas. The organization named him pro bono attorney of the year in 2001 and 2004.

Wrampelmeier says most of his pro bono clients are very grateful, but receiving thanks is not why he does the work. “Deep in all of our hearts we believe everyone should have the same chance, start at the same line, and pull ahead or fall back due to their own skills or faults - not their economic circumstances,” he says. “Sometimes people just need a level playing field.”

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The National Pro Bono Celebration is Oct. 25 to 31, 2009. Each weekday in October, Texas Bar Blog will feature a Texas attorney who provides pro bono services in the community. Without lawyers like these, too many of our most vulnerable citizens would go without legal representation. For more on the national celebration, visit CelebrateProBono.org.

Ken Fuller has been called a “godsend” to the Dallas Volunteer Attorney Program, and it’s easy to see why. He has devoted at least two days of pro bono services per week through DVAP for the past seven years and has won numerous awards for his efforts, including the State Bar’s Frank J. Scurlock Award and DVAP’s Pro Bono Lawyer of the Year.

The honors are more than justified because Fuller’s contributions run deep. A long-time name partner in Koons, Fuller, Vanden Eykel & Robertson, P.C., Fuller has drawn on his years of family law expertise to become a trusted and invaluable mentor to DVAP’s volunteer and staff attorneys. In 2002, he stepped in as a mentor when the program’s mentor staff attorney resigned, then continued to volunteer in various capacities after a full-time mentoring attorney was hired. DVAP staff members have found that attorneys seem more eager to volunteer when they know Fuller will be on hand to help.

Fuller, who has been board certified in family law since 1975, also works with DVAP’s pro se program, which provides classes for low-income persons to learn how to represent themselves in simple family law matters. He has contributed to the written instructions and has helped update the program’s pleadings. In addition, he assists in training volunteer attorneys through various classes offered through DVAP and does not hesitate to refer pro bono cases, especially more difficult ones, to his colleagues. 

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For Random Profiles, we randomly pick one of our 80,000-plus attorneys, call them, and do a Q&A. We've found that every Texas lawyer has an interesting story. Will yours be next?

Best thing about being a lawyer:  Being paid to argue! Aside from that, the best surprise about the practice of law has been the people. Whether the interaction is with opposing counsel, co-counsel, clients, witnesses, or judges, the opportunity to teach, to learn from, to help and be helped by the people around me makes this profession worthwhile.

Favorite saying/quote:  “We’ll probably find it if we start picking everything up.”

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The National Pro Bono Celebration is Oct. 25 to 31, 2009. Each weekday in October, Texas Bar Blog will feature a Texas attorney who provides pro bono services in the community. Without lawyers like these, too many of our most vulnerable citizens would go without legal representation. For more on the national celebration, visit CelebrateProBono.org.

Ernesto J. Dominguez admits that for a time, he was a lawyer who was too busy to do pro bono work. Then, he read a pro bono article in the Hidalgo County Bar Association newsletter and something clicked. “I used to say, ‘I don’t have time to do pro bono.’ Then I reached a point in my life — professionally and personally — where I felt that I just needed to give back to my profession,” he says. “I also felt (pro bono) was just a good way to assist someone who needs help.”

Dominguez, a partner in the McAllen firm of Orendain & Dominguez, says he learned about the Community Justice Program (CJP), a partnership between Texas RioGrande Legal Aid and the Hidalgo and Cameron county bar associations, through an article in the Hidalgo County Bar Association newsletter. Modeled after the Community Justice Project in San Antonio, the TRLA program focuses on family law cases, helping those in need of divorces. Interested, Dominguez got involved and quickly became immersed in the world of legal aid. (He even served on TRLA’s board of directors from 1998 to 2002.) Dominguez says he was surprised by how easy it was to volunteer. “Volunteering for the Community Justice Program doesn’t take that much time,” he says, adding that TRLA screens cases and prepares divorce petitions before volunteers work on a case. “(TRLA) makes it as easy as possible for the volunteers.”

Last spring, the Texas House of Representatives passed a resolution honoring Dominguez and his pro bono work. In May, the Hidalgo County Bar Association awarded Dominguez its John E. Cook Pro Bono Award. Dominguez says he’s surrounded by fellow lawyers deserving of the honor and is constantly amazed to see attorneys of all ages participate in the CJP. He hopes to see more attorneys step up to serve those in need. “I try to encourage others to participate in pro bono. In one way or another, you should just do something for somebody.” 

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The National Pro Bono Celebration is Oct. 25 to 31, 2009. Each weekday in October, Texas Bar Blog will feature a Texas attorney who provides pro bono services in the community. Without lawyers like these, too many of our most vulnerable citizens would go without legal representation. For more on the national celebration, visit CelebrateProBono.org.

Volunteerism is a family tradition, says Lan Nguyen. “Our parents serve, we serve, and our children will continue to serve since for each of us, a skill was endowed with an expressed obligation to serve.” For instance, shares Nguyen, her sons speak, read, and write five languages and can be found volunteering regularly as translators at several legal clinic workshops sponsored by the Houston Volunteers Lawyers Programs (HVLP).

Nguyen is committed to giving back to a community that gave so much to her family when they first arrived in the U.S. in 1975. “We immigrated to Fairhope, Alabama [from Vietnam] and people were generous with their attitudes and welcome,” says Nguyen, “that was enough to smooth our assimilation process and made that difficult period of our lives easier to handle.”

Many of Nguyen’s cases are handled with the HVLP, however she also handles cases for various local churches, temples and other non-profit groups.

Nguyen is also involved with the Vietnamese LegalLine which she founded in 2001 to help the public get simple legal advice and referrals to helpful resources. The program was established, says Nguyen, because although “Vietnamese immigrants have successfully assimilated into the general community, there are individuals who continue to struggle along the edges of the mainstream community because of the language or cultural barriers.”

Nguyen adds, “To this group of individuals the Vietnamese LegalLine was designed to assist, but to our pleasant delight we have reached more and more individuals even though they were not the ‘intended’ audience.”

Of her pro bono work, Nguyen says, “There are a lot of resources and help available when you are undertaking a pro bono case. Yes, it takes a little time, but the friendships that you make, the goodwill that you create, and the synergy that you contribute will last a lifetime. The returns are priceless.”

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The National Pro Bono Celebration is Oct. 25 to 31, 2009. Each weekday in October, Texas Bar Blog will feature a Texas attorney who provides pro bono services in the community. Without lawyers like these, too many of our most vulnerable citizens would go without legal representation. For more on the national celebration, visit CelebrateProBono.org.

Jeffrey Stocks was reading an article about the South Texas Pro Bono Asylum Representation Project (ProBAR) in the October 2006 Texas Bar Journal and saw a list of upcoming training sessions. One was in Houston at the South Texas College of Law that December. He decided to attend. The next year, he took his first case for ProBAR, an asylum case involving a boy from Guatemala named Darwin (pictured with Stocks). Stocks won the case, earning the boy the opportunity to start anew in the United States.

Since then, Stocks has represented eight unaccompanied children in their asylum and Special Immigrant Juvenile status cases (he’s working on cases seven and eight now). In doing so, he’s had to learn about the intricacies of immigration law and working with clients who have come from situations of domestic violence, abuse, neglect, and abandonment.

“These are all unaccompanied minors,” said Stocks, who is a graduate of South Texas College of Law and CEO and owner of Gen-Tech Construction in Houston. “Many do not have family here or any family at all. It takes a lot of gumption for these kids to leave their country at age 15 and come here.”

To handle ProBAR cases, he commutes to the Rio Grande Valley, where children who have made their way from Central and South America are detained at the border. “There is such a need for volunteer attorneys down there. It’s a more remote location, so they don’t have as many resources,” Stocks said.

The cases can take anywhere from six months to a year to complete, but the benefits more than make up for the long hours or commute time. “It’s very rewarding. I stay in touch with every one of [the children] and encourage them to pursue an education. Three from more recent cases were placed in long-term foster care here in Houston, so I get to see them more often.

“The older I get, the more this kind of work is so important to me. This is very compelling to me. This makes a difference. I’m happy to do it.”

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The National Pro Bono Celebration is Oct. 25 to 31, 2009. Each weekday in October, Texas Bar Blog will feature a Texas attorney who provides pro bono services in the community. Without lawyers like these, too many of our most vulnerable citizens would go without legal representation. For more on the national celebration, visit CelebrateProBono.org.

