© 2014 The Texas Lawbook.
By Brooks Igo
Staff Writer for The Texas Lawbook
(June 13) – Baylor Law School recently announced it was named the winner of the State Bar of Texas’ 2014 W. Frank Newton Award, which recognizes the pro bono legal services to the poor by attorney groups, including law school faculty. The law school will be recognized at the State Bar Annual Meeting in Austin on June 26.
Associate Professor of Law Bridget Fuselier, who nominated the school for the award, has played an integral role in creating the active pro bono culture that helped it win the award. She is the founder and director of the Baylor Veterans’ Assistance Clinic and started the school’s National Adoption Day.
“For such a small school and surrounding community, we have a great number of students, faculty and local attorneys who have really worked together to make our pro bono and community service programs possible,” she said in a statement.
Fuselier, whose husband is a military veteran, started the Veterans’ Assistance Clinic with grant from Texas Access to Justice. Through the clinic, volunteer lawyers from McClennan County and students are matched up with cases.
Twenty-six children were adopted by 17 families last November at Baylor’s National Adoption Day. Fuselier said she was inspired to start an adoption day at the law school after her experience with a similar program when she was doing pro bono work as an attorney at Mehaffy Weber in Beaumont.
“It touched my heart what these families are doing,” she said. “It is a great program to show students what they can do to make an impact.”
Since the beginning of the 2009 school year, Baylor Law School has integrated a community service project with each entering 1L’s orientation. The most recent class was tasked with helping rebuild the West community after the 2013 fertilizer explosion. Other organizations the school has partnered with are Habitat for Humanity, the City of Waco and Meals on Wheels.
Baylor Law also offers summer internship opportunities with nonprofit or governmental organizations serving underrepresented populations through its Public Interest Summer Fellowships.
Fuselier says the law school wants to expand its Immigration Clinic, which was founded by Professor Laura Hernandez, and help nonprofits with corporate issues.
The W. Frank Newton Award, named after the former dean of Texas Tech University School of Law, is the third pro bono award Baylor Law has won since 2010. The other two awards were given by the Texas Access to Justice Commission – student Brittany Wray won the 2012 Law Student Pro Bono Award and the school received the 2010 Law School Commitment to Service Award.
Click here to learn more about Baylor’s pro bono projects.
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