Public service news for this week includes info on the HBA’s newest president, board of directors and award honorees; June dates for Dallas Volunteer Attorney Program’s legal clinics; two lawyers appointed by the governor to the state’s OneStar Foundation; and how those in Texas affected by the recent severe storms can receive legal and recovery assistance.
For your public service news to be considered in a future P.S. column, email public.service@texaslawbook.net. We especially want to know if your firm is spearheading any of its own outreach efforts in light of the storms in Harris County and beyond.
The Latest
— Lone Star Legal Aid, the State Bar of Texas, the American Bar Association Young Lawyers Division,the Federal Emergency Management Agency and other organizations are partnering to provide legal and recovery assistance to people affected by the ongoing severe storms and flooding in Harris, Liberty, Montgomery, Polk, San Jacinto, Trinity and Walker counties — the Texas counties for which FEMA announced a major disaster declaration on May 17.
The group created a legal hotline and website to connect affected low-income individuals with local legal aid providers who can assist with:
- Securing government benefits as they are made available to disaster victims;
- Life, medical and property insurance claims;
- Home repair contracts and contractors;
- Replacing wills and other important legal documents lost or destroyed in the disaster;
- Consumer protection issues like price-gouging and avoiding contractor scams in the rebuilding process;
- Mortgage-foreclosure legal problems; and
- Landlord-tenant disputes.
Hotline: 1-866-659-0666
Those who qualify for pro bono legal aid can also visittexaslegalanswers.org, an online Q&A-style service run by the ABA and the Texas Legal Services Center, where individuals pose specific questions related to disaster civil legal issues and volunteer attorneys answer them.
Additional disaster recovery resources are available at texasbar.com/disaster, texaslawhelp.organdlonestarlegal.org/services/disaster-relief. For more information on Texas recovery, follow FEMA on X.
— On May 14, the Houston Bar Association held its Annual Dinner event, which marked the official start to the 2024-2025 operating year and new HBA President David Harrell’s term.
Harrell, a partner at Locke Lord and co-chair of the firm’s litigation department, succeeds Chamberlain Hrdlicka’s Diana Gomez, the organization’s first Latina president. Harrell has served on the HBA’s board of directors for eight years and as chair of Houston Volunteer Lawyers, the HBA’s pro bono affiliate.
“I’m immensely passionate about this organization, and strive to continue advancing our legal profession and ensuring the Houston Bar Association remains a pillar of support and excellence within the Houston community and beyond,” Harrell told The Texas Lawbook. “Most importantly, I’m eager to work with my close colleagues [to] implement meaningful change and positively impact the communities in which we live and work.”
During his presidency, Harrell plans to prioritize reinforcing “HBA’s role as a unifying organization for the Houston legal community,” including focusing on the HBA’s Living History Project, which captures video interviews of local icons of the profession; educating HBA members as Texas officially opens the new statewide business specialty courts; and ensuring “we remain committed to providing avenues for our members to serve their community” by leveraging the HBA’s committee structure to better serve members and elevating the visibility of HVL and the Houston Lawyer Referral Service.
“We are always focused on growing our membership, but at the same time, we want to ensure that we are maximizing the value of the Houston Bar Association to its members,” Harrell said. “We are focusing our efforts internally on existing programs and committees. We are emphasizing the role HBA plays relative to other local, affinity and specialty bar organizations in the greater Houston area.”
During the Annual Dinner, the HBA also handed out awards to two judges and one lawyer.
Judge Carolyn Dineen King of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit received the Justice Ruby Kleiss Sondock Award, which recognizes someone who demonstrates outstanding achievement and leadership for women in the law.
U.S. District Judge Keith Ellison of the Southern District of Texas and Tritico Rainey name partner Christopher Tritico received the Eugene A. Cook Professionalism Award, the HBA’s highest honor for professionalism.
Abraham Watkins managing partner Benny Agosto, Jr. received the Exemplary Service to the Legal Profession and Community Award. Agosto was the HBA’s 2019-2020 president and is a current board member of the Houston Bar Foundation.