Harold Graham began his career as an engineer. He got a PhD in Chemical Engineering from Iowa State University, taught chemical engineering at Vanderbilt University, and did international work all over the world. Then many years later, Graham says, his daughter who is also an attorney, persuaded him to get a law degree. Graham began law school when he was 68 years old and graduated when he was 71 as the oldest person to ever graduate from South Texas College of Law in Houston.

In his first year of law school, he started working with Lone Star Legal Aid (LSLA) . He enjoyed the work so much that he stayed. “The people at LSLA are outstanding people,” Graham says. Graham helps LSLA with mediation, working on cases for Harris, Brazoria, and Montgomery counties. The matters range from civil and family law to child protective services mediation and foreclosures. He does about three or four pro bono cases a month for LSLA and about four or five pro bono cases a month for the Dispute Resolution Center of Harris County. Graham recently put together a website for LSLA and wrote the script for its upcoming interactive web application for online bankruptcy and foreclosure filings.

Graham does pro bono work because he has always been a “service-oriented person” and is always for “the underdog.” He has formed a non-profit called Resolution without Litigation which focuses on mediation, working with individuals, churches, and clubs. A couple of months ago, Graham says, he “got a call from a church that had fallen apart and was without a pastor.” They asked him to come up one weekend to Indiana to mediate for them. “Other churches have now used that church’s program as a model.”
 
Graham is a Korean War veteran. He has been married for 57 years and has three children, seven grandchildren, and three great grandchildren. At this point in his life at age 79, Graham says, “I can do whatever I want, and I’m enjoying doing it.”

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The National Pro Bono Celebration is Oct. 25 to 31, 2009. Each weekday in October, the Texas Bar Blog will feature a Texas attorney who provides pro bono services in the community. Without lawyers like these, too many of our most vulnerable citizens would go without legal representation. For more on the national celebration, visit CelebrateProBono.org.

When Mandy Childs was interviewing for an associate position at Jones Day, she wanted to get one thing straight. “I was looking for law firms that honored pro bono work,” Childs says. “One of the first questions I asked was, ‘What kind of pro bono initiatives do you have?’ ” Childs found her dream firm in Jones Day, which she says supports and encourages pro bono work. Jones Day, she says, treats all pro bono cases just as paid cases.

In fact, last year Childs was the firm’s first attorney to participate in the Lend-A-Lawyer program with the Dallas Volunteer Attorney Program, an experience she calls amazing. For three months, the firm “loaned” her to DVAP full-time while she still received her Jones Day salary and benefits. Her time in the program brought her the most rewarding case of her career: helping a mother reunite with her kidnapped son. She was so moved by the experience that she was compelled to help found her firm’s Associate Pro Bono Committee, which pairs associates with partners, to help DVAP staff emergency pro bono cases. “(Jones Day) was immediately on board to take these on,” she says.

Childs, who received her J.D. from Southern Methodist University, co-chairs the 2009–10 Ask-A-Lawyer Committee of the Dallas Association of Young Lawyers. Childs also volunteers as a crisis counselor at the Suicide and Crisis Center of Dallas. “I kind of feel I’m at my best when I’m helping someone who is in crisis,” Child says. “I feel like that is where I shine the most.”

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The National Pro Bono Celebration is Oct. 25 to 31, 2009. Each weekday in October, Texas Bar Blog will feature a Texas attorney who provides pro bono services in the community. Without lawyers like these, too many of our most vulnerable citizens would go without legal representation. For more on the national celebration, visit CelebrateProBono.org.

Herb Everitt strives to handle at least two to three legal aid cases a year. He says he learned in law school that there is a great need for pro bono lawyers. Everitt considers himself a service-oriented person and feels that pro bono is “what lawyers should do.”

Over the years, Everitt has handled numerous pro bono cases and served at many legal aid clinics. He also helps out through his own law practice, working pro bono for clients for whom he sees a need. Everitt served for three years on the board of Legal Aid of Northwest Texas (LANWT) in Amarillo, soliciting volunteer lawyers and raising funds for the clinics. He also volunteered at a legal aid office in Houston for about five years.

Over the past year, Everitt has been working with the LANWT teaching the Do-It-Yourself (DIY) Legal Aid Divorce Clinic, which is held every three months and averages about 10-15 cases each. Volunteer attorneys walk clients through all of the court documents they will need for an uncontested divorce with no children. The goal of the clinic is to ensure clients they have appropriate paperwork when they go to court.

Everitt says he appreciates the State Bar’s Legal Services Fee (LSF) fund that helps raise money for legal services to the poor. Yet his belief is that “if every lawyer would do pro bono, there wouldn’t be a need for the fund.” Everitt also handles a lot of court-appointed criminal and family law cases. He feels that counties should require lawyers to do two pro bono cases in order to be eligible for court-appointed ones.
 

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The National Pro Bono Celebration is Oct. 25 to 31, 2009. Each weekday in October, Texas Bar Blog will feature a Texas attorney who provides pro bono services in the community. Without lawyers like these, too many of our most vulnerable citizens would go without legal representation. For more on the national celebration, visit CelebrateProBono.org.

For family lawyers, “attorney and counselor” requires an emphasis on “counselor,” a role that Sharon Steckler relishes. In her pro bono work this often means giving clients the sense that they deserve better than an abusive relationship.

“Some of them are so beaten down by the abuse that they have no self esteem, so you try to raise them up,” said Steckler.

Steckler recently closed her private practice but is far from retired in any sense. She is an active volunteer with Fort Bend Lawyers Care (FBLC), where she serves as treasurer, answers calls on its LegalLine, and works at the Women’s Legal Forum to counsel battered women on their legal issues and rights.

Steckler also handles complex pro bono cases for FBLC. One of the most rewarding, she recalls, involved a young Nigerian woman whose abusive husband withheld support for her immigration to the United States as a way of controlling her. With Steckler’s help the woman was able to live on her own. The woman’s mother was so appreciative that she made Steckler a Nigerian tribal dress. “I truly treasure that,” said Steckler.

The return she receives from pro bono work is more often not material, but just as gratifying. “The best feeling, particularly with cases that involve spousal or child abuse, is having truly helped someone who without your efforts would be facing a very unfortunate situation,” she said.

Steckler’s outlet from the difficult issues of family law is serving as a judge in dog shows around the country and the world – she was recently invited to judge a show in Australia in 2011. She judges boxers and Doberman pinschers in junior showmanship and serves as treasurer of the American Boxer Club and legal counsel to the American Boxer Charitable Foundation, a 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to researching health issues affecting boxers. “It’s fun,” says Steckler. “A real change of pace.”

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The National Pro Bono Celebration is Oct. 25 to 31, 2009. Each weekday in October, Texas Bar Blog will feature a Texas attorney who provides pro bono services in the community. Without lawyers like these, too many of our most vulnerable citizens would go without legal representation. For more on the national celebration, visit CelebrateProBono.org.

For Beaumont sole practitioner David E. Grove, pro bono work makes up an important part of his practice. He’s volunteered with the Jefferson County Bar Association Foundation’s Pro Bono Program for more than nine years, and this year, the foundation recognized his efforts by presenting him with the Mickey Mehaffy Pro Bono Attorney of the Year award.

His practice focuses mainly on criminal defense along with some family law and mediation work. He usually maintains four to five pro bono cases at a time and sees the work as an opportunity to expand his legal knowledge into new areas as the need arises, just as he did when he first started taking family law pro bono cases.

“Before I was doing more family law [in his practice], pro bono cases gave me a way to do things I hadn’t done before,” Grove said.

Balancing his regular caseload with the pro bono work can be a challenge but Grove seems to take it in stride. “It’s definitely something you have to try to work around,” he said, adding that pro bono cases are like everything else. “Some cases take longer to get through. You just have to balance it.”

In the aftermath of Hurricanes Rita and Ike, Grove and other Jefferson County-area attorneys focused on helping people affected by the natural disasters. The hurricanes provided particular challenges to completing cases, though, due to people being dislocated because of the storms. “It can make it difficult to finalize a case if you can’t find the person.” But the storms also provided opportunities to help in unexpected ways. “We found out that many disaster first responders in our area didn’t have wills, so we had several lawyers doing wills for them.”

It’s this chance to give back to the community that means so much to Grove. “A lot of times the only things people hear about lawyers are the bad things, but there are many things lawyers do to give back to the community. With pro bono work, we just have to keep doing it. The more people you can get involved, the better it’s going to be.”

