Happy pro bono month!
October brings a national spotlight to pro bono service, with legal organizations across the country celebrating attorneys who volunteer their time to help those who cannot afford legal representation. The federal government’s Pro Bono Week runs Oct. 23-30, while the American Bar Association’s National Celebration of Pro Bono takes place Oct. 25-31.
But amid the celebrations, State Bar of Texas President G. David Smith has a sobering message. Far too few attorneys are answering the call.
Speaking Monday at the San Antonio Legal Services Association’s State of Pro Bono mixer at Jackson Walker’s San Antonio office, Smith urged attorneys to volunteer their time and to recruit industry colleagues to pro bono work.
Fewer than 4 percent of Bexar County’s approximately 6,800 attorneys volunteer with SALSA, said Robert Soza, the organization’s board president and partner at Jackson Walker.
“If every lawyer in San Antonio took just one case per year … you could cure the problem,” said Smith, who has made expanding pro bono participation a priority of his presidency.
Statewide statistics also point to a substantial gap in attorney participation.
According to the State Bar of Texas’ December 2025 reporting, just 37.2 percent of attorneys responding to its survey reported performing pro bono work in 2024. That represents 2,670 of the 7,178 respondents, although the figure reflects survey participation rather than a comprehensive count of Texas lawyers.
The State Bar also reported an 8 percent decline in the number of attorneys self-reporting pro bono hours from 2023 to 2024. In the span of five years, the number of members reporting hours fell from 6,446 in 2020 to 3,306 in 2024.
Meanwhile an estimated 92 percent of people who qualify for legal aid do not have their legal needs met, Smith said.
“We’re talking about mothers who are in an abusive situation and don’t know how to get them and their children out,” Smith said. “We’re talking about children who are left without a family support system who need help through the system. We’re talking about veterans who have served our country honorably but cannot get the benefits that they so righteously deserve.”
“We’re better than that and we should be better than that.”
Interested in taking a pro bono case or supporting the work?
The Austin Bar Association and Austin Bar Foundation are co-hosting a Pro Bono Fall Festival benefitting Volunteer Legal Services on Oct. 24. More info may be found here.
Houston Volunteer Lawyers are encouraging attorneys to take up a case for Pro Bono Month. Details are available here.
Dallas Volunteer Lawyers are hosting several virtual and in-person legal clinics throughout the month of October. Information about those clinics is available here.
SALSA’s volunteer opportunities for clinics and extended representation cases may be accessed here.
Bell Nunnally Partner Earns State Fair’s Black-Tie Honor
Bell Nunnally partner Heath Cheek, a State Fair of Texas board member and longtime supporter of its youth livestock programs, was inducted this month into the fair’s Black-Tie recognition level, an honor reserved for individuals who have contributed at least $500,000 to support Texas youth.
Cheek, who currently serves on the fair’s board of directors and chairs its Livestock Committee, has held leadership roles with the organization since 2011, when he became a raffle chair. He has also served as Development Cabinet vice chair and chair and as a member of the board of advisors. As founding chairman of the State Fair of Texas Raffle, Cheek helped establish a fundraising initiative benefiting the fair’s Youth Livestock Auction and Scholarship Program.
According to his firm bio, Cheek has helped raise more than $25 million since 2017 in support of the fair’s mission to provide scholarships for inner-city Dallas and rural Texas students attending in-state colleges and universities.
Cheek, who grew up on a farm near the Oklahoma border, spoke with The Lawbook in this edition of Asked & Answered about his journey from childhood livestock exhibitor to State Fair board member.
South Texas College of Law Gala Raises More Than $600K for Scholarships
The 2026 South Texas College of Law Annual Gala raised more than $600,000 for student scholarships earlier this month, surpassing last year’s $400,000 fundraising total.
Co-chaired by Nomaan K. “Nomi” Husain and Dr. Kamila Husain, along with Ryan Zehl and Laura Zehl, the gala was held Oct. 3 at The Revaire in Houston and drew 339 attendees.
Proceeds from the annual event directly support scholarships for South Texas College of Law Houston students.
Baker Botts, Toyota Honored for Pro Bono Clinics Serving Trafficking Survivors
Lawyers from Baker Botts and Toyota North America recently received the New Friends New Life ProtectHER Award for their ongoing pro bono legal clinics held in conjunction with the nonprofit’s Fashion Friday donation closet.
The award, sponsored by Thomson Reuters, was presented at the annual New Friends New Life Stand for Her Luncheon last month at the Hyatt Regency Dallas.
The ProtectHER award recognizes individuals and organizations whose leadership and service advance the protection, dignity and value of women and girls.
The partnership began last year when Baker Botts partner Christa Brown-Sanford, a former New Friends New Life board member, joined forces with Scott Young, then a Toyota managing counsel and leader of its pro bono committee, and Gunnar Heinisch, Toyota managing counsel who led the company’s work on the project, to launch a legal clinic alongside the charity’s Fashion Friday event.
The clinics have continued, strengthening the support New Friends New Life is able to provide “because it multiplies what a very small legal team is able to do,” said Roya Atashi, director of legal services for the nonprofit.
Trauma-informed legal consultations can mean the difference between a person abandoning the legal process and someone seeing her case through to resolution, Atashi said. The clinics are often where staff members begin to see women shift from merely surviving to developing strategies for their futures, she added.
“The importance of the clinic is our ability to help these survivors understand and navigate the legal issues that may be impacting their ability to move forward on their journeys,” said Laura O’Rourke, senior managing counsel for Toyota North America.
The Lawbook featured the inaugural clinic last year.
Two others also received ProtectHER Awards this year: Elizabeth Carlock Phillips, who spearheaded “Trey’s Law,” legislation aimed at ending the use of nondisclosure agreements to silence survivors of sexual abuse and human trafficking, and Janet Jensen, founder and CEO of The Jensen Project, which equips organizations with resources to better serve women and girls affected by gender-based violence.
Staff writer Elle Grinnell contributed to this report.