© 2013 The Texas Lawbook.
By Brooks Igo
Staff Writer for The Texas Lawbook
(December 20)–The American Bar Association (ABA) will honor the Houston Bar Association (HBA) at its Mid-year Meeting in Chicago on Feb. 7. The HBA is one of three organizations that will be honored by the ABA for Outstanding Law Day Activities in 2013.
Forty-five special needs students from middle and high schools saw a re-enactment of the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, KS case in a new HBA Law Day event called “Day at the Courthouse,” organized this year by Chief Justice Kem Thompson Frost of the Fourteenth Court of Appeals. The students got to spend time with Texas Supreme Court Justice Eva Guzman, tour the 1910 courthouse and use gavels, scales of justice, law books and the courtroom to create images for a Law Day Photo Contest.
HBA President David Chaumette said the bar has had a long history of providing opportunities to people with special needs, including a 25-year relationship with the Special Olympics.
“I continue to be amazed at the breadth of the HBA’s reach,” he said.
Another one of Chaumette’s HBA Law Day highlights was its Legal Lines program, where Houston lawyers spent all day fielding legal questions from nearly 300 callers this year.
The HBA also scheduled members to read a law-themed book to elementary students in more than 100 schools, created Law Day education and legal resource packets for every Harris County district and county court, conducted dialogues on freedom between attorney-judge teams and high school seniors, held poster workshops for children in three low-income areas of the city and conducted its annual Law Day Poster, Essay and Photography contests.
Law Day, May 1, was established by Congress in 1961 as an opportunity to reflect on the role of law in the foundation of the country and to recognize its importance for society. The ABA will also recognize the Atlanta Law Day Dream Team and the Connecticut Judicial Branch.
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