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William “Bill” O. Whitehurst, an Austin trial lawyer and former president of the State Bar of Texas, has been named the 2026 recipient of the Texas Law Alumni Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award.
Whitehurst, a 1971 graduate of the University of Texas School of Law, has practiced law for more than 50 years. His career has included service in the U.S. Air Force Judge Advocate General’s Corps, a plaintiffs’ litigation practice, leadership positions in state and national legal organizations, teaching at Texas Law and advocacy for civil legal services for low-income people.
Before attending law school, Whitehurst earned a bachelor’s degree in pharmacy from the University of Oklahoma in 1968. At Texas Law, he competed on the school’s 1969 and 1970 national moot court teams and was a member of the Order of Barristers and the Friar Society.
After law school, Whitehurst joined Fulbright & Jaworski in Houston in 1971 before leaving to fulfill an ROTC military obligation.
He entered the U.S. Air Force as an assistant staff judge advocate at Otis Air Force Base in Massachusetts. From 1972 to 1975, Whitehurst served as a circuit defense counsel, defending Air Force personnel charged with felony offenses. His work took him throughout Asia and the Pacific, including Okinawa, Japan, Guam and Korea, as well as Thailand, Taiwan and the Philippines.
After leaving the Air Force, Whitehurst returned to Texas. In 1975, he became staff director and counsel for the Texas House of Representatives Committee on Judicial Affairs. He later entered private practice in Austin as a plaintiffs’ trial lawyer.
Whitehurst’s practice focused on catastrophic injury and death cases involving medical malpractice, defective products, aviation and vehicle accidents. His undergraduate training in pharmacy provided a background in medicine and pharmaceuticals for his medical malpractice and products liability work. He has also held a pilot’s license since 1967.
Whitehurst went on to secure multimillion-dollar verdicts for clients. He became board certified in personal injury trial law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization and a civil trial specialist through the National Board of Trial Advocacy. He was elected a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers and the International Academy of Trial Lawyers and later served as president of the International Academy.
Alongside his litigation practice, Whitehurst held a series of leadership positions within the legal profession. He served as president of the Texas Young Lawyers Association in 1982-83 and as president of the State Bar of Texas in 1986-87. He also served as president of the Texas Trial Lawyers Association and the International Academy of Trial Lawyers.
His national service included chairing the American Bar Association’s Standing Committee on Legal Aid and Indigent Defendants. Whitehurst also co-founded Bar Leaders for the Preservation of Legal Services to the Poor, an organization formed as federal funding for the Legal Services Corporation came under pressure during the 1980s.
Whitehurst’s legal-aid advocacy also included his involvement in establishing and expanding Interest on Lawyers’ Trust Accounts, or IOLTA, in Texas.
IOLTA programs use interest generated by certain client funds held in lawyers’ trust accounts to support civil legal services. Lawyers sometimes hold client money in amounts too small or for periods too short for establishing a separate interest-bearing account to be practical. Under IOLTA, qualifying funds are placed in pooled interest-bearing accounts, and the interest is directed to legal-aid funding.
The Supreme Court of Texas established the Texas Access to Justice Foundation in 1984 to administer the state’s IOLTA program. Whitehurst worked with then-Chief Justice Jack Pope and other legal leaders on the program’s development and expansion. His work resulted in Whitehurst becoming known within the Texas legal community as the “Father of IOLTA.”
Texas initially operated IOLTA as a voluntary program. It later became mandatory.
When Whitehurst became State Bar president in 1986, expanding IOLTA was among the priorities of his administration. Other priorities included funding for the judiciary and implementation of minimum continuing legal education.
Texas Law credits the IOLTA initiative associated with Whitehurst with generating more than $220 million for legal services for low-income Texans. The Texas Access to Justice Foundation administers IOLTA revenue along with other sources of funding and distributes grants to nonprofit organizations providing civil legal services.
Whitehurst continued working on legal-aid issues after his term as State Bar president, including through his leadership of the ABA Standing Committee on Legal Aid and Indigent Defendants.
He also maintained a long relationship with Texas Law.
Whitehurst taught at the law school for approximately a decade during the 1980s. He has served as attorney advisor to Texas Law Fellowships since the organization’s inception and was involved in the establishment of the William Wayne Justice Center for Public Interest Law.
Whitehurst and Texas Law alumnus Richard Mithoff co-chaired the fundraising committee for the Justice Center, which opened in 2004. The center supports students pursuing public-interest legal work through academic programs, counseling, pro bono opportunities, fellowships and other initiatives.
Whitehurst and his wife, Stephanie, subsequently established another program supporting Texas Law students.
In 2010, the couple pledged $125,000 over five years to create the Whitehurst Public Interest Summer Fellowships. The program provides financial support to students working during the summer for public-interest organizations and government offices.
Each fellowship was named in honor of a lawyer or other individual selected by the Whitehursts. Students in the inaugural group worked at organizations including the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, American Gateways, the ACLU of Texas, Texas RioGrande Legal Aid and the Legal Aid Society in New York.
According to a Texas Law Alumni Association video honoring Whitehurst, Bill and Stephanie have funded 89 summer fellowships for Texas Law students.
At the time the fellowship program was announced, then-Texas Law Dean Larry Sager compared Bill and Stephanie Whitehurst’s role in public-interest law at the school to the North Star, describing them as both an inspiration and a compass.
Whitehurst has also received a number of awards from legal organizations during his career.
They include the Austin Bar Association’s Distinguished Lawyer Award, the J. Chrys Dougherty Legal Services Award, the Texas Access to Justice Foundation’s Harold F. Kleinman Award and the Texas Bar Foundation’s Outstanding 50-Year Lawyer Award. He has also received recognition from the National Legal Aid and Defender Association and Texas Appleseed for his work involving legal services and IOLTA.
In 2014, Chief Justice Nathan Hecht presented Whitehurst with the Harold F. Kleinman Award during the Texas Access to Justice Foundation’s 30th anniversary. The award recognized Whitehurst’s role in the development of Texas’ IOLTA program.
The Austin Bar Association added Whitehurst’s name to one of its own awards in 2026, renaming its public-service honor the William O. Whitehurst Award. The award recognizes attorneys for pro bono service, work to improve access to justice or public-sector service.
The Texas Law Alumni Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award is the latest recognition of Whitehurst’s career. Texas Law has presented alumni awards since 1958. Its Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes a graduate for a distinguished legal career and service to the profession and society.
Whitehurst’s career has included work as a military defense lawyer, plaintiffs’ litigator, State Bar president, legal-aid advocate and law school instructor. His work on IOLTA and other legal-services initiatives has continued to provide funding for civil legal aid, while the summer fellowship program he established with his wife continues to support Texas Law students working in public-interest positions.
Looking back on his career in the Texas Law tribute video, Whitehurst focused in particular on his work with other lawyers and on legal services.
“It’s been a wonderful career working with lawyers all over the state, becoming a state and national leader for legal services for the poor,” Whitehurst said. “That has enhanced my career immeasurably.”
He also cited his family as part of that experience.
“That, along with managing a family, has been a wonderful, wonderful career for me.”
