This week’s edition of P.S. features two president-elect candidates for an upcoming election for the State Bar of Texas’ public service arm, background on an associate who Weil is lending to a Dallas-area legal aid organization for two months to provide full-time pro bono legal services and nomination information for Legal Aid of NorthWest Texas upcoming Builders of Justice awards.
The Latest
— Weil, Gotshal & Manges announced that its 14th “lend-a-lawyer” is tax associate Griffin Baker. Weil’s “Lend-A-Lawyer” program loans a second-, third- or fourth-year Weil attorney to the Dallas Volunteer Attorney Program to work there two month full-time while still receiving full compensation at the firm. Baker will spend the next two months working on-site at the offices of Legal Aid of NorthWest Texas, which, along with the Dallas Bar Association run DVAP, the pro bono arm of the DBA. Baker succeeds commercial litigation associate Jenae Ward, who served as Weil’s 13th lend-a-lawyer last year.
Weil created the Lend-A-Lawyer program in 2005 to support DVAP, which provides pro bono legal services to low-income individuals and families needing help with civil legal matters including family, bankruptcy, housing, consumer, employment termination and wage claims, guardianships, wills and small estates.
In his everyday practice, Baker advises private equity firms and other business clients on tax aspects of various corporate transactions, including billion-dollar acquisitions and divestitures. Baker has been with the firm since October 2021 (not including his 1L and 2L summers there) and is an active participant in Weil’s pro bono efforts. Recently, he worked on the formation of the Center for Black Leadership, a Dallas-based nonprofit. Before graduating college at the University of Florida and becoming a lawyer at Duke University School of Law, Baker worked a typical early-career job in the service industry at Chick-fil-A, and before that, a not-so-typical job as a tortoise walker at the Florida Wildlife Hospital and Sanctuary — feeding baby birds, walking tortoises and cleaning dishes. The skills he obtained could be viewed as a precursor to the ones he would later need in the practice of law: “Working at the Wildlife Hospital taught me how to stay calm in loud and chaotic environments, as well as how to deal with wild animals,” his LinkedIn profile says.
— Legal Aid of NorthWest Texas is currently accepting nominations for its annual Builders of Justice Awards, which will occur in October. Nominations are due Friday, April 5 by 6 p.m. The awards recognize honorees who have demonstrated extraordinary work benefiting low-income individuals and families through sustained service and leadership. The four award categories are:
- The Legal Advocate Award, which goes to a member of the legal community (attorney or judge) who has done something extraordinary in the interest of low-income individuals/families;
- the Business Leadership Award, which goes to a company or individual in business who has made an extraordinary contribution to the improvement of the lives of low-income individuals and families;
- the Civic Leadership Award, which goes to a person, nonprofit, executive, pro bono attorney or other volunteer engaged in the provision of services to low-income persons; and
- the Champion of Justice Award, which goes to an individual, organization or company that has shown exemplary behavior in the delivery of services or support of low-income communities in Collin County and greater North Texas.
Last year’s awards recipients were Bank of America (business leadership), Judge Shelly Dukes of Title IV-D Court No. 5 (legal advocate), Samaritan Inn (civic leadership) and Collin County District Judge Jill R. Willis (champion of justice).
To submit a nomination, fill out the form here.
For any questions about the awards or nominating someone, contact LANWT director of development Sam Prince at (469) 964-0405 or developmentdirector@lanwt.org.
— The State Bar of Texas has announced the two president-elect candidates for its public service arm, Texas Young Lawyers Association. TYLA’s membership is open to Texas lawyers who have been licensed 12 years or less on June 1 of each year. TYLA helps the State Bar in facilitating the administration of justice, fostering respect for the rule of the law and — most prominently — advancing the role of lawyers in serving the public.
TYLA members will choose between Michael Hanson of Richardson and Alyson A. Martinez of Laredo as TYLA’s next leader.
Hanson, a prosecutor in Fort Bend County and a judge advocate for the Texas Army National Guard, currently serves as TYLA vice president and director for District 21. He has more than 60 jury trials under his belt and primarily focuses on juvenile law, veterans’ treatment court and felony animal cruelty cases. In 2022, he was deployed overseas as the military justice advisor of the 36th Sustainment Brigade Legal Team. In 2019, he joined Lawyers Without Borders in Africa to support its wildlife crime trial advocacy training, and while on the Eastern Hemisphere, trekked Mount Everest Base Camp in Nepal to raise money for Child Legacy, a nonprofit focused on repairing water wells in rural Malawi.
Martinez, who is currently director of the Webb & Zapata County Community Supervision and Corrections Department, is a native of Laredo and is the first attorney in her family. The Texas Southern University Thurgood Marshall School of Law graduate began her career at the Webb County Public Defender’s Office, where she represented justice-involved, indigent individuals. She also currently serves as the legal advisor for the Probation Advisory Committee of Texas. She was 2020 president of the Laredo-Webb County Bar Association, and got her feet wet in state bar leadership as a participant of the 2020 cohort of LeadershipSBOT. She has represented District 19 of the TYLA for the past three years and received the President’s Award on Merit in 2023. She has also served in her community as a board member of the Laredo Center for the Arts and Voz De Niños.
TYLA members will cast ballots throughout the entire month of April, and election results will be announced April 30. The winner will serve as TYLA president from June 2025 to June 2026.