Racism and discrimination in the Texas legal profession

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During the summer of 2020, Texas attorneys became enraged over comments that State Bar of Texas President Larry McDougal made on Facebook about Black Lives Matter and other topics. The fiasco launched a wide discussion about ongoing issues of racism, sexism and discrimination in the legal profession. Lawyers pushed for reform, and the Texas Bar began to study potential changes.

I covered the news with a series of articles.

Lawyers Call On Texas Bar President to Resign Over Black Lives Matter Comments

Attorneys are calling on State Bar of Texas President Larry McDougal to resign because of online comments about the Black Lives Matter movement. He has apologized, but other bar leaders have condemned his comments.

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McDougal Must Go? Directors Call for Texas Bar President’s Ouster Amid #BLM Controversy

Some board of director members are calling on Larry McDougal to resign as State Bar of Texas president, but McDougal has no plans to do so.

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Amid Controversy, Texas Minority Lawyers Call for Action Against Racism in Profession

A broad coalition of minority lawyer groups–local bars for Black lawyers, and those representing Asian American, Hispanic, LGBT, Native American, minority and women lawyers–is calling for action to address systemic racism in the legal profession.

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‘Shame Is Not Strong Enough’: Texas Bar Meeting Sees 61 Speakers Line Up to Address Larry McDougal’s Online Comments

Sixty-one attorneys voiced their opinions about State Bar of Texas president Larry McDougal’s controversial online comments at a specially called board meeting Monday.

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Texas Bar Board Pledges Action to Erase Systemic Racism, Boost Diversity After Marathon Meeting Over Larry McDougal’s Comments

The board of directors of the State Bar of Texas created two new groups to research action to erase systemic racism in the bar and promote diversity and inclusion, and asked bar committees to study two specific proposals that came from public comments.

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‘People Are Livid’: Lawyers React to Texas Bar Committee’s Decision on Implicit-Bias Training

“There are a lot of things in this country and things in the world where people got upset. But you do what is right because it is right,” said Rudy Metayer, chairman of the State Bar of Texas African American Lawyers Section.

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Investigation into the Wood County justice system

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magnifying glass

Buried within a 26-page lawsuit, which I covered as a daily story, was one sentence about a Texas district attorney resigning because he was being investigated for official oppression. Curious, I asked the plaintiff’s lawyer if she knew why the prosecutor was under investigation.

The investigation report that she emailed me prompted me to start my own investigation, and report a series of four stories about how the DA was sexually harassing his first assistant, the drastic affect his behavior had on that female career-prosecutor.

In the midst of newsgathering, I also uncovered a judicial sanction against the district judge in their area for interfering in another court’s cases to benefit his own court coordinator. A deeper dive into appeals and court records from the same judge’s court revealed his propensity for making baseless allegations in angry emails and for calling lawyers and litigants liars, which could amount to judicial misconduct.

Here’s the series:

Report: Ex-Texas DA Jim Wheeler Was Under Investigation for Sexual Harassment When He Resigned
link | PDF

Female Texas Prosecutor Speaks Out About Alleged Sexual Harassment by Ex-DA
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Sanction: Texas Judge Interfered in Cases to Help His Ex-Court Coordinator, Who’s Now District Clerk
link | PDF

Texas Judge’s Hot Temper, Stern Tongue Revealed in Court Records
link | PDF

The Persecution of Alfred Brown: Texas AG, Police Conspired to Punish Innocent Man

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I did a Texas Public Information Act request that revealed that the Houston Police Officers’ Union in a June letter urged the Texas comptroller’s office and attorney general’s to deny wrongful-incarceration compensation to a man who was wrongfully convicted of murdering a police officer.

The records also showed that high-level executive staff in both offices met in person to discuss Alfred Dewayne Brown’s compensation application. Just four days later, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton pushed four reasons to deny the money in a letter to Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar. A staff member in Hegar’s office cited one of those reasons in a letter that denied the compensation; Brown is appealing to the Texas Supreme Court.

The records also showed that Paxton’s office launched an investigation into one of Brown’s longtime pro bono attorneys. Although two prosecutors have found the allegation unfounded, Paxton began investigating the attorney for an allegation that he offered $2,000 to a death row inmate if he would change his testimony that said Brown was at the scene of the murder.

In addition, a criminal investigator in Paxton’s office indicated in an email a desire to assist the opposing side in a civil lawsuit that Brown has filed over his wrongful conviction.

Read the series:

The Persecution of Alfred Brown: Texas AG, Police Conspired to Punish Innocent Man
Texaslawyer.com link | PDF

A DA Cleared Him. But a Pro Bono Attorney May Still Be Under Bribery Investigation by State AG
Texaslawyer.com link | PDF

Former Chief Justice Joins Fight for Ex-Death Row Texas Man
Texaslawyer.com link | PDF

Blockchain for Beginners: It’s touted as the future of journalism, but what is it?

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web of ropes

Photo by Clint Adair on Unsplash

By Angela Morris (Quill, Spring 2019)

Blockchain technology and cryptocurrency could add new revenue streams for journalism. Or perhaps they are nothing more than distractions from the industry’s drastic problems.

It depends who you ask.

Proponents say that blockchain technology and cryptocurrency could open a new revenue stream for journalism, create permanence of news archives and give readers a new way to engage with news and journalists.

On the other side, there’s doubt whether the technology can solve any of the dire problems the industry has faced with the rise of the internet and siphoning of ad revenue.

