by Marene Gustin
Daily Court Review
Among baby boomers marking milestones this year, count the Houston Bar Association’s Annual Golf Tournament, which celebrates being 60 by returning to the Memorial Park Golf Course on Law Day, celebrated tomorrow. But the organization itself is much older: 138 to be exact.
“It’s got a neat history,” said current HBA President Tommy Proctor. “It’s been reconstituted over the years, there’s even a book about it.” HBA member Eric L. Frederickson wrote A Commitment to Public Service: The History of the Houston Bar Association in 1992 covering the days of pioneer justice through 1990 law.
Founded in 1870, the association has grown into the fifth largest metropolitan bar association in the country with more than 11,500 members, among them some of the top attorneys and judges in the city.
As a nonprofit organization, HBA provides information and resource services for its members and the general public. With 38 committees and 60 continuing legal education programs the association provides Bench Bar Conferences, a mentor program, Professionalism Day, judicial polls, legal forms, placement service, discounts on products and services and the Pictorial Roster for members while publishing The Houston Lawyer and the Houston Bar Bulletin.
But it may be the community outreach that HBA performs that is most important.
“Of all the legal organizations I chose HBA to give the most time to because they do the most good,” said Jennise Stubbs of Shook, Hardy & Bacon. “Everything from building homes for Habitat for Humanity to reading to school children and the Legal Line, which helps people who don’t know where to turn.”
Immigration attorney Gordon Quan agrees. “It is important that the public sees that lawyers give back to the community, and HBA does this,” he said. Quan, a former chair of the Law Day Committee and a sustaining member of the Houston Bat Foundation, said his firm — Quan, Burdette & Perez, P.C. — participates in the monthly pro bono program, clothing drive and CLE program.
In fact, HBA members contribute nearly 40,000 volunteer hours annually. Programs like Adopt-a-School, Elder Law, Legal Line, People’s Law School, Legal Handbook Series, IDEA Program, Lawyers In Public Schools, Juvenile Justice Mock Trial Program, Eikenburg Law Week Fun Run, Dispute Resolution Center, Special Olympics, Habitat for Humanity, Clothing Drives, the Book Drive, the Cell Phone Drive, Juvenile Consequences Partnership, We Care Cards, Law Day Activities and judicial polls help the public better understand the law and how it affects them. A valuable service when too many today only know what they see on Law & Order reruns.
For Proctor, all of that can be very time consuming. “It can be as much as fifty percent of my time,” he said, of being president of the association.
“I’m the first mediator to be elected president and it’s hard being a solo practitioner. Usually law firm folks hold the position and they have support staff. But I’m proud to represent the solos, and the work we do is important and fun.”
His proudest accomplishment during his term, which ends May 15, was helping to convince county officials to build the new Family Law Center in downtown Houston. But he isn’t just involved with politics and professional issues. “We can get out there and hammer a nail,” Proctor said, “or hand out coats to the cold. There are a lot of underserved people in our community who need help. The rule of law is that we are all treated equally.”
During Katrina HBA members provided legal services to evacuees and distributed goods. Proctor himself is very proud of his hands-on work in building homes for Habitat for Humanity and the association’s Annual John J. Eikenburg Law Week Fun Run, which in this, it’s 23rd year, netted $22,000 for the Mental Retardation Center.
“It’s very important that mental health issues get discussed,” Proctor said. “A lot of people don’t realize that lawyers are often suicidal and depressed. It’s a closeted subject but we need to look out for each other. That’s part of our program this year.”
While attorneys must be a member of the state bar in order to practice in Texas, HBA is a voluntary bar association, supported by membership dues. But it says something about the organization that almost 12,000 of the area’s 19,000 practicing lawyers are members.
“As a solo,” Proctor said, “the organization helps me stay plugged into the rest of the legal community. But I get a kick out of doing public service. It’s become a cliché, but it’s true. It’s about giving back to the community. We have lots and lots of folks giving money and time to the community, and that’s good. Sometimes we get bad press, but we are working hard to improve the profession and help the community. That’s what HBA is all about.”