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The National Pro Bono Celebration is Oct. 25 to 31, 2009. Each weekday in October, the Texas Bar Blog will feature a Texas attorney who provides pro bono services in the community. Without lawyers like these, too many of our most vulnerable citizens would go without legal representation. For more on the national celebration, visit CelebrateProBono.org.

When a Roman Catholic bishop tells you to do something and you’re a young Irish Catholic, you do it. So when Bishop John McCarthy told a young University of Texas law student by the name of Geoffrey Courtney to do pro bono work, Courtney did it. All joking aside, Courtney, an attorney in Clemens & Spencer, P.C. in San Antonio, says McCarthy played a pivotal role in his legal career. McCarthy, he says, led by example. “Bishop McCarthy is totally committed to issues that make a difference in the lives of real people. He understands how a little bit of help can make such a dramatic difference in a person’s life.”

Taking the lead from McCarthy, Courtney takes on five to six pro bono cases at any given time. Most of Courtney’s pro bono cases focus on civil rights and disabilities issues. Courtney approaches pro bono work not as an obligation, but as a challenge and says he has fun working on the cases. “It’s an opportunity to get into an area of the law that you might not otherwise practice in and help make a situation right, or at least better than it was.”

Courtney sits on the board of several public interest organizations, but he’s never strayed far from where his pro bono work started. He has served for more than 10 years as director of legal services for the Diocesan Law Project, founded by Bishop McCarthy in 1990.

The modest Courtney credits his pro bono work not only to McCarthy’s influence, but to the support he receives from his firm. “It’s important to have a firm that believes in the issue, and I am lucky to have partners that appreciate that work.”

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The National Pro Bono Celebration is Oct. 25 to 31, 2009. Each weekday in October, Texas Bar Blog will feature a Texas attorney who provides pro bono services in the community. Without lawyers like these, too many of our most vulnerable citizens would go without legal representation. For more on the national celebration, visit CelebrateProBono.org.

Raquel West is chair of the Jefferson County Bar Association (JCBA) Family Law Section and a solo practitioner. She does pro bono work through the JCBA and Lone Star Legal Aid, the agencies through which pro bono in her area are coordinated. West has never turned down a pro bono case.

West tries to always have one complex pro bono case or several non-complex pro bono cases, so she usually has at least two or three active pro bono cases at a time. Cases include divorces, custody, and protective orders. West is currently working on a national adoption day case, in which a grandmother wants to adopt her grandchildren in coordination with the National Adoption Day ceremonies.

West says she does pro bono because, throughout her years as an attorney, when she goes to court she sees how difficult it is for someone without an attorney to represent themselves. She sees an unfairness and imbalance in that. “Everyone needs representation,” West says. Many times these people are not involved in criminal cases, so they do not qualify for a court-appointed attorney.

West gets great satisfaction in helping pro bono clients because she sees how much they truly appreciate being helped. “It is very rewarding,” says West. Currently, West is working with a ”repeat customer” who still qualifies for legal aid and needed additional help so she came back to request West’s help. West said she finds it extremely rewarding that the client wanted to keep her as her pro bono attorney.

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The National Pro Bono Celebration is Oct. 25 to 31, 2009. Each weekday in October, Texas Bar Blog will feature a Texas attorney who provides pro bono services in the community. Without lawyers like these, too many of our most vulnerable citizens would go without legal representation. For more on the national celebration, visit CelebrateProBono.org.

Once a week, Ryan Solis travels from McAllen to Raymondville to a small office he set up to do pro bono work and meets with as many people as he can in one evening. The cases typically deal with civil litigation, personal injury, commercial disputes and more recently divorce. Solis offers services in Spanish and says that about a third of his cases are with Spanish speaking clients.

Originally from Raymondville, Solis chooses to do pro bono work for residents of Willacy County because growing up there he knew families and friends who lacked the means by which to obtain legal aid. “I saw first hand the urgency and also the lack of resources for legal assistance,” said Solis.

Solis finds it rewarding to help people who are not familiar with the legal system and help put things in perspective for them. There are times when Solis sees a client on more than one occasion. “The people I help may need assistance with a will and then return because they need help with a real estate matter,” said Solis.

When asked what motivates him to do pro bono work Solis said, “It may sound cliché but it’s rewarding in and of itself. I enjoy helping people.” People, he says, who would otherwise not have access to legal aid.

Solis makes his home in McAllen but has a private law practice, Law Office of Ryan C. Solis, in Edinburg. He established his law practice almost a year after graduating from St. Mary’s University School of Law in 2005.

Outside of his practice and pro bono work, Solis is involved with Friends for Hope which is an organization in the upper Rio Grande Valley that raises funds for the Vannie E. Cook Cancer Clinic. He also enjoys spending time in the outdoors with his wife, Rebecca, also an attorney, his sons Tyler, 10 and Asa, 4 and daughter Helena, 20 months. One of his outdoor activities is coaching Asa’s soccer team. “I’m enjoying that very much,” says Solis of his coaching duties, “even though there are times when the boys are interested in everything but what’s going on in the game.”

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The National Pro Bono Celebration is Oct. 25 to 31, 2009. Each weekday in October, Texas Bar Blog will feature a Texas attorney who provides pro bono services in the community. Without lawyers like these, too many of our most vulnerable citizens would go without legal representation. For more on the national celebration, visit CelebrateProBono.org.

Judge Migdalia Lopez of the 197th District Court of  Cameron County has done pro bono work since she began practicing law. Lopez, who has a masters in social work, says the need is always there so it is part of her everyday routine. She was appointed to the Texas Access to Justice Commission (TATJC) from 2004-2007 because of her pro bono work.

Helping children is Judge Lopez’s passion. She is a past chair of the Juvenile Dept. in Cameron County and a former member of the school board. The Governor’s Office recently appointed her to a term on the Juvenile Probation Commission. Lopez believes that more resources should go toward helping juveniles, and that to prevent crime, the starting point is in helping them. Lopez related that she once took three juveniles with her to Corpus Christi to participate in a triathlon, so that they could see that they could accomplish something and be proud of the work they did – and they were.
 
Judge Lopez related that the local legal community is committed to those in need. She often asks local bar associations and individual attorneys for help with pro bono cases, and always gets a great response. She also hears a lot of foreclosure cases, and asks attorneys to help out in cases where she sees a real need.

Lopez is one of the judges for the Cameron County pro bono divorce clinic. They just started their first clinic in Willacy County recently, and she is the only judge for that clinic. The clinics in Willacy are held every third month, and they have 10 to 15 cases every clinic. She says there is a “great need” for pro bono there, and the clinic makes the handling of the cases more efficient.

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The National Pro Bono Celebration is Oct. 25 to 31, 2009. Each weekday in October, Texas Bar Blog will feature a Texas attorney who provides pro bono services in the community. Without lawyers like these, too many of our most vulnerable citizens would go without legal representation. For more on the national celebration, visit CelebrateProBono.org.

Phil Phillips got his start in pro bono work before he was even an attorney. Thirty years ago, as a third-year law student, Phillips went to his local bar association and got his first taste of the real world through pro bono cases. Now, Phil takes about six pro bono family law cases a year, in addition to preparing qualified domestic relation orders (QDROs) for clients of the Law Clinic at Texas Wesleyan School of Law.

Phillips, who’s considered an expert on QDROs in Tarrant County, says he appreciates the pro bono cases that he handles, because unlike some of the cases he handles in his regular practice at the Law Office of Cochran & Phillips in Arlington, his pro bono cases are simple and mostly uncontested.

Phillips, who served on the board of West Texas Legal Services Corp. from 1986 to 1990, says pro bono cases help keep him grounded. “I did get kind of tired of knocked-out, dragged-out custody cases,” he says. “Pro bono work and doing QDROs helped me cope.”

Just as Phillips got a jumpstart on his legal career through pro bono work, he says more law students should take advantage of the opportunities pro bono can provide them. “Too many people are getting out of law school and don’t have the skills and experience that it takes to practice law. But there are a lot of things that law students can do to help licensed attorneys who want to provide legal aid to the poor.” 

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The National Pro Bono Celebration is Oct. 25 to 31, 2009. Each weekday in October, Texas Bar Blog will feature a Texas attorney who provides pro bono services in the community. Without lawyers like these, too many of our most vulnerable citizens would go without legal representation. For more on the national celebration, visit CelebrateProBono.org.

