National Pro Bono Week, October 25-31

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The 2020 celebration of National Pro Bono Week takes place October 25-31. Legal organizations across the country have organized events to raise awareness of the need for pro bono services and to celebrate the initiatives of those engaged in pro bono legal work. For a list of National Pro Bono Week events, please visit the sites below.

Houston Bar Association Events

  • Houston Pro Bono: A Call to Action — Houston Volunteer Lawyers (October 27, 12:00 pm, MCLE: 1.0 hour & Ethics: 0.5) Click here to register.

    Join Justice Jane Bland, Mayor Sylvester Turner, Monica Karuturi, Jeff Kaplan, Kelly Rose, Michael Donaldson, Bill Kroger, Mindy Davidson, and Anne Chandler in this call to action to ensure all Houstonians are able to access justice

If you are a licensed Texas attorney and would like to volunteer to provide pro bono services, contact the Houston Volunteer Lawyers or visit HVL online.

Hispanic and Latinx Lawyers You Should Know

Today is the final day of National Hispanic Heritage Month, and we are highlighting prominent attorneys of Hispanic or Latin American heritage. “According to statistics from the Hispanic National Bar Association (HNBA),” NBC News reports, “Hispanics – who are 18 percent of the population – comprise about 4 percent of U.S. lawyers. For Latinas, these numbers are even smaller; Latinas account for less than 2 percent of American lawyers.” Though these terms are sometimes used as if they were synonyms, “Hispanic” refers to descendants of Spanish speaking populations, whereas “Latina/o/x” refers to descendants of any Latin American population.

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Ted Cruz is not only a United States Senator from Texas, but by any measure he is also one of the most accomplished attorneys in the United States. A Cuban American, and a Houstonian from his youth, Cruz earned his JD at Harvard Law, where he was a Primary Editor of the Harvard Law Review, and was a founding General Editor of the Harvard Latino Law Review. Cruz clerked for a time after graduation, culminating in a year clerking for Chief Justice William Rehnquist. He was the first Hispanic clerk to a Chief Justice in history. Still in his 20s, Cruz entered private practice while becoming known as a rising star in conservative politics. In the year 2000, he served as an advisor to then-Presidential-candidate George W. Bush. In 2003, he became Texas Solicitor General, and over the five years in that role argued an incredible eight cases before the Supreme Court. After another stint in private practice, Cruz was elected Senator in 2013, and re-elected in 2017. He has spent his time in that body spearheading the fight to repeal the Affordable Care Act, and passionately championing various conservative causes.

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Sonia Sotomayor comes from the other side of the country and, as an Obama appointee, the other side of the political spectrum. Raised in the Bronx, she is of Puerto Rican descent. Like Senator Cruz, Justice Sotomayor earned her Bachelor’s degree at Princeton University. She obtained her JD from Yale Law, where she served as an Editor on the Yale Law Journal and co-chaired the Latin and Native American Students Association. Upon graduation, she was hired on as an Assistant District Attorney for the Manhattan District in New York, then entered private practice five years later as an intellectual property attorney. Sotomayor was appointed to the Federal bench by President George H. W. Bush in 1991, where she gained notoriety as the judge who saved Major League Baseball in 1995. In 1997, she was appointed to the Second Circuit by President Clinton, and then to the Supreme Court by President Obama in 2009.

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Sandra Guerra Thompson is the Newell H. Blakely Professor in Law and Director of the Criminal Justice Institute at the University of Houston Law Center, a powerhouse in the Houston legal scene, and one of the most prominent figures in American criminal justice reform. A native of Laredo, like Senator Cruz and Justice Sotomayor she is a double Ivy League graduate; she obtained both her Bachelors and her JD from Yale. Then-Mayor-of-Houston Annise Parker appointed her as a founding Director on the Board of the Houston Forensic Science Center. Professor Thompson is an elected member of the American Law Institute, and took a high profile role in the fight for bail reform here in Harris County. Recently, she has been at the forefront of the movement to raise accountability for law enforcement involved in shootings. This past Tuesday, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner presented her with the Hispanic Heritage Education in the Community Award.

Further Reading:

Celebrating the 105th Anniversary of the Harris County Law Library

This day, October 1, 2020, marks the 105th Anniversary of the founding of the Harris County Law Library. Every day, we are committed to promoting open and equal access to justice for all, including self-represented litigants and the local legal community.

Since the celebration of our Centennial in 2015, the Law Library has continued to grow and evolve. We are especially proud of our ability to adapt our services during this unprecedented public health crisis and to continue responding to the legal needs of Harris County residents. We aim to serve individuals whose legal concerns are just as pressing as ever, despite interruptions in the judicial system. We are also working diligently to support the reference and research needs of local attorneys who are working remotely but still need access to all the library has to offer.

Virtual Reference Desk

The Law Library’s Virtual Reference Desk is here to help with your legal research needs during this time of public health concern. Our law librarians are available via email and voicemail to assist with access to legal research materials. The Law Library has worked with vendors like Westlaw, Lexis Advance, Lexis eBooks, HeinOnline, and State Bar of Texas Practice Manuals to make documents available to you remotely. Email the Law Library reference staff or give us a call. We answer nearly 250 reference questions each month from self-represented litigants, attorneys, paralegals, and librarians, and we’re happy to help you, too!

Live Chat Reference

The Texas State Law Library and the Harris County Law Library have teamed up to provide online chat reference assistance Monday through Friday from 1:30 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. During this three-hour block of real-time interaction with law librarians from both institutions, we receive a steady stream of questions on everything from agriculture to zoning. If you would like to communicate with a member of the reference team directly, find us five days a week in Chat!

Remote-Access Digital Resources

The Law Library provides a one-stop landing page for different library patrons based on their unique information needs. To learn about accessing our electronic resources remotely, visit the Digital Resources page. Here you will find links assembled for various patron groups including Self-Represented Litigants, Legal Researchers, Educators, and the Courts.

With so much growth in recent years, we are excited to see what the future holds. We are eager to implement even more new ideas as we begin our next year of service to the Harris County community. We will continue to embrace and be responsive to the changes taking place in society at large. On the occasion of our anniversary, we are renewing our commitment to serving Harris County residents and the local legal community, no matter how changes brought about by the ongoing public health crisis may shape our methods of delivering the best legal reference service possible.

I Have a Dream

Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. — Martin Luther King, Jr., March on Washington, August 28, 1963

The organizations linked below feature information and resources about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., his life, and his legacy. Today, on the anniversary of Dr. King’s famous I Have a Dream Speech, 100,000 demonstrators are expected to gather at the footsteps of the Lincoln Memorial for the 2020 National Action Network Commitment March. View the live stream of the event here.