As part of the trend in “movement” lawyering, nearly 20 law schools across the country are part of Law for Black Lives, a grassroots program focused on racial and social justice.
The New York-based nonprofit network is made of up about 5,000 lawyers that launched in 2015 and includes multiple initiatives, including the one-year-old clinical program involving students from 18 schools who partner with grassroots advocacy groups to advance social change.
“It’s all about empowering people with the knowledge to uplift themselves,” said SaFiya Hoskins, a third-year student at Columbia David A. Clarke School of Law.”
On the national stage, law schools saw a 3 percent boost in first-year student enrollment—the first gain since 2010—but Texas saw a more modest gain of just 1 percent, which is 2,220 students.
However small, an enrollment uptick is welcome news since law schools for years have tightened their budgets after the Great Recession wrecked the legal job market and dissuaded prospective students from choosing the law school route.
Texas A&M School of Law in Fort Worth saw the largest bump of 32 percent, and four other schools also grew their enrollment. On the other side, five schools saw declining enrollment, headed by St. Mary’s University School of Law in San Antonio, with an 18 percent drop.
Enrollment data comes from the American Bar Association Section on Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar, the nation’s law school accrediting body. How do Texas’ law schools compare? Each is listed below in alphabetic order.
In her day job, Dallas lawyer Chasity Henry works in-house at Kimberly Clark-Corp., but when she’s not tending to the global giant’s transactions, she’s extending her hand to pull other black woman lawyers up the career ladder.
It started when Henry and former law school friends, all black women, began meeting for casual happy hours about eight years ago, discussing their challenges in the legal profession. It was Henry who pitched the idea of creating an official nonprofit organization—The NEW Roundtable—with the mission of empowering African-American woman lawyers, enhancing their careers and influencing the wider legal profession to improve hiring, retention and promotion of black women. (NEW stands for Network of Empowered Women.)
“Formal networks aren’t in place, oftentimes, for African-American women,” said Henry, assistant general counsel of corporate affairs and legal strategy at the Irving, Texas-based $18 billion company with brands like Kleenex, Huggies and Kotex. “We felt we didn’t always have the opportunity to join the other tables, so we created our own.”
Attorneys who watched the tornado of legal arguments surrounding the state’s first legal same-sex marriage said that the newlyweds’ counsel “beautifully” executed a creative legal strategy to help their clients tie the knot.
Austin lawyer Chuck Herring, partner in Herring & Irwin, handled the case pro bono for his longtime friends and a 30-year couple, Suzanne Bryant and Sarah Goodfriend.
Elizabeth Perez associate with MehaffyWeber in San Antonio “Recently, our little girl, who has a history of asthma, woke up struggling to breathe. My husband and I are both lawyers, and the following day, my husband had a major client meeting in a federal prison which took months for him to get in, and I had a hearing at which my client’s veterinary license was on the line. I had to pass my hearing to one of my colleagues to stay home. It was horrible.” Karen Gibson Levy Sibley Foreman & Speir in Macon, Georgia “One particular time, I had a plane ticket booked for a client meeting and my then 1-year-old had an ear infection. I called our firm branch in Atlanta and they were kind enough to ask a paralegal’s daughter to come and watch him for me. So I flew to Atlanta with the baby and left him in capable hands for my two-hour meeting. It wasn’t ideal, but we made it work.” (Photo by Two Chics Photography) Maeve Carpenter patent attorney at IBM Endicott, New York “Fortunately, because we use a facility, this does not happen often. When my child is sick and cannot attend day care, we do have to resort to backup though. Typically either my husband or I will work from home, if possible, or take the day or days off. We know how lucky we are that this is an option.” Elizabeth Steen lead attorney at Washington Business Advocates in Seattle “My daughter got sick at her daycare. My husband could not take her. I could not go to a meeting. I had to cancel appointments, lose a client, and the members of a networking group I am in sent me an email questioning my commitment. My daughter was fortunately fine and felt better in a day.” Katie Watts associate in Phillips Parker Orberson & Arnett in Louisville, Kentucky “My 5 year old was off school and my childcare was sick. He ended up coming to the office with me. I had one meeting in the afternoon that was a couple hours long, and he hung out with another mom-lawyer in my firm