Pro bono work is “life-changing” for clients, says Lisa L. Taylor, a director on the Texas Rio Grande Legal Aid (TRLA) board and past president of the Cameron County Bar Association (CCBA). Lisa became interested in doing pro bono work after finding that the need for decent pro bono service in the Rio Grande Valley was “unfathomable,” especially with the Valley’s proximity to the border of Mexico. She participated in a Community Justice Program (CJP) in Bexar County and liked it. So she helped the Cameron County Bar Association with the founding of their CJP in 2005. The CJP is a night court where attorneys, judges, and other legal professionals come together to help indigent persons with pro bono divorces. The program has handled hundreds of uncontested divorces since its creation.

Before the CJP, according to Taylor, the pro bono program in Cameron County was ineffective. One person was in charge, and there was no screening process. “We were lucky if we got 10 to 15 pro bono cases in a year,” she said. Without a screening process, there were numerous problems and more refusals to clients seeking pro bono. The Cameron County CJP fills the need for help with divorce cases, which TRLA is unable to cover, because it handles mostly emergency and violence-related cases.

The Cameron County CJP is volunteer-only with no funding. The Cameron County Bar Association coordinates groups of volunteers for the clinics. Taylor and her CJP colleagues also ask law firms to participate in certain clinics and provide initial training and mentoring needed for attorney volunteers. The CJP clinics are run by TRLA and the CCBA in the UT-Brownsville building, and they meet every other month, with rotating judges overseeing the clinics. The CJP holds 5 sessions a year and an average of 10-15 cases per session. It recently expanded to Hidalgo and Willacy counties.

Taylor is a former member of the State Bar of Texas Family Law Section council and was on the State Bar of Texas Family Law Section’s Practice Manual and Legislative committees. She received an award for distinguished service, the Cameron County Bar Association Paula Waddle Distinguished Service Award for 2008-2009.

Taylor appreciates being in a position to help and do pro bono work and says the best thing about it is helping clients and encouraging other lawyers to do more pro bono, whether it is volunteering more through the CJP, doing pro bono through their own practices, or spreading the word to other attorneys to do more pro bono.

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For Random Profiles, we randomly pick one of our 80,000-plus attorneys, call them, and do a Q&A. We've found that every Texas lawyer has an interesting story. Will yours be next?

Best thing about being a lawyer: Being involved in the community and making a difference in my client’s lives.

Favorite saying/quote: The minute you settle for less than you deserve, you get even less than you settled for.

Bet you didn’t know: I was a finalist in the Nintendo World Championships when I was much younger. 

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Retired U.S. District Judge Jerry Buchmeyer, who for nearly 30 years compiled the popular humor column et cetera for the Texas Bar Journal, died Monday, Sept. 21, of natural causes. He was 76. He served as chief judge of the Northern District of Texas from 1995 to 2001 and took senior status in 2003 before retiring in 2008.

Judge Buchmeyer received his law degree from the University of Texas School of Law in 1957. He was a partner in the Dallas office of Thompson & Knight, where he worked from 1958 until his appointment to the federal bench by President Jimmy Carter in 1979. That same year, while Judge Buchmeyer was serving as president of the Dallas Bar Association, he began writing the et cetera column for DBA publications. In October 1980, the column first appeared in the Texas Bar Journal, where it quickly became a mainstay. The December 2008 issue paid tribute to Judge Buchmeyer’s many years of service, and readers can still enjoy his columns on the Say What? blog.

Judge Buchmeyer is survived by his sons, Jon Paul Buchmeyer of New York and James Buchmeyer of Dallas; daughters Paige Buchmeyer Brady of Driftwood and Pam Buchmeyer of Dallas; and three grandchildren. Services are pending.

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Education: Southern Methodist University, B. S. Economics, 1990; Syracuse University College of Law, J.D., 1993

Areas of practice: Intellectual property law. My practice focuses on all aspects of business and intellectual. I routinely advise clients on all aspects of the development of a business.

Family: Husband, Randy. Spoiled pets – Scamp and Marilyn.

Favorite music/musician: Steve Vai.

Favorite place to find albums: Vintage music stores or those few places left that actually sell albums and CDs.

Memorable vacation: A week in Cabo San Lucas with the only decision of each day – which pool do I lounge in?

Mentors/heroes: Louise Raggio, whose tireless efforts have paved the way for women’s property rights and the rights of women lawyers in Texas. My grandmother, Grace Dawson, who literally has wrestled more than one alligator to the mat in her day.

Most important career lesson: An attorney must stand on her own two feet. Be diligent in honing your legal careers and stay singularly focused on providing clients with high quality legal services in furtherance of the clients’ goals and desired results. An attorney who delivers quality and results to clients will build long lasting clients relationships that will enable you to pursue your career goals and dreams, whatever those may be.

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For Random Profiles, we randomly pick one of our 80,000-plus attorneys, call them, and do a Q&A. We've found that every Texas lawyer has an interesting story. Will yours be next?

Best thing about being a lawyer: Walking in the courtroom when I know I am prepared and ready to rock and roll.

Bet you didn’t know: My son, Jean-Luc, is a fourth generation only child and was named after Jean-Luc Pickard, the Captain of the Starship Enterprise, Star Trek, The Next Generation.

Another little known fact: My mother told me when I was a young girl that I would be a good attorney.

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Taking the lead of the largest law library in the world, Roberta I. Shaffer will have plenty to keep her busy. Roberta, who is Texas-licensed, was appointed Law Librarian of Congress by Librarian of Congress James H. Billington. Roberta currently is executive director of the Federal Library and Information Center Committee/Federal Library Network, but will begin her new position on Aug. 30.

Shaffer’s excited to start what she calls “a lifelong dream.” She says this is the best time in history to have this particular position. “The collections of the Library of Congress give meaning to the concept of democracy. Join these incomparable collections across all disciplines together with the power of technology, and opportunities have no limits.”

Billington said in a news release that Shaffer brings to the position “both extraordinary vision and demonstrated leadership skills” that will surely serve Congress and the public well. Roberta has an impressive academic background, to boot. She received her J.D. from Tulane University School of Law (graduating cum laude), graduated with highest honors from Emory University with a master’s degree in law librarianship, and graduated cum laude from Vassar College with an A.B. degree in political science/demography.

Roberta taught at several school libraries, including serving as dean and a professor at the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at the University of Texas at Austin from 1999 to 2002. She was director of the University of Houston Law Center’s Legal Communications Program and associate director of the center’s Law and Technology Program.

Though Roberta calls her new position "a big job — Texas-sized, if you will,” she’s looking forward to tackling the challenges that lie ahead, including properly identifying, organizing, and digitizing the Library’s collections, as well as utilizing new sources of information — think blogs, Tweets, and wikis.

Roberta says the Law Library of Congress can serve Texas attorneys well as they deal more and more with foreign businesses. The Law Library of Congress has laws from more than 200 non-U.S. jurisdictions and a legal staff of lawyers from those countries who can assist with language barriers and in finding the correct sources. Further more, Roberta says by studying and comparing our laws with the laws of many other nations, Texas attorneys can find innovative ways to use law to solve the complex issues of our time. 

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For Random Profiles, we randomly pick one of our 80,000-plus attorneys, call them, and do a Q&A. We've found that every Texas lawyer has an interesting story. Will yours be next?

Family: Single, two children, six grandchildren.

Areas of practice: civil trial law/health care law and policy/university teaching.

Education: M.S., J.D. - American University; LL.M. Health Law & Policy Institute - Univ. of Houston Law Center; Ph.D. - UTMB

Bet you didn’t know: I have an interest in end-of-life legal and medical issues; a doctorate with emphasis on bioethics.

Another little known fact: I have a ranch in Wyoming; although I never go, I just love knowing it’s there.

Mentors/heroes: There are so many! Two favorite Lawyers: Mahatma Gandhi & Clarence Darrow & my high school English teacher, Dorothy Waisner, our own “Good Morning Miss Dove.”

Best thing about being a lawyer: So many wonderful things: i.e., meaningful involvement and opportunity to make a difference in peoples lives.

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Emily C. Jones, former director of Texas Lawyers Care, the State Bar’s legal services/pro bono support, and former director of the Texas Access to Justice Commission, passed away early this morning after a five-year battle with multiple myeloma, a form of blood cancer. Known as a feisty and strong-spirited advocate for access to justice initiatives in Texas, Emily committed her entire career to helping low-income Texans gain access to legal assistance. More than that, Emily led by example — even while facing personal health obstacles — inspiring other Texas attorneys to do pro bono work.

