FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 4, 2006

Contact: Laura Figueroa
 512.320.0099 x.104 (office)
 512.659.4750 (mobile)
 

SUPREME COURT OF TEXAS PRESENTS LETTERS OF COMMENDATION TO FACULTY OF TEXAS ACCESS TO JUSTICE COMMISSION TRAINING ACADEMIES

AUSTIN, Texas. The Supreme Court of Texas presented letters of commendation to the following individuals for their leadership in developing and implementing the Texas Access to Justice Commission’s 2006 Texas Trial Academy and 2006 Texas Motions and Appellate Advocacy Academy:

Mike McKetta (Graves Dougherty Hearon & Moody/Austin)
Course Director, 2006 Texas Trial Academy
Emerson “Buddy” Banack Jr. (Langley & Banack/San Antonio)
Chair, American College of Trial Lawyers - Texas Fellows
William Boyce (Fulbright & Jaworski/Houston)
Course Director, 2006 Texas Motions and Appellate Advocacy Academy
Warren Harris (Bracewell & Giuliani/Houston)
Chair, State Bar of Texas Appellate Section

The letters of commendation were presented at the Texas Equal Access to Justice Foundation’s annual luncheon with the Supreme Court of Texas on September 28, 2006.

The following faculty members for the 2006 Texas Trial Academy were named in the letters of commendation from the Court:

Amarillo: Marty Jones (Sprouse Shrader Smith)
Austin: Tom Watkins (Brown McCarroll); Pat Lochridge (McGinnis Lochridge & Kilgore); Don Davis (Byrd Davis Eisenberg Walter & Furman); George Butts (DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary US); Dan Bishop (Bishop London Brophy & Dodds); Larry York (York Keller & Field); Terry Tottenham (Fulbright & Jaworski); Shannon Ratliff (Ratliff Law Firm); Broadus Spivey (Law Offices of Broadus Spivey); Steve McConnico (Scott Douglass & McConnico); Tommy Jacks (Jacks Law Firm); and Bill Whitehurst (Whitehurst Harkness Ozum & Brees)
Corpus Christi: Jorge Rangel (The Rangel Law Firm); Tony Canales (Canales & Simonson)
Corsicana: Glen Sodd (Dawson & Sodd)
Dallas: Bob Mow (Hughes & Luce); Jerry Clements (Locke Liddell & Sapp); Jerry Beane (Andrews & Kurth)
Fort Worth: R.H. Wallace (Shannon Gracey Ratliff & Miller)
Houston: Ed Junell (Schwartz, Junell, Greenberg & Oathout); Knox Nunnally (Vinson & Elkins); Tom Cunningham (Cunningham Welsh Darlow Zook & Chapoton); Larry Boyd (Fisher Boyd Brown Boudreaux & Huguenard); Reagan Simpson (King & Spalding); Murray Fogler (McDade Fogler); J. Christopher Reynolds (Gibb & Bruns); Lee Godfrey (Susman Godfrey)
McAllen: Chuck Murray (Atlas & Hall)
San Antonio: Cynthia Grimes (Ball & Weed); Lamont Jefferson (Haynes & Boone)
Tyler: Tom Henson (Ramey & Flock)

The following faculty members of the 2006 Texas Motions and Appellate Advocacy Academy were named in the letters of commendation from the Court:

Austin: Elizabeth G. Bloch (Brown McCarroll); Mike Truesdale (Diamond McCarthy Taylor Finley Bryant & Lee); Philip Durst (Deats Durst Owen and Levy); and Elana Einhorn (Law Offices of Deborah Hankinson)
Houston: Robert DuBose (Cook & Roach)

James B. Sales, chair of the Texas Access to Justice Commission, praised the generosity of the volunteer faculty members.

“These Fellows of the American College of Trial Lawyers and members of the State Bar's Appellate Section donated their time, talent and unique skills to enhance the trial techniques of legal aid lawyers,” Sales said. “The Commission simply could not have achieved this level of training without them, as the Texas Supreme Court's letters of commendation clearly acknowledge. These exceptional lawyers volunteered for the academies because they understand, as the Court does, the importance of the work that legal aid lawyers do every day for the poor people of Texas.”

The Texas Trial Academy and the Texas Motions and Appellate Advocacy Academy, created by the Texas Access to Justice Commission, are designed to empower legal aid attorneys through intensive training on case preparation and litigation skills.
 
The Texas Access to Justice Commission (www.TexasATJ.org) was created in 2001 by the Supreme Court of Texas to develop and implement policy initiatives designed to expand access to and enhance the quality of justice in civil legal matters for low-income Texans. The Commission has created several initiatives to increase resources for and awareness of legal aid, including the domestic violence Protective Order Kit, the Texas Student Loan Repayment Assistance Program, and www.TexasLawHelp.org, an online resource for free legal information.

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