PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE

By ROCKY ROBINSON Andrews Kurth LLP

The Torch Passes

When I passed the gavel on May 18, 2005 to my successor, Randy Sorrels, my time as president of the Houston Bar Association came to an end. As president of this outstanding organization, I followed in and tried to fill some mighty big shoes of a very talented group of predecessors. I am not sure that I adequately filled those shoes during my term. However, with the help and support of many, the HBA remains strong, a bar association that is admired, looked up to and is a model for other bar associations in Texas and around the country.
As an organization we have achieved much this year. Each of our 11,500+ members should be proud of your accomplishments:

• Record setting book and clothing drives in support of children, the homeless and the less fortunate among us in Houston (Rebecca Turini and Elizabeth Black Berry, co-chairs, and Barrett Reasoner and Kathy Garner, co-chairs, respectively).

• We raised a record amount of money, almost $300,000, at our Annual Harvest Party which went to the Houston Bar Foundation, the primary benefactor of our Houston Volunteer Lawyers Program (Randy Sorrels, chair).

• We funded and built our sixth Habitat house (David Chang and Todd Lonergan, co-chairs). The dedication of the home will occur in late June.

• We celebrated the 20th anniversary of the John J. Eikenburg Law Week Fun Run (Shayne Newell and Tom Stilwell, co-chairs) which raised over $60,000 for The Center Serving Persons with Mental Retardation. To date, the annual Fun Run has now raised over $623,000 for the Center.

• In a two-week period this past January, our members reached into their pockets and donated almost $70,000 for the victims of the Tsunami which killed almost 200,000 citizens in over ten countries in southern Asia. The seeds of the Tsunami Relief initiative were planted by the Asian-American Bar Association and South Asian Bar Association, two of our sister bar associations in Houston.

• Over the past year we have also forged a new working relationship and partnership with the Houston Area Women’s Center. Through the collaborative efforts of HAWC, the Harris County judiciary and the HBA, our members, through our Houston Volunteer Lawyers Program, will soon be providing targeted legal assistance to the families and children of those who are victims of domestic violence, which from an economic and emotional standpoint is one of the most serious problems our society faces today.

• We continued our popular and successful CLE programs for our members. A prime example is the Civil Bench Bar Conference (Judge Tracy Christopher and Travis Sales, co-chairs) which was held this past April. The programs were excellent; we had record attendance and, of course, the opportunity to get to know our Harris County judiciary on a more personal level outside of the formal courtroom setting. While on the subject of CLE, I would be remiss if I failed to remind our members that each of you can satisfy your annual CLE requirements, free of charge, through attendance at HBA-sponsored programs (Hon. Janice Pardue and Gordon Arnold, co-chairs) on Thursday mornings and Friday afternoons.

• We also welcomed two new sections to the Houston Bar Association: the Collaborative Law Section and the Mergers and Acquisition Section, bringing the total number of HBA sections to 27.
Our Minority Opportunities in the Legal Profession Committee (Faye Rodman, Suewan Johnson and Bruce Ruzinsky, co-chairs) has enjoyed continued success with its first year summer clerkship program, having placed 22 first year law students as summer associates for this coming summer.
Lawyers In Public Schools (Darin Brooks, Harding Erwin, Jr. and Michael Essmyer, co-chairs) was reinvigorated and forged a new relationship with the Spring Branch Independent School District.

• Our Gender Fairness Task Force (Claudia Frost and Neil Wilcox, co-chairs) sponsored several successful programs this year and continues to educate our members and the bar about career and workplace issues unique to women in the practice of law.

• As a result of the generosity of our membership, the HBA’s Year of Giving Blood Drive exceeded its annual goal in only nine months, giving the gift of life to thousands in the Houston area.

These are just a few of our members’ many accomplishments over the past year. Space does not permit me to list them all and I am certain I have forgotten some, for which I sincerely apologize.
I take credit for none of this. The credit goes to our thousands of members who give generously of their time and money to our programs within the HBA and to the Houston Bar Association’s various community service programs, some of which, along with their accomplishments, are described above. The successes we enjoy are attributable to the leadership and the members of our 39 committees and task forces and our 27 sections. This is where the rubber meets the road. Our committees and sections are where the real work of the HBA gets done. It is where we, as an organization, serve our members and give back to the community in which we live.
In my judgment, there are no better volunteers than those within the HBA. A couple of weeks ago I spent a Saturday morning helping build this year’s HBA Habitat house. I was paired with a young lawyer, just out of law school and looking for a job. This young man, without a job, had spent each and every Saturday of the HBA Habitat build working with the other volunteers in the hot sun. I was struck by not only his dedication to the project but also by the enthusiasm with which he went about his work. The example of this young lawyer is just one of many which exemplifies the dedication of our members to our profession and our community.
It is now Randy’s turn. He will provide us with outstanding leadership. It has been a privilege to serve as your president over the past year. Thank you for the opportunity. Do not ever forget what we are about: service to our profession and service to our community.

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