Emily began her career as a legal aid attorney, working with East Texas Legal Services right out of law school. She later went into private practice as a civil rights attorney. Emily left law for a while, teaching at the University of Texas at Austin. She joined the State Bar in 1996 as a program attorney with Texas Lawyers Care and became the second executive director of the Texas Access to Justice Commission, which was created by the Supreme Court of Texas in 2001. In addition to her duties as director of the Commission and Texas Lawyers Care, Emily continued taking pro bono cases. She retired as director of Texas Lawyers Care in May 2008 and as director of the Texas Access to Justice Commission in December 2008 due to health reasons. In May, the Texas Access to Justice Commission honored Emily with the inaugural Emily C. Jones Lifetime Achievement Award for her work. The award recognizes an outstanding individual whose extraodinary spirit — like Emily's — and demonstrated commitment to legal services has improved society and inspired others. 

Plans for Emily’s memorial service are pending.

UPDATE: A memorial gathering for Emily will be held at 3 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 22 at the Texas AFL-CIO building (1106 Lavaca St. in Austin, near the corner of Lavaca and 11th streets). For more information, visit Emily's Caring Bridge website at www.caringbridge.org/visit/emilyjones/journal.

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Pete Serrano of Amarillo, a member of the inaugural class of LeadershipSBOT, was killed Sunday in a car accident. He had been at the Local Bar Leaders Conference last week, as a member of the Local Bar Services Committee. Pete was a dedicated attorney committed to professionalism and public service with a bright future ahead. He will be missed.

Amarillo Globe-News memorial

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While thousands of fans around the world are remembering the time they first fell in love with Michael Jackson’s music, Texas attorney Eliot D. Shavin will remember the month he spent on stage with the King of Pop.

In the late 1970s, Shavin had just finished grad school and was biding his time before he entered law school when he received a call from his musician brother about a month-long gig with The Jacksons.

Shavin, a classically trained cellist, didn’t know much about the band he would be touring with, but it paid about $100 a day, so he agreed. “I remember that I had no interest or knowledge of pop music at that time,” says Shavin, a Dallas private practitioner and a lecturer in the Civil Clinic of the Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law’s Clinical Program. “I think that I looked down my nose at pop music at the time, but I really enjoyed playing the music. The music was more challenging than I expected it to be.” The one song that Shavin remembers playing? “Ben,” a song about Michael’s beloved pet rat.

Though Shavin had little interaction with the Jacksons — the family traveled in a separate bus than the backup band — he remembers once tossing a ball around with his brother and Tito. Shavin's closest brush with fame came after a concert in Birmingham. A teenage girl asked Shavin for his autograph after realizing that Shavin would be the closest she’d get to MJ and his siblings. “I remember thinking, “This is pretty cool,’ ” Shavin says with a laugh.

Even though Shavin didn’t appreciate The Jacksons’ music at the time, he now says he realizes the error of his ways. “[The Jacksons] were a talented group of performers — they really did create a sensation. I never really appreciated Michael Jackson until Thriller, but he was really very talented.” 

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For Random Profiles, we randomly pick one of our 80,000-plus attorneys, call them, and do a Q&A. We've found that every Texas lawyer has an interesting story. Will yours be next?

Areas of Practice: Criminal and Family Law.

Most Important Career Lesson: Don't bury your head in the sand.

When you are not practicing law, what do you like to do? Ride on the back of my husband's Harley.

What's the turning point that made you decide to become an attorney? When I saw the movie And Justice For All. It inspired me.

What do you think is the biggest challenge facing attorneys today? Keeping current of changes in the law.

Favorite TV Program: Reality television.

Pet Peeve: Stupid people.

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Professor Richard Beeman, author of Plain, Honest Men: The Making of the American Constitution, spoke on his book before a packed audience Thursday afternoon at the State Bar Annual Meeting that included several current and former State Bar leaders, such as 2007-08 President Gib Walton, as well as Chief Justice Wallace Jefferson and Justice Harriet O'Neill. After a lively Q&A session, Beeman signed copies of his book, which was very well received, judging by the long line.

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During his presentation this morning at the State Bar Annual Meeting in Dallas, Roger Cossack, the legal analyst for ESPN and an Annual Meeting regular, said he learned how to be quick with a quip while working for CNN and ESPN. That skill came in handy this morning when a DVD -- the A/V portion of the presentation -- was a little late in arriving. Joking that he would lock everyone in the room until they had seen the video, Roger then proceeded to entertain a SRO audience with the story of his transition from criminal defense lawyer in Los Angeles to fledgling legal analyst for CNN. The O.J. Simpson trial proved the catalyst as he found himself giving quotes about the trial to the media. He then ended up in an interview with Ted Koppel. "I didn't know anything about the case!" Roger admitted. "But all they wanted to know about was California defense law. That I did know!"

At that point, with the missing DVD in place, Roger used it to show images of how lawyers are portrayed in the movies and on television: "Lawyers are viewed as entertainers." A lawyer doing legal analysis is no different, said Roger. "When I became a legal analyst for CNN during the O.J. Simpson trial, I was unclear on what they wanted me to do because no one had ever done it before." Because he was comfortable talking to juries, he knew he could do the same for a broader audience and convey the legal terminology and concepts in a way viewers would understand. But at first he was admittedly a little "bland" and tried to stay strictly neutral. "I have been on network TV for 15 years now and I've learned legal analysis has to be entertaining -- and I'm not as neutral as I used to be. I will take a stand, get outraged about cases." In his work for ESPN, Roger said the Duke lacrosse team case stands out for the important lesson it taught him. "I came down hard on the team. I believed these students were outta control, but within a week, it was clear there were problems with the case. ... I should have gotten wary at that point. I should have started asking questions earlier. That's at the heart of what a legal analyst does. People believe what I say as an analyst. That's a heady responsibility."

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For Random Profiles, we randomly pick one of our 80,000-plus attorneys, call them, and do a Q&A. We've found that every Texas lawyer has an interesting story. Will yours be next?

Best thing about being a lawyer: Winning custody for pro bono clients.

Who is your favorite on-screen or literary attorney, and why? Paul Newman as Frank Galvin in The Verdict - a great film about personal redemption and winning the right way.

The best piece of advice ever given to you and by whom: “You can always make new friends, but you can’t make old friends.” – my father

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The Tarrant County Bar Association hosted its fundraising event, “The Tarrant County Derby,” at Lone Star Park in Grand Prairie in May and came up with a big winner! Getting into the Kentucky Derby spirit, some of the 150 attendees — both ladies and gents — participated in a Parade of Hats contest in between enjoying, and hopefully winning on, the races and dancing to music from Johnny D and the Doo Wopps. The ladies’ hat contest winner was Jessica Graham and the men’s winner was Cary Schroeder. “We had a great time,” said Planning Committee Chair Lori Spearman (pictured fourth from left), who credited committee members Lindsay DeVos, Shannon Sears, Tracy Wilkinson, Lydia Dews, Karmen Johnson, Nancy Gordon, and Casey Dyer for putting together such a successful and fun event. Koons, Fuller, Vanden Eykel & Robertson co-sponsored the event.

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In 2008, U.S. District Judge Vanessa D. Gilmore (pictured) asked a classroom of 50 girls in Houston whether any of them had a parent in prison. Every one raised her hand.

“70 percent of children who have incarcerated parents are later incarcerated themselves, says Gilmore. “They see that as their path.” As a judge, she had seen first-hand how incarceration and its collateral damage tears families apart.

Judge Gilmore and her friend, psychiatrist Dr. Janice M. Beal, realized there was not a tool to help these children through their feelings of isolation, anger, fear, sadness, and guilt. These children are often under the burden of keeping a family secret, when in fact they should be talking about their feelings. So Gilmore and Beal self-published a coloring book, “A Boy Named Rocky,” as a therapeutic resource for schools and counselors to help realize they’re not alone or to blame for their situation.

The book tells the story of Rocky, whose mother is in jail, how this affects him, and how he finds help. The last page of the book is a form letter than kids can fill out and send to parents in jail to express their feelings. Parents are asked to write back and accept responsibility for their actions.

Gilmore and Beal have distributed more than 7,500 copies of the book, which are used by every Big Brothers Big Sisters program in Texas and many schools, churches, and prisons.

For children, just talking about their situation is a huge relief. “When they hear the story, a lot of kids say, ‘This is my story! This is my story! Nobody’s ever told my story before,’” says Gilmore. “They’re happy to know they’re not the only ones dealing with an issue like this.”

