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First Harris County Bench Bar Pro Bono Awards The Harris County judiciary, in conjunction with the Harris County bar, presented the first Harris County Bench Bar Pro Bono Awards to law firms, a corporate legal department and an individual in an inaugural ceremony on April 29th at the Harris County Civil Courthouse. The keynote speaker was Justice George C. Hanks, Jr. of the First Court of Appeals. The awards program was established to recognize outstanding pro bono service through local legal service providers, and to encourage law firms, corporate legal departments and individual attorneys to volunteer direct legal services to low-income Harris County residents. A committee of seven judges and five attorneys selected the recipients in five self-nominated categories Judges presented the following awards for outstanding service:
“On behalf of the Harris County judges, I want to congratulate these recipients, and thank them for their contributions to ensuring equal access to justice for all,” said Harris County Administrative Judge Joseph J. “Tad” Halbach, Jr. “Those lawyers, firms and companies that excel in providing access to justice for those in need deserve our recognition and praise,” said Houston Bar Association president, Travis J. Sales. “We want to thank the Harris County judges for helping to make this program a reality.” Each year, the award winners names will be featured on permanent plaques in the lobbies of the Civil Courthouse, Criminal Justice Center, Family Law Center and Juvenile Justice Center in downtown Houston.
Remarks of Justice George C. Hanks, Jr. Keynote Speaker, Harris County Bench Bar Pro Bono Awards “Why is it so important that we gather here today and acknowledge the achievements of this year’s pro bono award recipients? I submit to you that the answer to this question can be found in the words that my father once spoke to me as a young boy: ‘In the end, a man’s life will not be measured in terms of the physical possessions that he gathered during his life, but rather his life will be measured in terms of the impact that he made on the lives of those he left behind.’ “In other words, a person’s life will be measured by how they chose to live their life in the service of others. For our lives are all too short, and, when we are gone, all that will be left of our hopes, our dreams, who we were and what we wanted to accomplish during life, will be reflected in the kind of world we choose to leave behind and in the lives of those who follow us. By this measure of one’s life, this year’s pro bono award honorees are among the richest people in the world. For through their pro bono service, they are fulfilling their potential as members of the bar and, as leaders, they are truly making a difference in our society. “Our honorees truly understand what it means to be a lawyer in today’s society. They understand that when we take the oath to become members of the bar, we make a decision to become part of something far larger than ourselves. “They understand the burden we accept as lawyers of having others place in our care the things that matter the most to them – their lives, their families, and their livelihoods – and the pledge that we make to help them resolve the problems in their lives that they may be powerless to resolve on their own. They understand that when we take that oath, we accept the awesome responsibility of being a leader in our society. “They understand that, as lawyers and leaders in our communities, the morals and values that we display in our lives will become the morals and values of society around us. Because: “If we, as lawyers, care—Society will care. “If we, as lawyers, act—Society will act. “If we, like this year’s honorees, just slow down and use our talents selflessly and with compassion in the service of others – Society will do the same. I submit to you that this is the kind of world that we all want to live in and this is the kind of world that we all want to leave for our children, and their children after them. That is why we are here to honor our recipients today and that is why we must all aspire to emulate their achievements in our everyday lives. “I know that many of you are thinking right now, well Justice Hanks this all sounds great but in the REAL world I just don’t have time for pro bono work. I’ve got bills to pay and commitments to my spouse and family to honor. How can I really make a difference anyway? “Regardless of whether you work in a large multi-national law firm or as a solo practitioner, the opportunities for pro bono service are limited only by your imagination. For, in your quest to honor your oath as a member of the bar through the pursuit of pro bono service, you follow in the footsteps of many Texas lawyers just like you, whose names and faces you may not know, whose lives you may have never known, but whose dedication to the principles of the law and pro bono service lives on through every member of the bar. “You walk in the footsteps of lawyers such as Peter Gray, who in 1847 was a 27-year-old, bright, up and coming member of the bar. Gray, without any expectation of payment and with great potential cost to his own life and career, represented a young, illiterate former slave from Louisiana named Emeline. As a result of Gray’s work, Emeline won back her freedom after she was captured in Harris County and declared the property of a prominent Houston landowner. Gray went on to serve as the first president of the fledgling Houston Bar Association and later as a district court judge in Harris County and a justice on the Texas Supreme Court. Later in his career, Gray combined his offices with two colleagues, James Baker and Thomas Botts, to form the law firm of Gray, Baker & Botts. This firm later became known as Baker & Botts L.L.P., and every day, you probably drive down the Houston city street named after him, West Gray. “More recently, you walk in the shoes of individuals like George P. Parker, Jr. a lawyer at Bracewell & Guiliani, who helped Ted Draper, an 81-year-old World War II Army Navajo code talker, an unsung American hero, obtain the medical benefits and recognition he deserved from a grateful nation. As a result of government-mandated secrecy, the courageous actions of Private Draper and many others of his tribe during World War II had been forgotten by our government for almost 60 years. The actions of individuals like Peter Gray and George Parker show us all that one person committed to the ideals of pro bono service can truly make a difference in our world. Each one of us, as members of the bar, are their legacy. “In closing I am reminded of the words of Canadian Nellie McClung who, when asked why she dedicated so much of her time and effort to helping others with little expectation of recognition or praise, said, ‘I do not want to pull through life like a thread through the eye of a needle that has no knot. I want to leave something behind when I go; some small legacy of truth, some work that will shine in a dark place.’ “What has carried each one of this year’s honorees to their places as a members of the Bar, what we all share as lawyers, is our unwillingness to just ‘pull through life.’ Through pro bono service, you can become, in Nellie McClung’s words, knotted threads, and, by your conduct as lawyers, you will leave a legacy of justice and the law for all to see. At the end of the day, while your physical possessions may fade away with time, the impact that you made as a lawyer on the lives of those around you will live on forever. The spark of brilliance, the flame of pro bono service with which you will warm us all is that ‘small legacy of truth’ of which Nellie McClung speaks. The glow from your endeavors will help make us a society that promises that by using our talents to help each other we can achieve as a society what we cannot achieve alone. On behalf of all the members of our bar, I congratulate this year’s pro bono award honorees on this wonderful achievement and challenge us all to follow in their footsteps.”
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