State Bar executive director and CLE director named as top innovators

Michelle Hunter, executive director of the State Bar of Texas, was selected for a place on the annual Fastcase 50 list of “the smartest, most courageous innovators, techies, visionaries, and leaders in the law.” Joining Hunter on the list is the State Bar’s Pat Nester, assistant deputy director and TexasBarCLE director. Fastcase is an online legal research provider. In the summer of 2014, the State Bar of Texas became the first bar association in the country to offer its members access to both Fastcase and Casemaker, another online legal research tool.

The Fastcase 50 list highlights people in the legal community who are exploring and succeeding with unique and impactful technology and legal services delivery models. It includes such industry leaders as Rich Barton, founder of Expedia and co-founder of Zillow and Glassdoor; Dan Lear, director of Industry Relations at Avvo; and Lynn Schmidt Walters, co-founder of JD Mentor and founder of Lux Law Advising.

Here is Fastcase’s summary of Hunter and why she was selected:

Michelle Hunter presides over one of the largest bars in the nation and has made it a dynamo. Since Hunter took the helm in October 2008, the State Bar has revitalized its host of offerings and programs, created a very impressive array of live and online CLE options through TexasBarCLE, grown the Texas Lawyers’ Assistance Program to help member attorneys dealing with personal issues, launched the Texas Bar Private Insurance Exchange in 2013, created programs to help veterans in need, enhanced civil education in Texas, greatly expanded its efforts to promote pro bono work and foster access to justice, and much more, all the while making the State Bar extremely financially solid and building a very impressive staff.

And Fastcase on why it chose Nester:

Continuing legal education has changed enormously over the past few years, so imagine how different it was when Pat Nester, the director of TexasBarCLE, began working to train lawyers with the State Bar of Texas 29 years ago. With firm roots in the past, Nester has an eye on the future of CLE, from flipped classrooms and MOOCs to learning events right at the point where lawyers need them. Presiding during a time of change is difficult, but Nester’s creativity, vision, and ability to motivate volunteers year after year have made him a national leader of CLE community and have won TexasBarCLE second-to-none nationwide.