Read the rest of this story in Quill’s Spring 2019 issue.

Blockchain For BeginnersDownload

About Angela Morris, Austin-based multimedia journalist

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Angela Morris

I am an Austin, Texas-based multimedia journalist with a passion for covering stories about social justice, gender equity, diversity and inclusion, working parents, mental health and more. I’m primarily a reporter and writer, but also have skills in podcast hosting, videography, photography and web production. 

Currently, as the Texas litigation reporter for ALM Media, I write about lawsuits, the criminal and civil justice systems, lawyers and judges, and new legislation. 

Since entering the journalism business professionally in 2006, I’ve worked for a long-established newspaper in one of Texas’s major metro areas, covered hyperlocal news for a Houston media startup and freelanced for the nation’s major wire services. I’ve covered all branches of Texas state government at all levels.

I became was a freelance journalist from 2016 to March 2019, and my work appeared in national legal newspapers, magazines and websites such as the National Law Journal, American Lawyer, the ABA Journal, The National Jurist and law.com. I’ve also written about the journalism industry for Quill magazine and covered cryptocurrency and blockchain technology for various publications.

I graduated in 2006 with top honors from The University of Texas at Austin with duel degrees in journalism and government.

Women Push for Lactation Rooms in Courthouses

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By Angela Morris (law.com, March 12, 2019)

In courthouses across the country lawyer moms still have no option but to express their breast milk in public bathrooms, where they face frequent interruptions and unsanitary conditions.

But some women lawyers are pushing to change the lack of breastfeeding accommodations in courthouses. They’ve succeeded in getting the American Bar Association House of Delegates in January to pass a resolution to encourage federal, state and local courts to create properly-equipped lactation areas.

Now it’s on to the next step: to get key decision-makers like court administrators and chief justices on board and show them easy, workable solutions to accommodate nursing lawyers, witnesses, jurors and the public.

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I’m launching AMorrisReports Monthly, an email newsletter

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Click here to subscribe to AMorrisReports Monthly, an email newsletter featuring summaries and links to my recent stories. I’ll note upcoming events or developments that warrant updates, and alternative angles for future coverage. If you’re an editor and you’re interested in my stories, please contact me. Also reach out if you’re a source or communications professional with news tips or story ideas.

Mass shootings prompt bar associations to offer pro bono services to survivors and victims’ families

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By Angela Morris (ABA Journal, March 2019)

A wide array of legal issues arise for survivors and victims’ family members in the wake of mass shootings. Probate matters are common—easier when the victim had a will, and harder with young or low-income adults who commonly don’t have them. When parents are killed or debilitated by injury, they need lawyers to sort out child custody or guardianship matters. People impacted by mass shootings can get government crime victim compensation funds but may need help navigating the bureaucracy to obtain them. They may come into money donated by the public and require attorneys to ensure they get the funds they’re entitled to receive.

The frequency of mass shootings has prompted a growing web of bar associations across the nation to independently create pro bono programs to help those affected. Attorneys are flocking to volunteer. The lawyers who lead these pro bono efforts have started unofficially collaborating by sharing forms and documents, explaining what’s on the horizon and sharing the best methods to deal with the grim reality.

To read the whole story, visit the ABA Journal

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Women Ascend to Leadership Ranks at the Biggest Metro Bar Associations in Texas

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By Angela Morris (Texas Lawyer, March 2019)

Although the female attorneys of Texas, just like their nationwide peers, are still limited in their ascent to the upper echelon in law firms and corporations, their counterparts within local bar associations are finding better leadership opportunities.

All five of the Lone Star State’s biggest metropolitan area bar associations are currently run by women executive directors. Two of them, Kay Sim of Houston and Delaine Ward of Austin, have been at their posts for 30-plus years, while the remaining three—Alicia Hernandez of Dallas, Megan Cooley of Tarrant County and June Moynihan of San Antonio—all took over after longtime leaders retired within the past few years.

“It’s wonderful we have them, because they deserved it. They are all qualified, but more than anything, they all have that spirit of caring about the community and its needs and searching with their boards on ways they can, as a profession, help those communities be better,” said Sim, executive director of the Houston Bar Association, the longest-serving of the bunch.

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Blockchain neophyte carves out niche in cryptocurrency litigation

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By Angela Morris (ABA Journal, February 2019)

David Silver learned about cryptocurrency the way a lot of people do—at a dinner party.

It was 2014 and there was one person at the dinner table who was heavy into bitcoin mining—the computer-powered competition that creates new bitcoins. It was the first Silver and most of his friends, who were on a trip to Utah as part of their service on a nonprofit philanthropic foundation’s board, had ever heard of it. But after the dinner conversation, Silver returned home to Florida and found himself the beneficiary of philanthropy from this miner.

“He gave everyone bitcoin,” recalled Silver, who received five bitcoins—worth over $1,500 back then. Silver still holds them, worth more than $18,705 at presstime, down significantly from $95,000 in December 2017 when bitcoin hit an all-time high.

The world of cryptocurrency soon spilled over into his practice. He learned that the under-regulated industry has tremendous potential for fraud and that investors have suffered real losses. The Coral Springs, Florida-based plaintiffs’ attorney, who had mainly concentrated on securities and financial fraud cases, began to carve out a niche representing allegedly defrauded cryptocurrency investors in class-action lawsuits against the largest crypto exchanges and companies that conducted initial coin offerings.

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