Judge Gilmore related the story of a respected deacon at her church who came up to her, crying, after a reading of the coloring book. “He told me the book dredged up feelings he hadn’t had in 50 years,” she said. “His father was in prison when he was a child and it was only his mother’s grit and determination that kept him out of trouble himself."

In addition to a sequel to “A Boy Named Rocky,” Judge Gilmore is working on three books about adoption, inspired by her own adoption of a son.

For more on the book, visit www.4theloveofkids.com

Editor’s note: We learned about this story in Texas Bar Circle, our exclusive network of Texas lawyers. Join today and share your story at www.TexasBarCircle.com

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If you've never heard of machinima, you are not alone. The filmmaking technique, however, is quickly making its way into mainstream media. In fact, Texas is the unofficial machinima capital of the world. So says Mark Methenitis, an attorney with the Vernon Law Group, PL.L.C. in Dallas, who recently spoke on the legal aspects related to machinima at the Play-Machinima-Law Conference at Stanford. Methenitis also is the author of Law of the Game, a blog that discusses video game law, so, we, you know, trust him.

Utilizing strategies such as voice-overs, a machinima creator — or better yet, a machinimator — uses footage from video games to create a movie, which is machinima. Methenitis says the form goes back to a film based on the video game "Quake."

Since its creation, machinima has been used in various forms to create movies, commercials, and everything in between. And, like all things, there are legal issues that arise from machinima. For the most part, machinimators have relied on the trusty "fair use" doctrine to stay out of trouble. But Methenitis says that may not always protect creators, and relying on fair use puts one on thin ice.

Most video game publishers will allow the use of their games in machinima, as long as there is no profit made from the movie, he says. There are a couple of series that have made a profit off of their movies, but those production companies have licenses to do so. Methenitis encourages machinimators to read a game company's policy on machinima before making it — companies such as Microsoft and Blizzard have policies specifically targeted to machinima.

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On May 11, 2009, we greeted a new group of lawyers with an induction ceremony at the Frank Erwin Center in Austin. We pulled several of them aside to find out what their plans are now that they're licensed attorneys. Check out their responses below. Stay tuned to this blog for more from our new lawyer interviews.

New lawyers: Welcome to profession. Please see our page of resources for new lawyers.

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For Random Profiles, we randomly pick one of our 80,000-plus attorneys, call them, and do a Q&A. We've found that every Texas lawyer has an interesting story. Will yours be next?

Best thing about being a lawyer: Helping people.

Mentors/heroes: Family, the people who have the same drawbacks/obstacles that I face and find a way to perservere. The connection is close enough to see that I can make it as well.

If you could be anyone else for a day, who would it be? Why would I want to be anyone other than me? It has taken me 28 years to learn how to be good at being me; I think I may have it down by the time I’m 75. Until then, I need the practice being myself.

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Jim Swift of KXAN-TV in Austin filed the inspiring story of former Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Jack Pope, who at 96 is training for a 9.6-mile walk to match his age.

Below is Swift's report, and below that, Chief Justice Pope's demonstration of his exercise routine.

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Joe Shannon, Jr., chair of the State Bar of Texas Board of Directors, has been appointed by Gov. Rick Perry as Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney for a term to expire at the next general election. The appointment is subject to Senate confirmation. Shannon is the chief of the economic crimes and computer crime unit in the Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney's Office and an adjunct professor of law at Texas Wesleyan University. He replaces Tim Curry, the longtime Tarrant County district attorney who passed away April 24 at age 70 after a battle with lung cancer.

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From the State Bar vaults, here's a gem from our 2004 Annual Meeting. As part of a video "time capsule," we asked lawyers what piece of advice they had for new lawyers just starting out.

This timeless advice is also timely, as we welcome a new group of lawyers to the profession with an induction ceremony May 11.

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The State Bar of Texas celebrated Law Day today at the Texas Law Center in Austin with a ceremony to recognize Texas students and their award-winning projects on this year's Law Day theme, "A Legacy of Liberty: Celebrating Lincoln's Bicentennial." Students from across the state showed their creativity and thoughtfulness on the Law Day theme through poster, photography, and essay contests. State Bar of President Harper Estes and President-elect Roland Johnson were on hand to present awards to the statewide winners. Prizes ranged from $50 to $1,000 with each winner also receiving a medal and a framed certificate. The essay contest winner, Veronika Johannsen (pictured with President Estes), of Memorial High School in Victoria, read her winning paper on "A Legacy of Liberty." (Go here for a complete list of winners.) The event concluded with a tour of the Court of Criminal Appeals and the 3rd Court of Appeals for the students and their families, and several students seemed very intrigued by the idea of sitting on the bench. 

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As part of its "Texas Trailblazer" series, North Texas public television station KERA-TV will feature two veteran Texas attorneys, Harold Barefoot Sanders and Louise Raggio, and journalist Vivian Castleberry. All three Texans were chosen for their active role in and impact on civil rights and women's rights not only in Texas, but also the country.

Harold Barefoot Sanders (pictured) was a force behind desegregating the public schools in Dallas. He was Assistant Deputy Attorney General in the Justice Department under President Lyndon Johnson, and he helped pass the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that ended discriminatory voting practices. Sanders went on to influence public policy and became a federal judge, serving for 27 years.

Louise Raggio was a role model for the women of Texas in the mid century. After World War II, she went to law school to help support her family. She helped to secure women's rights in Texas, leading the effort to pass the Marital Property Act of 1967. She continued to help pave the way for more rights for women, including equal property rights and individual rights for both married and unmarried women.

Vivian Castleberry helped change the face of journalism by changing the subject matter covered by the Dallas Times-Herald, focusing more on humanitarian issues than on entertainment. She was the first female editor of the Times-Herald in 1957, and she founded Peacemakers Incorporated and co-founded the Women’s Center of Dallas and The Dallas Women’s Foundation. She was also inducted into the Texas Women’s Hall of Fame in 1984.

The "Texas Trailblazer" series is in three-parts and airs on Sundays, May 3, 10, and 18, at 8:00 p.m. and rebroadcasts the following Sundays at 12:30 p.m. All three parts will be rebroadcast beginning at 4:30 p.m., Sunday, May 24 on KERA-TV. The series will also be available online after the broadcasts at kera.org/trailblazer.

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As Houston lawyer Phyllis R. Frye (pictured) describes it, she’s “had more than [her] 15 minutes of fame, enjoyed it, and handled it well.” Still, she says she is honored and surprised that Texas A&M University has named  the Phyllis Frye Advocacy Award after her. Its first recipient is Dr. James Rosenheim, who will be recognized April 29 during a ceremony presented by A&M’s Department of Multicultural Services. A promo for the awards ceremony says Rosenheim exemplifies "Phyllis Frye's philosophy of not just walking through doors of intolerance, but tearing them down," and that Rosenheim is being recognized for nurturing relationships among lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) staff, students, and community members over two decades.

Frye, a partner in Frye and Cantu, PLLC, is nationally known for her activism and advocacy on LGBT issues.

As a man, Frye received engineering degrees from Texas A&M in 1970 and 1971. She transitioned her gender in 1976, and says that over the years her involvement as an A&M alumnus went from being shunned by members of a Houston alumni group early on, to gradual acceptance at reunions of the Singing Cadets and her graduating class. Frye has received numerous awards for her work in  the legal community and the LGBT movement, but seems bowled over by this A&M recognition. “It’s very humbling,” she said. “To have a university name an award after you is a neat thing. I'm thrilled.”

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For Random Profiles, we randomly pick one of our 80,000-plus attorneys, call them, and do a Q&A. We've found that every Texas lawyer has an interesting story. Will yours be next?

Family: Married to Michelle Charanza for 18 years who is my law partner. She attended the University of Houston Law School and I went to South Texas College of Law; two daughters ages 16 and 14.

Best thing about being a lawyer: Helping others who cannot help themselves.

What do you think is the biggest challenge facing attorneys today?  Burn out from being overworked.

Bet you didn’t know: Last Judge Advocate in the U.S. Armed Forces to complete jungle training at the Jungle Operations Training Center, Fort Sherman, Panama before the U.S. closed the base.

Another little known fact: That I was a Texas Cheerleader.

If you could be anyone else for a day, who would it be? The President of the United States. I would not be politically correct and speak what the American people want to hear from a leader.

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Richard and Carolyn Pena, left, and Indian tour guide

A delegation of U.S. lawyers returned from India last month with a simple but important lesson: lawyers everywhere share a common bond, and that's a passion to protect and defend the Rule of Law, sometimes during very difficult circumstances.

