Texas lawyers perform thousands of hours of pro bono annually. They and their law firms give millions of dollars to charities and nonprofit organizations.
Despite the efforts, the need for more lawyers to meet the legal needs of low-income Texans is increasing exponentially.
For these two reasons and to celebrate the publication’s eighth anniversary, The Texas Lawbook is creating a full-time reporter position to write about pro bono and public service in the legal, investment banking and private equity communities.
The new reporter will publish articles celebrating the great pro bono work lawyers are doing, while also writing about the legal profession’s shortcomings in serving our communities.
The articles will focus on partnerships between corporate in-house counsel and their outside lawyers on pro bono projects, individual cases handled by Texas attorneys and financial contributions by lawyers and firms to charitable causes. But the writer also will do more in-depth reporting, such as shedding light on unmet legal needs for the poor.
The Texas Lawbook is pleased to be able to create this new position as we officially complete our eighth year of operation. We have much to celebrate, including:
- Going from zero subscribers in 2011 to more than 13,500 paid subscribers today;
- Having 2,600 corporate in-house counsel who subscribe;
- Reaching an even larger business community audience thanks to our partnerships with the Dallas Business Journal and Houston Chronicle, which publish shorter versions of Lawbook stories; and
- Partnering with the Association of Corporate Counsel’s DFW and Houston chapters, which have 2,000 members combined. The centerpiece of these joint ventures is our annual Corporate Counsel Awards events.
The Lawbook is committed to making 2020 our best year ever. We are adding resources, including the pro bono reporter position. We are increasing our coverage of general counsel and corporate in-house attorneys, including more in-depth profiles of key leaders of corporate legal departments. We are upgrading our Corporate Deal Tracker database for M&A and securities offerings. We are covering more trials gavel-to-gavel.
Our staff is also committed to doing even more in-depth and substantive legal journalism, including upcoming projects on diversity, the #MeToo movement in Texas, campaign contributions to judicial candidates and attacks on the right to trial by jury.
The new pro bono reporter also will do in-depth projects.
To fund this position, The Texas Lawbook is creating The Texas Lawbook Foundation, a nonprofit organization that will employ the reporter and assist with other pro bono and public service efforts.
Starting Jan. 1, The Texas Lawbook will generate revenues for this pro bono reporting position from three sources, including:
- All Texas Lawbook subscription revenues generated from corporate in-house legal departments;
- All revenues from corporate in-house counsel for sponsorships and ticket purchases related to the annual Corporate Counsel Awards, co-hosted by the Association of Corporate Counsel chapters in DFW and Houston; and
- Donations and sponsorships from law firms, individual lawyers and businesses.
Because the pro bono reporter will be paid through the Texas Lawbook Foundation, all of the articles by the writer will be free (no subscription required) and will be offered to the Houston Chronicle and Dallas Business Journal for republication.
In addition, the new Texas Lawbook pro bono reporter will work closely with the Association of Corporate Counsel’s pro bono committees in Texas to promote the volunteer efforts those groups are doing.
The Lawbook will announce more details about the Texas Lawbook Foundation and the new pro bono reporter position in the next two months. For more information, please contact Texas Lawbook publisher Brooks Igo (brooks.igo@texaslawbook.net).