Sonia Sotomayor, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, urged law schools to weave ethical training into course curriculum earlier and to encourage students to participate in pro-bono work in a recent discussion held at the University of Houston Law Center.… Continue Reading
It is a new day for our most precious resource—our children. The creation of the State Bar of Texas Child Protection Law Section became a reality on January 26, when the State Bar of Texas Board of Directors voted unanimously to form the new section. Both the Family Law and Juvenile Law sections enthusiastically supported … Continue Reading
Editor’s note: This post is part of the Texas Lawyers’ Assistance Program’s Stories of Recovery series. TLAP offers confidential assistance for lawyers, law students, and judges with substance abuse or mental health issues. Call TLAP at 1-800-343-8527 (TLAP) and find more information at tlaphelps.org. There is no doubt that I am an alcoholic, and there is no doubt that … Continue Reading
Editor’s note: State Bar of Texas President Tom Vick sent the following message to members Friday. If you haven’t already, you should soon receive a letter in the mail from your State Bar district director(s) on some of the bar’s latest projects and member benefits. The letter is part of a board initiative to better … Continue Reading
Editor’s note: This post is part of the Texas Lawyers’ Assistance Program’s Stories of Recovery series. TLAP offers confidential assistance for lawyers, law students, and judges with substance abuse or mental health issues. Call TLAP at 1-800-343-8527 (TLAP) and find more information at tlaphelps.org. I am a lawyer celebrating my first year as a solo. I am a horse … Continue Reading
By Teresa Schiller Hurricane Harvey made landfall after days of weather reports and news updates in August 2017. Some of the preparation was last-minute as residents scrambled for safety. Other preparation had begun years earlier, based on lessons learned in responding to other disasters. When the rain subsided, we learned that families and businesses had … Continue Reading
Editor’s note: This post is part of the Texas Lawyers’ Assistance Program’s Stories of Recovery series. TLAP offers confidential assistance for lawyers, law students, and judges with substance abuse or mental health issues. Call TLAP at 1-800-343-8527 (TLAP) and find more information at tlaphelps.org. I am supposed to be dead! I weighed over 350 pounds, had high blood pressure, borderline … Continue Reading
By Tammie S. Haynes On a beautiful autumn day, I walked into the redbrick Montgomery County Courthouse annex to a nondescript back hallway. Halfway down a line of chairs along the wall, a lone man sat with his hands clasped, elbows resting on his knees, his head bowed. On a door, a plaque read “Dispute Resolution … Continue Reading
Editor’s note: State Bar of Texas President Tom Vick sent the following message to members on Friday. Dear Fellow Attorneys, I’m writing to update you on the State Bar’s Hurricane Harvey relief efforts and our search for a new executive director. Hurricane Harvey Relief Efforts I know that Hurricane Harvey and its related flooding have … Continue Reading
Editor’s note: This is the second of four special posts in the Texas Lawyers’ Assistance Program’s Stories of Recovery series for National Suicide Prevention Week (September 10-16). TLAP offers confidential assistance for lawyers, law students, and judges with substance abuse or mental health issues. Call TLAP at 1-800-343-8527 (TLAP) and find more information at tlaphelps.org. … Continue Reading
Editor’s note: This is the first of four special posts in the Texas Lawyers’ Assistance Program’s Stories of Recovery series for National Suicide Prevention Week (September 10-16). TLAP offers confidential assistance for lawyers, law students, and judges with substance abuse or mental health issues. Call TLAP at 1-800-343-8527 (TLAP) and find more information at tlaphelps.org. … Continue Reading
Whenever emergency situations such as Hurricane Harvey cause office closures and such offices are subsequently reopened, Texas employers must remember several points to stay compliant with employment laws. • In general, employees who are classified as exempt from the Fair Labor Standards Act’s minimum wage and overtime provisions must be paid a salary … Continue Reading
Editor’s Note: State Bar of Texas President Tom Vick sent the following message to members today. As I write these words, many Texans are suffering the ravages of Hurricane Harvey and many are still in harm’s way. This is a trying time for our state and our country. This is a time when mere words … Continue Reading
By G. Thomas Vick Jr. When disasters like Hurricane Harvey strike Texas, the State Bar of Texas serves as a hub of legal and recovery-related resources for Texans and Texas lawyers (visit texasbar.com/disasters). First, the State Bar operates a legal hotline—(800) 504-7030—that helps people find answers to basic legal questions and locate recovery resources in … Continue Reading
Editor’s note: This post is part of the Texas Lawyers’ Assistance Program’s Stories of Recovery series. TLAP offers confidential assistance for lawyers, law students, and judges with substance abuse or mental health issues. Call TLAP at 1-800-343-8527 (TLAP) and find more information at tlaphelps.org. We lawyers are all pretty clever. We spend our careers trying to distinguish our facts … Continue Reading
I have lived in Houston almost my entire life and have always considered myself an urbanite. My wife and I love the trappings of the city—musicals, museums, and dim sum, to name a few. But in June I moved to San Angelo, with a population of about 100,700, and you cannot convince me to go … Continue Reading
Editor’s note: This post is part of the Texas Lawyers’ Assistance Program’s Stories of Recovery series. TLAP offers confidential assistance for lawyers, law students, and judges with substance abuse or mental health issues. Call TLAP at 1-800-343-8527 (TLAP) and find more information at tlaphelps.org. I feel like alcoholism just appeared in my life overnight. Logically, however, … Continue Reading
In the past year or so, there has been great public debate about whether someone can be considered a successful business person if his or her business has filed for protection under “Chapter 11.” For many people, Chapter 11 is synonymous with bankruptcy, but it is actually only one of several chapters of the Bankruptcy … Continue Reading
The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2016 defined a modernized retirement system, or MRS, for individuals entering military service on or after January 1, 2018. Service members with less than 12 years of service on December 31, 2017, have the option of remaining with the current military retirement system or switching to the … Continue Reading
Recent court of appeals rulings in Texas have been split on issues involving email signatures. The 1st Court of Appeals in Houston issued an opinion March 30 on Khoury v. Prentis B. Tomlinson Jr., No. 01-16-00006-CV, a case that arose from an agreement where John Khoury invested in PetroGulf, a company that Prentis Tomlinson ran … Continue Reading
The Every Student Succeeds Act, enacted by the federal government in late 2015, recently amended the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act to address the educational effects of homelessness. The legislation alters the definition of homeless, commissions new methods of identifying homeless students, attempts to keep students in their original school district as long as possible, and … Continue Reading
1. Constructive Receipt and Lawyer Trust Accounts Lawyers often face constructive receipt tax issues, whether they know it or not. Constructive receipt—a tax term used to determine when a taxpayer has received gross income—is one of those subjects that many people think they understand in part because it comes up frequently. Around year-end, chances are, … Continue Reading
A new batch of Texas lawyers was sworn in this past November, and I realized that now would be a good time to share some pointers and direct my fellow colleagues to three key websites in the real estate law field. First, the Texas Real Estate Commission, or TREC, website at trec.texas.gov is your home … Continue Reading
When I teach legal writing to first-year law students, I surprise them with an in-class exercise around halfway through the first semester. I have the students break into groups, tell them to take out pen and paper, and pose this question: “What is the goal of legal writing?” Puzzled, they just stare back. I ask … Continue Reading