Other 2024-2025 HBA board members include:
- Bracewell partner Jeff Oldham (first vice president);
- Womble Bond Dickinson partner Danielle Landers (president elect);
- Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher partner Collin Cox (second vice president);
- BakerHostetler partner Greg Ulmer (treasurer);
- Hunton Andrews Kurth partner Kaylan Dunn (secretary);
- Chamberlain Hrdlicka partner Diana Gomez (immediate past president);
- Baker Botts partner Keri Brown (director);
- Norton Rose Fulbright partner Carter Dugan (director);
- O’Neil Wysocki partner Todd Frankfort (director);
- Blank Rome partner Greg Moore (director);
- Painter Law Firm name partner Robert Painter (director);
- Beck Redden partner Seepan V. Parseghian (director);
- Daly & Black shareholder Colin Pogge (director); and
- Okin Adams Bartlett Curry associate Samantha Torres (director).
— Gov. Greg Abbott has re-appointed two Texas lawyers, Michael Parker of Weatherford and Robert G. “Bob” Wright II of Dallas, to the state’s OneStar Foundation. Founded by the state of Texas in 1974, the OneStar Foundation provides technical assistance, education, information and other support to Texas’ extensive volunteer community and works to improve and strengthen the state’s volunteerism and community service infrastructure.
Parker, founding and managing partner of Parker PLLC, specializes in fraud recovery matters and has a practice that spans cargo/trucking litigation to civil RICO claims to complex civil litigation to labor and employment. He has military service experience in the Texas and California reserves, currently holding the rank of major in the Texas State Guard. He has served on OneStar Foundation’s board since 2019.
Wright is the founder of Wright.law, a business law firm that advises clients in litigation, corporate transactional, restructuring and insolvency, growth stage capital, nonprofit and real estate matters. He is also a senior lecturer in entrepreneurship and social entrepreneurship at the University of Texas at Dallas. He founded and serves as chairman emeritus of Social Venture Partners Dallas, an initiative that seeks to apply venture capital principles to philanthropy.
— Throughout the month of June, the Dallas Volunteer Attorney Program will host 12 pro bono legal clinics — some in-person, some virtually — where low-income residents in need of civil legal advice and consult with volunteer attorneys for free. DVAP is the pro bono arm of the Dallas Bar Association which is a joint venture with Legal Aid of NorthWest Texas. This month includes three special clinics: two separate name change and gender marker clinics and one bankruptcy legal clinic.
Virtual clinics (all run from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.)
June 6: DVAP, DBA Entrepreneurs in Community Lawyering, SMU Dedman School of Law and JPMorgan Chase
June 7 (Veterans clinic): DVAP and Bradley Arant Boult Cummings
June 13: DVAP and DLA Piper
June 20: DVAP and Alston & Bird
June 27: DVAP and Haynes Boone
June 25 & June 27: Name change and gender marker clinic
Those interested in receiving virtual pro bono legal advice can apply here.
In-person clinics
Veterans clinic: June 7 at 1:30 p.m. at the VA Medical Center (4500 S. Lancaster Rd., Dallas). Sponsored by DVAP, Foley & Lardner and Frost Brown Todd
South Dallas clinic: June 11 at 5 p.m. at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Center (2922 Martin Luther King Blvd., Dallas). Sponsored by DVAP and Dorsey & Whitney
Bankruptcy legal clinic: June 13 at 5:30 p.m. at the West Dallas Multipurpose Center (2828 Fish Trap Rd., Dallas). Sponsored by DVAP and Solo Volunteers
East Dallas clinic: June 20 at 5 p.m. at Grace United Methodist Church (4105 Junius, Dallas). Sponsored by DVAP and Solo Volunteers
South Dallas clinic: June 25 at 5 p.m. at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Center (2922 Martin Luther King Blvd., Dallas). Sponsored by DVAP, Carrington Coleman and Gray Reed
West Dallas clinic: June 27 at 5 p.m. at the West Dallas Multipurpose Center (2828 Fish Trap Rd., Dallas). Sponsored by DVAP and Weil, Gotshal & Manges