The governing body of the State Bar of Texas cannot oust its newly inaugurated president for his past comments about women lawyers, police brutality and the Black Lives Matter movement, but it has decided to take steps to make sure that no more Larry McDougal’s could or would be elected again.
The 46-member state bar board of directors has voted to require bar leaders to take “implicit bias training,” to increase the vetting process for future bar presidential candidates and to consider restricting the duties and powers of the bar president.
The board also will require McDougal, a Fort Bend County criminal defense attorney who was sworn in as Texas Bar president only a month ago, to develop and present a plan by Jan. 1 that addresses the controversial comments he made on Facebook.
The controversy began July 10 when comments by McDougal on Facebook surfaced in which he stated that a person wearing a Black Lives Matter T-shirt in a voting area violated Texas election law.
“The news media has waged war on law enforcement officers in the aftermath of several highly publicized killings,” McDougal wrote in September 2015. “Groups like Black Lives Matter has publicly called for the death of not just police officers but also White Americans. This is a terrorist group.”
In another Facebook post about a woman lawyer who had been suspended from practicing law, McDougal wrote, “She is hot in her Texas Bar picture but she has meth head written all over her today.”
McDougal has not responded to repeated requests for an interview by The Texas Lawbook.
In a three-minute video on YouTube posted on July 11, McDougal apologized and promised to do better. He repeated his apology at the board of directors meeting Monday conducted over Zoom.
After hearing from more than five dozen Texas lawyers – many calling for McDougal’s resignation while others defended his comments – the board agreed to create a task force on diversity, equity and inclusion that would be led by State Bar President-elect Sylvia Borunda Firth, who will take the mantle of president next June.