The US-India Law Forum was led by former State Bar of Texas president Richard Pena on behalf of People to People Citizen Ambassador Programs, a group originally spun off from the State Department to promote international understanding and friendship through cultural exchange. Pena, a workers compensation lawyer who is also president of the American Bar Foundation, had led 11 previous legal delegations for People to People, to places like Vietnam, Cambodia, and Tibet. The first trip was a delegation of Texas lawyers to China in 2000.

In the wake of the Mumbai attacks, India is struggling with issues regarding terrorism and how it will respond as a country and a legal community. The group of 26 delegates met personally with the chief justice of the Indian Supreme Court, justices of the New Delhi Supreme Court, and the equivalent of the attorney general of India. They also met a group of lawyers who personally knew Gandhi and are working to promote the principles of peace and peaceful resistance as India works to determine its future. The delegation focused on learning about India's legal system, but also on making personal connections. “A lot of what we’re doing is relationship building,” says Pena. “It’s not unlike what President Obama did on his recent South America trip. You interact and build a foundation for future relationships and support.”

Gandhi's living quarters

The group saw some tourist sites, but Pena explains that these trips are about much more. “The Taj Mahal was great and unique and everyone should see it, but it’s a thing. The people of India and of other countries that we visit are the real story -- the struggles that they face and how lawyers are helping them, sometimes in the face of great odds.”

Another goal of the People to People trips is to expand the world views of participants. “They learn that there are really no borders anymore. We’re all part of a global community,” Pena says. In India and Egypt this may take the form of a legal summit addressing issues of terrorism law.

Pena stresses that the legal delegations never pick “easy” destinations like Paris or London. Instead they go places where they feel they can make a difference.

The next trip is planned for Israel this November. If you’re interested in participating, contact Pena at (512)327-6884.

Update: Richard J. Stone of Ball Janik, P.C., in Portland, Oregon kept a journal while on the trip. Read it here (pdf format).

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In 2004, a little-known, yet landmark, legal case was celebrated. Fifty years before, Pete Hernandez v. State of Texas set legal precedent when it was ruled by the U.S. Supreme Court that Mexican Americans and all other racial groups were protected under the 14th Amendment. Before the case, Mexican Americans were considered white, and therefore, were not protected by the 14th Amendment.

Released today on DVD, A Class Apart, A Mexican American Civil Rights Story, brings to light the story of a small-town murder case that led to the landmark ruling. Pete Hernandez was convicted in the 1951 killing of Joe Espinosa in Edna. His lawyers — Gustavo C. Garcia, Carlos Cadena, John Herrera, and James DeAnda — appealed the decision, arguing that the all-white jury that convicted Hernandez did not constitute a jury of his peers since Mexican Americans were not allowed to serve on juries. The Texas Supreme Court upheld the ruling, saying that Mexican Americans were legally considered white. Not wavering in their struggle, Hernandez’s attorneys appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, reasoning that despite being legally considered white, Mexican Americans faced Jim Crow-style discrimination. The U.S. Supreme Court agreed and ruled in Hernandez’s favor. The ruling was a step for the Mexican American civil rights struggle, leading to challenges to employment, education, and housing discrimination.

Directed and produced by Carlos Sandoval, A Class Apart not only focuses on the civil rights movement, but also on the attorneys who argued the case, from the reserved and dependable Cadena to the charismatic, yet sometimes reckless Garcia. In one particularly tense moment of the film, Herrera’s son, Mike Herrera, describes how Garcia had an all-night drinking binge on the evening before he was to make his oral argument to the U.S. Supreme Court justices. Despite his antics, Garcia delivered a passionate argument, captivating the justices so much that they allowed him 16 extra minutes to make his case.

A Class Apart, an AMERICAN EXPERIENCE documentary and PBS Home Video, features bonus scenes, a slideshow of photographs, and printable teacher and discussion guides.

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For Random Profiles, we randomly pick one of our 80,000-plus attorneys, call them, and do a Q&A. We've found that every Texas lawyer has an interesting story. Will yours be next?

Best thing about being a lawyer: Being able to use intelligence, creativity, and compassion to help people solve problems.

Latest pursuit: Attempting to train the puppy my family got from a shelter last fall. He likes to chew everything from garden hoses to pencils and constantly manages to find new ways to escape from our backyard. 

Bet you didn’t know:  In sixth grade, I taught myself to write backwards in cursive, which served to entertain my friends and teachers. Sad to say, this skill has little practical application as a lawyer. 

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Linda Addison, a partner in the Houston and New York offices of Fulbright & Jaworksi L.L.P., is one of five recipients of the 2009 Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement Award. This ABA award was established in 1991 to honor outstanding women lawyers who have achieved professional excellence and paved the way to success for others. Addison's honors and professional achievements are too numerous to list here, but she's a longtime contributor to the State Bar of Texas, in many roles. Other Margaret Brent honorees this year include Helaine M. Barnett, Judge Arnette R. Hubbard, Judge Vanessa Ruiz, and Loretta A. Tuell. Read more in the ABA's press release.

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We asked State Bar President (and resident bibliophile) Harper Estes to name some of his favorite books. His selections, as of the time of writing:

Novel: Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner. This book won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1972 and should be read by anyone who loves either the American West or great writing.

Biography: Peter the Great: His Life and World by Robert K. Massie. This book won a Pulitzer in 1981. It is very readable and covers a lot of history, both of Peter the Great but also that era of Russian and European history. Perhaps the best recommendation I can give – you won’t mind that it’s a very long book.

General History: Parting the Waters: America in the King Years 1954–1963 by Taylor Branch. This book won the 1988 Pulitzer Prize for history and is the first in a three-volume history of the Civil Rights movement. It is thought provoking and poignant. It is one of my favorite books and would have to be to have me list it before Battle Cry of Freedom by James McPherson and the recent masterpiece Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin.

Historical Fiction: The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara. My hands-down favorite work of historical fiction, this book won the 1975 Pulitzer Prize for fiction. The book is about the Battle of Gettysburg and sparked my interest in Civil War history. Shaara’s son, Jeff, has made a career of writing prequels and sequels; although some are good, they are no match for his dad’s great novel.

Books About Lawyers: Is there really any choice? To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee won the 1961 Pulitzer Prize for fiction and became an instant classic. Richard “Racehorse” Haynes says every lawyer should make a habit of reading this book once a year. He is right.

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Meet Roxanne Wilson - attorney, morning show deejay, Jazzercise instructor, author, and community volunteer. The 30-year old Austin hot-shot has a story and message to share with young professionals everywhere.

Upon graduating from the University of Michigan Law School, Wilson moved to Austin to practice at Winstead PC. One of Wilson’s many volunteer activities was involvement in the Baylor Alumni Association. Through the association, Wilson found an unusual opportunity to try-out for the hit reality television show, "The Apprentice."

Putting her law practice on hold, Roxanne had a three-month experience like no other! As America watched, Wilson waited a long time for “The Donald” to tell her, “You’re fired.”   Quite successful on the show, she was a final four contestant.

Taking a leap of faith, so to speak, Wilson authored the book, Footprints in the Boardroom.  A strong Christian, Wilson believes that maintaining Christian values while pursuing a successful business career is obtainable. Wilson is committed to spreading this message to young professionals through her book and toolkits.

Wilson is now the host of “Family Friendly Mornings” on Austin radio station 102.3, The River. While her career demands most of her time, Wilson remains committed to giving back. She serves on the Public Relations Committee for the Junior League of Austin – A Christmas Affair; volunteers for the Make-A-Wish, is active in the Susan G. Komen  for the Cure Foundation, and devoted to her church.

For a glimpse of Roxanne and to view her blog, visit www.theriver1023.com.

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State Bar Immediate Past President Gib Walton was awarded the 2009 Karen H. Susman Jurisprudence Award by the Anti-Defamation League on March 31. Founded in 1913, the ADL is the country’s premier human relations and civil rights organization. Walton’s leadership is indicative of this mission, ensuring that minorities have a voice and hold leadership positions that really matter and placing a strong emphasis on protecting the rule of law in society.

Upon accepting the award, Walton thanked his mentors, family, and close friends. He attributes his efforts to his father, Dan Walton who helped to increase diversity on juries when he served as Harris County District Attorney and district judge.

More than $200,000 was raised for the ADL by sponsorships and ticket sales purchased by those honoring Walton at the awards luncheon.