who had crayons and play-doh in her office. The rest of the day, he played on his Kindle, colored, and watched movies in my office while I worked.” Paige Lyle attorney at Collins & Hunter in Nashville, Tennessee “Recently, I had an out-of-town deposition and my husband was watching our son. The school called and our son had a fever and needed to be picked up asap. My husband had a huge deal closing at his own job and couldn’t miss work. After dozens of frantic calls for back up care and no luck, he wound up picking up our son and going to back to work with him in tow. He made calls and attended meetings while holding our sick kiddo. I was hours away trying to crisis manage from afar and feeling horribly guilty about the whole thing.” (photo by J.Photography, Jac Smith) Kelsey Lynn Truxal law student at the University of Louisville School of Law in Louisville, Kentucky “First, my oldest was sick and unable to go to school, but since he has a temperature, he also couldn’t go to daycare. I’m in law school, so I had to bring him to class, but I was unable to stay because he was a bit disruptive. I left immediately when I saw he was struggling and I ended up missing class that day. Second, a general complaint is that due to a lack of child care during specific hours, I am unable to take the desired classes I want. I am taking classes that do not interest me as much just because they fit into my child care schedule and will count toward my degree.”
Jeanene Jobst, senior counsel at Turner Broadcasting in Atlanta, was at work when a phone call sent her into a panic.
The babysitter who was scheduled to pick up her young daughter at her school bus stop was canceling at the last minute. With just 10 minutes until drop-off, it was physically impossible for Jobst to get there in time to ensure her 7-year-old, Madison, wasn’t left on the side of the road—alone.
“I frantically texted and called neighbors. Thankfully, one works from home, so she was able to get my daughter and keep her until I could get home,” Jobst said. “Needless to say, the babysitter was fired, but it still doesn’t help you in the situation.”
Jobst’s story would strike fear in the heart of any lawyer-mom, who—despite the day’s plans for a high-stakes deposition or a pressing client hearing—always keeps mental space and energy to know where her children are and ensure they’re cared for. However terrifying Jobst’s example is, the truth is that each and every mom-attorney has her own story of a time that, despite the best-planned child care solution, care fell through and left her needing to drop work and fix the problem.
In the past, when a Brooklyn-based toy company created action figures of popular politicians—for example, Bernie Sanders or Ruth Bader Ginsburg—it found the real-life person and gave a gift of one of the dolls.
But FCTRY will likely skip the step this week when it releases a new action figure of U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller III, who is leading the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
“Mueller is notoriously hard to reach. I think I would be intimidated,” said the company’s CEO, Jason Feinberg, who noted that the Mueller action figure will feature a “fixed gaze, because he knows you know he knows,” a right hand that’s open, “ready for the smoking gun,” pockets to “hold his strong moral compass,” and “impermeable shoes in case of tweetstorms.”
There’s mounting evidence of a contagion effect in media coverage of mass shootings and school shootings, but experts say that most journalists know nothing about the research. Victims’ advocates and academic scholars who urge media reform have said the media is doing better at reporting more about victims, survivors and the community, but they feel frustrated by their lack of progress in getting the press to limit the use of mass shooters’ names and images. Because reporters and editors know that reporting about mass shooters can help society by highlighting problems and potential solutions, it’s key that journalists themselves start a discussion about how to fulfill their duty to society, while also limiting the harmful effects of mass shooting coverage.
A new era is on the horizon for Texas law graduates taking the bar exam—but many current and prospective law students might not know anything about it.
The Texas Supreme Court has approved a recommendation to replace the Texas bar exam with the Uniform Bar Examination, effective in February 2021. It’s a big deal, because reciprocity will allow graduates to transfer UBE scores to 34 other states. Another perk is the fewer topics and essay questions than the existing Texas bar exam.
“Most law students are so focused on the normal day-to-day of law school that they don’t pay much attention to the bar exam. They just know the bar exam is hard and they’ll have to take it one day,” said Femi Aborisade, president of the student bar association at The University of Texas School of Law in Austin.
