For the second straight year, members of the State Bar of Texas have elected presidents that oppose radical reforms and favor continued mandatory membership dues for the 100,000 attorney organization.
After back-to-back tumultuous State Bar of Texas elections for president that caused great divides in the legal profession and how it should be governed, Texas lawyers chose Richmond criminal defense attorney Larry P. McDougal to be its leader in 2020.
Texas Bar officials report that McDougal, a former Houston police officer, received 52% of the 24,252 votes cast by Texas attorneys.
“The State Bar of Texas is an excellent organization which I believe is headed in the right direction,” McDougal wrote in his nomination letter. “We don’t need to change it; we need to protect it.”
McDougal’s comments appear to directly challenge the position of current Texas Bar President Joe Longley, who has claimed that the bar organization is fraught with mismanagement and that mandatory bar dues should not go to supporting specific efforts, such as efforts to promote jury service or pro bono programs for veterans and homelessness.
“When asked what changes I would make to the State Bar, my response is: None,” he wrote.
McDougal, a 1990 graduate of the South Texas College of Law, will be sworn in as Texas Bar president in June 2020. He will follow Houston trial lawyer Randy Sorrells, who will be president of the state’s mandatory legal organization, next month.
Texas Bar officials say that El Paso Independent School District General Counsel Jeanne Cezanne “Cezy” Collins received 47% of the votes.
Last year, 32,445 Texas lawyers voted in the group’s presidential election.