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Last time the State Bar caught up with Austin attorney John Ramsey, he was fresh out of law school and had just started practicing with Nunis & Associates. He was also just named Funniest Person in Austin. That was back in 2005. Since then, he’s performed throughout the country, most notably in Aspen for HBO’s USA Comedy Arts Festival and in New York City for Comedy Central’s Live at Gotham series.

Seems Ramsey is taking his brush with fame in stride. “The best thing about having comedy as a hobby has been the free trips with my wife,” Ramsey says. He’s still performing in Austin, but manages to do a couple of shows out of state when his job allows.

Ramsey has no plans to leave his position at Nunis & Associates for his hobby, saying “it is far more likely that I will leave the comedy world to become a full-time lawyer.” Considering how supportive his firm is of his comedy career, it's no wonder Ramsey would choose law first. Boss Bob Nunis allows Ramsey to shift his schedule if need be, and Nunis and the other attorneys at the firm have even gone out to see a few shows.

Catch the funnyman this weekend, when he performs Friday and Saturday at Austin’s comedy club, The Velveeta Room.

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On Friday, March 27, the Texas A&M University Board of Regents selected Andrew Strong as general counsel of the Texas A&M System. As general counsel he'll be responsible for all legal matters affecting the system and provide legal counsel to A&M's board of regents, chancellor, and CEOs.

Strong is a partner in the Houston office of Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP, which he joined in 2005 after serving as the managing partner of Campbell, George & Strong since 1994. At A&M Strong replaces former general counsel Jay Kimbrough, who now works in the governor's office. According to an article in the Bryan College Station Eagle, details of Strong's starting date as general counsel are being worked out.

Strong is a former president of the Texas Young Lawyers Association and currently servces as chair of the State Bar of Texas Legal Services to the Poor in Civil Matters Committee, co-chair of the Texas Access to Justice Commission's Civil Gideon Task Force, and chair of the Children at Risk's Public Policy and Law Center.

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For Random Profiles, we randomly pick one of our 80,000-plus attorneys, call them, and do a Q&A. We've found that every Texas lawyer has an interesting story. Will yours be next?

Best thing about being a lawyer: I get to help a lot of people.

The best piece of advice ever given to you and by whom: My Dad has always told me not to worry about the things you can’t change. I think that advice is so useful in my law practice and life in general.

Most important career lesson: Juries hate when we overcomplicate things. They stop listening when we get hyper-technical about anything.

Favorite saying/quote: “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.” – John Lennon

Favorite sport: Notre Dame Fighting Irish Football.

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The Beacon, a supernatural thriller produced by Dallas lawyer Sally Helppie, took top honors at the Paranoia Horror Film Festival in California on March 15. The festival's goal is to find "the next great thing in horror each and every year." Helppie, of counsel to Tipton Jones, is co-founder and president of Sabbatical Pictures, a Dallas-based independent film production company. The Beacon, which won the Best Feature Film prize, was shot in Waxahachie and Dallas using Texas crews and several local actors. The second movie produced by Helppie, The Beacon stars Teri Polo (of Meet the Parents fame) as a grieving mother who becomes obsessed with delivering a message to her dead son. Helppie's first film, Exit Speed, an action picture starring Lea Thompson and Fred Ward, also was filmed in Dallas and is now available on DVD. Helppie is currently fielding offers to distribute The Beacon. Go here to view the trailer.

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Not many people can say they have beat Michael Jordan at an athletic competition. Houston attorney Nakia Davis holds these bragging rights! The Beck, Redden & Secrest attorney has played golf with Michael Jordan 18 times. The total game score:  Davis 17, Jordan 1. 

Before practicing law, Davis played on the Ladies Pro Golf Association FUTURES Golf Tour. Davis met Jordan through a mutual friend and then re-connected with the star at an event sponsored by the Jackie Robinson Foundation. Knowing of the pro basketball player’s competitive spirit, Davis challenged him to a round of golf, confident she would win. Needless to say, Jordan was hooked, and 18 games later the duo plans to continue the friendly competition. 

Another interesting fact about Davis’ golf career - before Tiger Woods was a household name, they were in the same training circle of young up-and-comers.

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Before Monday, Austin lawyer and computer forensics expert Craig Ball might have seemed the least likely speaker to wow an audience of Gen X and Yers gathered to learn about the latest technology and social media at the South By Southwest Interactive Festival. Today, he stands toe-to-toe with the Internet celebs who dominate the festival from year to year.

Ball was part of a panel, "Presenting Straight to the Brain," about techniques for persuading with PowerPoint beyond the usual bullet points and tired graphics that plague so many presentations.

Ball showed the crowd of more than 500 an animation he uses to explain the inner workings of a hard drive to a non-technical audience. This and other parts of his presentation drew applause, shouts of approval, and scores of positive "tweets" from audience members who were documenting the panel on Twitter.com. 

"I figured the crowd was nice to me because it was like being nice to your granddad," joked the 51-year-old Ball, who began his SXSW remarks by telling attendees, "For those of you who are wondering, the red thing I'm wearing around my neck is called a tie."

"Really, I was leery of speaking to a younger group which was not at all like my typical audience of attorneys and judges," related Ball. "I was blown away by how receptive they were. I was happy to have the feeling of holding my own with the other panelists."

Ball's seemingly complex animations are done solely with PowerPoint. For tips and articles about how he does it, see www.craigball.com.

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Senators John Cornyn and Kay Bailey Hutchison are seeking candidates to serve as a U.S. attorney in Texas. Applications are due Friday, March 27, 2009.

The open positions are for the Northern District of Texas, based in Dallas, and Southern District, based in Houston.

For details, see this press release on Hutchison's website.

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For Random Profiles, we randomly pick one of our 80,000-plus attorneys, call them, and do a Q&A. We've found that every Texas lawyer has an interesting story. Will yours be next?

Most important career lesson: Don't be afraid to say “I don't know” when you don't know.

Current project: A free, online searchable database of Texas family law cases, with commentary by (and credit given to) volunteer attorneys who identify and submit cases. If you're interested in participating, drop me a line at jverner@vernerbrumley.com.

Favorite saying/quote: “Take credit when available, not when it's due!” This is my sole contribution to Western Civilization.

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Houston's Joe Jamail would strongly prefer you call him a trial lawyer. Why is that? I'll forgo expletives on the State Bar blog and instead refer you to a new profile of Jamail in the ABA Journal by Mark Curriden, communications director for Vinson & Elkins LLP in Dallas. 

Curriden recaps the 83-year-old Jamail's journey from the UT School of Law, where he "just showed up" and never officially enrolled, to today's busy schedule and his plans to try cases for another 10 years.

The Jamail story is part of Curriden's feature section on "Lions of the Trial Bar," where he profiles seven legends, including another Texas treasure: Richard "Racehorse" Haynes.

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Michelle Cheng is one of Austin's most prolific Yelpers.

Yelp.com describes its free service as "real reviews by real people." Michelle has written 501 reviews of restaurants and other businesses, leading her cohorts on Yelp to call her "legendary" and earning her an elusive "Yelp Elite" status for three years running.

"Yelp.com gives me an easy, no-pressure outlet to do some writing on one of my favorite topics – food," says Cheng. "I’ve discovered many great restaurants and other businesses through Yelp, and have met lots of terrific people, too (there are frequent social gatherings for Yelpers)."

There's no telling where she finds the time, considering she's a busy plaintiff's lawyer (recently promoted to name partner in Whitehurst, Harkness, Brees, Cheng & Imhoff, PC) and serves on the State Bar Board of Directors and Texas Bar Journal Board of Editors, among other community activities.

And it's not all fun and games. "I’ve even had some potential clients who discovered me through my Yelp activity," Cheng related.

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For Random Profiles, we randomly pick one of our 80,000-plus attorneys, call them, and do a Q&A. We've found that every Texas lawyer has an interesting story. Will yours be next?

Areas of practice: Environmental, municipal and energy law. In 2004, after 30 years of public and private practice, I retired as head of a small in-house shop to develop and run a tree farm (landscape trees). We cut, cleared, fenced, sunk wells, installed 2 irrigation systems and planted 5 species of native oak in containers. I’ve got sheep that help with the grass and chickens that help with the pests in and around the containers. It’s a one-man shop, and the learning curve has been steep, but the people in the business are open with advice, suggestions and support of all kinds, at the drop of a hat.

Favorite movie: Giant

The best piece of advice ever given to you and by whom: “Make yourself indispensible in whatever job you have,” given to me as a youngster by an older solo practitioner, James L.M. Miller, who, as a teenager during the Great Depression, was the sole support of his mother and 4 siblings.

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